August 19, 2019 | Modern Healthcare 15
Rules of attraction
In 2010, Duke Health made a decision: no more ad-
vertising nursing jobs in print. “When I fi rst started in re-
cruitment, we advertised our open positions in specialty
publications, newspapers and print journals,” said Sylvia
Alston, who has served as Duke Health’s assistant vice
president of nursing recruitment, retention and supple-
mental staffi ng for 13 years.
Now, the health system focuses on social media, email
marketing and “optimizing” the website, she said. Online
marketing for recruitment helped the system recruit in areas
where more nurses were looking for jobs, and let them track
analytics on what possible applicants they were reaching. It
was also part of their strategy to recruit at the system level by
specialty, rather than by facility
Yet, even with this shift, the Durham, N.C.-based health
system hasn’t overcome all its challenges. As a health
system in the South, a region that’s been hit by nursing
shortages, Duke has faced issues recruiting nurses to fi ll
its staffi ng needs, and has found it particularly challenging
to recruit experienced specialty nurses for the operating
room and critical care.
But with much of the recruitment process online,
Alston said Duke has learned to make better use of an-
alytics to improve its odds of fi nding the right fi t with its
nursing hires.
Now, when Duke posts a nursing opening online, it can
track the number of hits and candidates who begin the ap-
plication process. From there, staff can also assess how long
it takes candidates to fi ll out various steps of the application
process, as well as how many stop in the middle of the pro-
cess—and if so, where.
Many “candidates drop off within the fi rst minute of the
process,” Alston added.
Th ose insights can help the health system ease the appli-
cation process.
One tidbit Duke learned from studying the way candidates
behave on its website is that many were fi lling out applica-
tions using smartphones or tablets, even though the website
had been designed for those using a desktop. To make the
experience more enjoyable, Duke revamped its online appli-
cations—making it easier to attach a resume from the cloud,
for example.
Social media has played a growing role in Emory Univer-
sity Hospital’s recruitment strategy, too.
Nancye Feistritzer, the hospital’s chief nursing offi cer, said
the hospital has felt the constraints of the nursing shortage,
particularly because Atlanta is “rapidly growing.” She added
that the hospital has roughly 80 open clinical nurse posi-
tions, and recently added more inpatient beds and operat-
ing rooms.
Social media and job recruitment platforms have become
major sources of information for nurses looking for jobs, ac-
cording to Feistritzer, making them an “opportunity for us
to communicate who we are and what kind of environment
we are.” Earlier this year, Emory Healthcare created a pro-
motional YouTube video with nurses speaking about their
jobs, which it posts to social media sites to promote its nurs-
ing program.
Staffing the floor with available workforce
But as nursing shortages drag on, it’s not just about re-
cruiting new talent. Health systems are increasingly forced
to do what they can with the staff they have available.
One way health systems are tackling this challenge is
with electronic scheduling tools that allow nurses to sign
up for individual shifts they’re qualifi ed to cover, as well
as trade shifts with other nurses having the same skill set
when needed. Nursing leaders say that ability not only
helps with work-life balance, but also makes scheduling
easier for the unit director.
Emory University Hospital uses Ansos , a staff scheduling
product from Change Healthcare, formerly McKesson Corp.,
to schedule shifts across all its units. In addition to off ering
self-scheduling options, the tool monitors workloads—such
as whether a unit was under- or over-staff ed—to inform fu-
ture scheduling decisions.
“It gives us much more specifi city about managing staff
scheduling,” Feistritzer said.
Th at’s one of a few self-scheduling tools in the market.
Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville uses a
workforce management tool from enterprise software com-
pany Infor, while Stanford Children’s Health in Palo Alto,
Calif., uses scheduling software from workforce manage-
ment software company Kronos.
Intermountain Healthcare in Salt Lake City last year began
testing an app to help manage the ebb and fl ow of nursing
needs across its facilities. Th e app allows nurses to schedule
themselves for open shifts—and while it’s initially limited to
staff nurses in just three units, the vision is to one day allow
caregivers to sign up for shifts at any of the health system’s
facilities, even outside of their home department.
Th at has the potential to help address shortages on weeks
when one hospital might be short-staff ed, while a nearby fa-
cility cuts its nurses’ hours.
Health systems are also pairing their scheduling practices
with external analytics to inform their coverage needs. Emo-
ry University Hospital uses tools from artifi cial-intelligence
software company Qventus to predict emergency-depart-
ment volume and admissions based on historical patientVanderbilt University Medical Center uses the
iSimulate iPad app for resuscitation training.SUSAN URMY