Note: The following post is a quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2161933/posts
Nursing industry: Please accept a job with us
Denver Post / The Associated Press ^ | January 9, 2009 | Dinesh Ramde
Posted on January 9, 2009 5:23:45 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
MILWAUKEE — Please, please accept a high-paying job with us. In fact, just swing by for an interview and we’ll give you a chance to win cash and prizes.
Sounds too good to be true, especially in an economy riddled with job cuts in nearly every industry. But applicants for nursing jobs are still so scarce that recruiters have been forced to get increasingly inventive.
One Michigan company literally rolled out a red carpet at a recent hiring event. Residential Home Health, which provides in-home nursing for seniors on Medicare, lavished registered nurses and other health care workers with free champagne and a trivia contest hosted by game-show veteran Chuck Woolery. Prizes included a one-year lease for a 2009 SUV, hotel stays and dinners.
“We’re committed to finding ways to creatively engage with passive job seekers,” said David Curtis, president of the Madison Heights-based company.
Recruiters like Curtis may have little choice. The long-standing U.S. nurse shortage has led to chronic understaffing that can threaten patient care and nurses’ job satisfaction, and the problem is expected to worsen.
The shortage has been operating since World War II on an eight- to 10-year cycle, industry experts say. Each time the number of nurses reaches a critical low, the government adds funding and hospitals upgrade working conditions. But as the deficit eases, those retention efforts fade and eventually the old conditions return, often driving nurses into other professions.
“We recently had a hiring event where, for experienced nurses to interview — just to interview — we gave them $50 gas cards,” said Tom Zinda, the director of recruitment at Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare in the Milwaukee-area city of Glendale. “We really try to get as creative as we can.
(Excerpt) Read more at denverpost.com ...
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2009/01/11/in_gloom_healthcare_and_education_shine/
Robert Weisman
Globe Staff / January 11, 2009
SNIPPET: “Among large industries in the Boston area, healthcare, education, and life sciences are faring relatively better than financial services and high technology. (The healthcare sector, in fact, added about 32,000 jobs nationally in December - and 372,000 last year - in the face of the downturn.)
And workers with sought-after skills, from nurse practitioners and physical therapists to research and development scientists to medical device engineers, continue to find themselves in demand, as do business “turnaround” operators of all stripes.”
SNIPPET: “Smaller niches, such as clean energy and broadband, may also be promising.”
SNIPPET: “And many companies are hiring “sustainability” managers who can help them trim their budgets by using energy and materials more efficiently.
Also continuing to hire are some defense contractors, manufacturers, and government agencies, which are experiencing large numbers of retirements of veteran baby boomer employees.”