Personnel Recruitment & Retention in Healthcare Finance

Name of Writer

Name of Institution

Table of Contents

Introduction3

Definition of Problem3

Analyzing the Problem4

Solutions to the Problem5

Action Plan7

Justification for Solutions8

Conclusion9

References11

Personnel Recruitment & Retention in Healthcare

Introduction

The United States is experiencing a national shortage of nurses; as a result, the office has not been successful in recruiting enough registered nurses. To increase recruitment, the office places advertisements in local newspapers and cable channels on a daily basis and offers more money by dropping the first three steps out of a five step salary range for registered nurse positions. In spite of these measures, the office fills only about 50% of the registered nurse openings on a monthly basis. The existing literature does not provide municipal recruitment managers with adequate direction on how to recruit registered nurses. This study addressed the question: How can the Office of Human Resources for the municipal government recruit registered nurses? More specifically, what effective recruitment plans and philosophies (Fisher et al., 2003) and innovative recruitment programs and activities.

Definition of Problem

The difficulty of recruiting registered nurses is a social concern. The problem, as stated in the Introduction section, stems from the nurse shortage, which is caused by a variety of factors: (a) increasing retirement of aging nurses; (b) emerging nursing roles for young women; (c) decreasing number of women pursuing the nursing profession; (d) too few nurses being trained or concerns associated with the country's educational system; (e) strained working conditions for nurses; (f) cost of recruiting and training a nurse, which far exceeds a nurse's annual salary of $42,000-$60,000; (g) use of temporary nurses that are paid more than nurses employed directly by hospitals; (h) short-term fixes instead of long-term solutions to the problem; (i) societal influences; and (j) impact of changes within the health care delivery system due to economic influences that may contribute to the cause (Andrews & Dziegielewski, 2005). Buerhaus et al., (2006, 2007) indicated the top four reasons for the nurse shortage, which began in 1998, as “inadequate salary and benefits, more career options for women, undesirable hours, and negative work environment” (p. 4). As a result of this shortage, recruiting registered nurses has become more difficult. This study addressed the difficulty of recruiting registered nurses to fill the gap in the literature regarding this problem and to provide the office with strategies for successfully recruiting registered nurses.

Analyzing the Problem

Beardwell and Holden (1997) described a “systematic approach” to recruitment and selection that includes defining the vacancy, attracting applicants, assessing candidates, and making the final decision (p. 212). They then described internal and external factors that influence recruitment and selection; these factors were not inclusive or applicable in addressing the difficulty of recruiting registered nurses for the office. Systematic approach to recruitment and selection should be part of this study; however, a system to relate this study to its environment would be needed.

Bertalanffy (1968) posited a general systems theory that allows for any complex system to be studied in relation to its environment. He found that the closed system used many years ...