How to Market to Nurses: 5 Recruiting Strategies for Facilities

Nationwide nursing shortages call for new and unique recruitment strategies for hiring and retaining high-quality staff. When looking to develop new ways to attract care providers to your facility, you might be wondering how to market to nurses in a way that feels trustworthy and credible.

In this article, we explore the difficulties surrounding nurse recruitment and provide five innovative marketing methods to inspire top-tier nurses to continue their careers with your organization.

Why Is Recruiting Nurses so Difficult?

There are over 5.2 million registered nurses in the U.S., and 89% of them are currently employed. You may be wondering why healthcare facilities have such a difficult time attracting and retaining employees when the nursing workforce is so large.

Facilities often struggle to recruit employees because they write dreamlike job descriptions with unrealistic expectations, freedoms, and perks. Nurses know better than to trust facilities that aren’t up front and honest about the struggles of bedside nursing and would prefer companies to be direct and frank when hiring employees.

Additionally, healthcare administrators tend to use sign-on bonuses to appeal to nurses looking for a new job. However, with issues of nurse burnout and workplace violence at the front of their minds, financial perks alone no longer interest nurses as much as they used to.

When brainstorming nurse marketing strategies, healthcare companies should follow the lead of innovative industries (such as technology firms) that demonstrate creativity and success in employee recruiting. By treating nurses as specialized and compassionate professionals, facility leaders can catch the attention of new and experienced nurses looking for a change.

5 Creative Nurse Recruitment Strategies

Learning how to market to nurses can help your facility hire and maintain a robust staff of professional employees. Incorporating these five unique strategies into your organization’s nurse recruitment campaigns can help you optimize your job applicant pool and improve employee satisfaction for current team members.

1. Understand Your Nursing Audience

Knowing what drives nurses personally and professionally can help you cater recruitment strategies to meet their wants and needs. For example, some specialties like intensive care and oncology attract nurses looking for professional growth opportunities; other specialties like ambulatory care and rehabilitation may appeal to nurses looking for work-life balance and a healthier sleep schedule.

Ask yourself:

• What do nurses in my geographic region do outside of work?
• What are primary workplace pain points in healthcare facilities?
• What platforms do nurses use to communicate and receive information?
• What are some personal and professional challenges that nurses face everyday?

Knowing the answers to these questions can help you tailor your marketing and recruitment strategies in ways that are meaningful to nurses in your region.

2. Utilize a Multi-Platform Recruitment Approach

The nursing profession is composed of individuals from all generations and cultural backgrounds. These nurses have different abilities, aptitudes, and preferences that contribute to the way they process information.

Don’t limit your recruitment strategies to face-to-face networking; when deciding how to market to nurses, utilize a variety of in-person and technology-driven approaches to help you reach a vast and diverse audience. Reaching out to nurses in the following ways can lead to successful recruitment:

• Nursing conferences
• University career fairs
• Social media advertisements and outreach
• Nationwide job-posting boards
• Community marches, festivals, and parades
• Diversity career fairs and minority job exhibitions

By appealing to nurses of all interests and abilities, you can build a strong and diverse workforce capable of tackling modern healthcare challenges.

3. Be Honest and Authentic

Companies looking to advertise to nurses should focus on sending realistic and honest messages to the individuals they’re looking to hire. Nurses are perceptive and observational in nature, and they can easily spot disingenuous attempts to entice healthcare staff.

Instead of using the “healthcare heroes” approach, attempt to build meaningful relationships with prospective nurses and appeal to their needs in a meaningful way. Allow nurses to tour your care facility and interact with team members during career fairs and conferences; this can give a realistic view of what working at your facility is like.

4. Create a Personalized Nurse Recruitment Experience

Recruitment strategies intended to appeal to all medical professionals tell nurses that company leaders don’t understand the intricacies of their profession. Marketing to nurses should be specific and focused, addressing and developing solutions for unique nursing problems as opposed to generalized healthcare concerns.

Many nurses pursue a new job for professional mentorship and guidance. Marketing strategies that take a more personalized approach appeal to nurses looking for a more meaningful connection with their workplace.

5. Appeal to Nurses Looking for Flexibility

Most nurses appreciate the versatility and diversity of working in healthcare. For some employees, this may mean flexible scheduling and a shorter workweek; for others, it could mean working in a variety of clinical settings to optimize learning and clinical experience. Discover what nurses are looking for in your area, and offer flexible workplace benefits that allow nurses to meet personal and professional goals.

Recruit Qualified Nursing Professionals and Build Your Exceptional Team

Empty nursing positions can be costly and detrimental to safe patient care. Learning how to market to nurses can help healthcare facilities recruit and retain professional staff necessary for optimal patient outcomes. Want to speed up that process for your facility? IntelyCare can connect you to high-quality nurses today.