HealthStream Survey Discovers Underutilized Opportunity to Recruit Nurses

Student Nurse Rotations - Seite 2

From a broader perspective, this new survey is supportive of HealthStream’s recent announcement to expand its target market to now include the 1,000,000 nursing students across the nation’s 1,000+ nursing schools. Students’ voluntary survey responses provided a distinct opportunity to hear their perspectives about clinical rotations, their thoughts about post-graduation job offers, and recruiting—or lack thereof.

One second-year nursing student said that during her rotation that she did not engage in any recruitment talks with the organization. “Job opportunities aren’t really discussed. I would love to hear from my hospital, but I would not know who to talk to. I sometimes hear about job opportunities from other students, but not the organization.” This nursing students’ experience is apparently prototypical.

HealthStream found that 75% of student nurses were not made aware of potential job opportunities at the facilities where they completed a rotation while, at the same time, 62% of them said they’d be highly likely to accept a position if it were offered to them. The results of HealthStream’s survey suggest that there may be ample opportunities for recruitment of student nurses in conjunction with their clinical rotations.

Comparably speaking, internship programs (which are roughly the equivalent of healthcare organizations’ clinical rotation programs) across other industries frequently view their programs as a fertile opportunity for potential employee hiring—and conversations about future employment often start during the students’ internships with an organization. The healthcare industry, in contrast, has historically kept the recruitment objective outside of clinical rotations—as the roots of rotation programs were originally grounded purely in service. In an interview by HealthStream with a clinical leader directing rotation programs, it was acknowledged that “some facilities are missing opportunities with soon-to-be graduates.”

The discovery that 62% of student nurses said they’d be highly likely to accept a job offer speaks very well to excellent job that healthcare organizations are doing in their clinical rotation programs. Over 90% of students said their rotation increased their confidence in their abilities, while 76% of students said they were highly likely to recommend the department or unit to other students. Moreover, the healthcare organization’s overall workforce culture had a strong impact on their likelihood of accepting a potential job offer. Students’ observation that “the staff enjoyed their working environment” was the single most important factor in their likelihood of accepting a potential offer.