Nursing industry: Please accept a job with us

Denver Post / The Associated Press ^ | January 9, 2009 | Dinesh Ramde

[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.

[nutmeg]

ping

[Chickensoup]

Isn’t the cost of living there demanding of such incomes?’

Although high, no.

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

My sister got hired the day after she passed her RN exam. Health care is a booming, depression-proof industry with with a veritable vault of government money supporting it. I’m very happy for my sister. She has job security for life.

[Ethrane]

If you're out of work, maybe the medical field is the answer.

You're joking, right?

After Obama and the Democrats get a hold of the medical care system, no one is going to want to work in it.

[Cindy]

Updated on a regular basis:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2136635/posts?page=194

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Posted on November 22, 2008 1:01:47 PM PST by B4Ranch