2002 AJN Table of Contents
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Issues Update
American Journal of Nursing -
April, 2002 - Volume 102, Issue 4
Creative Recruitment
With a nationwide nursing shortage that is growing worse by the day, registered nurses must work harder than ever to attract young people to the profession. To accomplish their goal, RNs are using a wide array of strategies, from information-packed Web sites to “shadow programs” that allow young people to experience first-hand what it’s like to work as a nurse.
“It’s crucial that we get the word out to children and young adults, as well as their parents, that nursing is a rewarding and challenging profession worthy of their attention,” said ANA president Mary Foley, MS, RN. “We hope that through nursing’s collective recruitment efforts, young people will be able to see us as role models, mentors, and eventually, colleagues.”
GOING TO THE SOURCE
Before the North Carolina Center for Nursing launched its statewide recruitment campaign, “Nursing: The Power to Make a Difference,” it collaborated with a national advertising firm to conduct market research on the perceptions that sixth-, 10th-, and 12th-grade students have about nursing, according to Dennis Sherrod, EdD, RN, associate director of the center’s Recruitment and Retention Programs and a North Carolina Nurses Association member. The center is a state agency that is responsible for nursing workforce planning and recruitment and retention activities.
“The research showed that kids choose nursing to make a difference in people’s lives,” Sherrod said. “We also know that school children start thinking about career choices as early as the third grade. By the sixth grade, their idea of a career is based on role models. (See the Viewpoint, page 11, for a perpective on creative recruitment.) By the 10th grade, they realize that they might not be a Michael Jordan, so they start thinking more realistically about what they might want to do.”
Nurses for a Healthier Tomorrow, a national coalition of 35 organizations including the ANA, surveyed more than 1,800 second- to 10th-graders nationwide in 2000 for its current recruitment campaign—“Nursing. It’s Real. It’s Life.” The survey revealed that most children who were interested in the health care field wanted to become doctors, citing reasons such as a desire to do good, to assist with research on a disease, and to solve people’s problems—all reasons that might also apply to
pursuit of a nursing career. Further, older students viewed being a doctor as a profession, while nursing was considered a technical field. And most regarded nursing as a “girl’s” job.
‘NETTING’ THEM IN
The North Carolina Center for Nursing and Nurses for a Healthier Tomorrow also maintain comprehensive Web pages on nursing, a service provided by many organizations that hope to capitalize on children’s and teenagers’ use of the Internet to pique their interest in a nursing career.
“Young people think about a computer like I think about a pencil,” said K. Lynn Wieck, PhD, RN, president of the Texas Nurses Association (TNA), another organization that is using the power of the Internet in its recruitment efforts. “They’re convinced they can find everything they need on the Internet and they’re right. That’s why nursing needs a presence there.”
TNA leaders developed a comprehensive career information component on its Web site about a year ago. The “career info” page has become increasingly popular, receiving about 9,000 hits a month, Wieck said. The increased activity has resulted in part from another TNA initiative, in which bookmarks bearing the TNA Web site were distributed to students through state-funded regional education centers.
The site offers detailed information on careers in nursing geared to middle school and high school students, as well as to adult students and those pursuing second careers. Resource materials for counselors, educators, and speakers; information on financial assistance; and contacts for the state’s nursing programs are also offered.
According to Wieck, one of the most popular areas on the Web site is the frequently asked questions (FAQ) section, which contains the responses of nurses to the questions most commonly asked by site visitors. Some of the nurses’ responses are aimed at debunking misconceptions about nursing, such as the belief that nursing is not an intellectually challenging career.
CREATIVITY COUNTS
Nursing groups have taken a variety of creative approaches to recruitment. The North Carolina Center for Nursing sent a mailing to 30,000 middle and high school counselors, school nurses, and other potentially helpful contacts to inform them about the financial aid available to nursing students. It is also expanding its highly successful “Nursing Exploration Patch Program” to allow members of youth groups in addition to the Girl Scouts to earn a nursing patch.
Nebraska nursing leadership has focused recruitment efforts on a statewide television advertising campaign featuring—and aimed at—children and diverse populations. Chuck Stepanek, executive director of the Nebraska Nurses Association and chairman of the Nebraska Center for Nursing, said the 30-second spot, called “I want to be a nurse. I want to be a nurse, too,” first aired in June 2001. After its broadcast, the center received more than 100 inquiries about nursing. Further, more than
a dozen state nurses associations are considering adapting the ad for their states. Another Nebraska campaign, scheduled around National Nurses Week in May, will reinforce the ongoing recruitment efforts and acknowledge practicing nurses.
In Texas this year, TNA members helped develop a video that features nurses telling their stories and showing the different sides of nursing, including a flight nurse and a nurse who dresses up as a clown to bring much-needed humor to patients. The video contains three 10-minute segments—each geared to a specific age group.
Again on the national front, in the fall of 2001, Nurses for a Healthier Tomorrow began distributing to media outlets and interested organizations a television public service announcement and a series of seven print ads geared for young people, that showcase the diversity of gender, ethnicity, and career tracks within nursing. The campaign’s overall message, as stated on its Web site, is that “nursing is a career for everyone, in which professionalism, teamwork and leadership are key.” Other ANA constituent member associations have launched similar campaigns.
More recently, the ANA and other nursing organizations provided input into a Johnson & Johnson multiyear nursing advertising and recruitment campaign. Estimated to exceed $20 million over the next two years, “The Campaign for Nursing's Future” includes a new advertising campaign, which aired in prime time during the Winter Olympics, to celebrate nurses and their contributions. The campaign also features recruitment brochures, posters and videos for 20,000 high schools, 1,500 nursing
schools and nursing organizations, as well as scholarship grants for nursing students and prospective nursing faculty, which will be administered by the National Student Nurses’ Association Foundation and the National League for Nursing Foundation.
CAMPS, CAREER FAIRS, COLLABORATIONS
Ruby Englund, MN, RN, an associate professor at Seattle Pacific University, has been running a nursing camp for high school students for the past 12 years. Approximately 25 students attend the weeklong camp annually. They observe nurses on the job, primarily at acute care facilities during morning sessions. In the afternoon, students have the opportunity to learn skills such as giving injections, sterile gloving, taking blood pressures, and cardiopulmonary resuscitation, according to Englund, a Washington State Nurses Association member. She also brings in speakers who talk about working in different settings.
Her track record in recruiting students is impressive: usually one to four campers go on to attend the university’s nursing program each year.
Other nurses take their recruitment efforts on the road. For the past four years, Pamela McCue, MSN, RN, executive director of the Rhode Island State Nurses Association (RISNA), has spoken to middle and high school students at numerous career fairs. During her presentations, she emphasizes the many opportunities and the flexibility in scheduling that nursing offers. ISNA is also embarking on an image-building campaign with the state Hispanic Nurses Association and state Black Nurses
Association to encourage young people from minority populations to consider careers in nursing.
Resources
Nurses for a Healthier Tomorrow
“The Campaign for Nursing's Future”
Texas Nurses Association Web site
North Carolina Center for Nursing www.nursenc.org, click on “recruitment and retention”
Nebraska Nurses Association
Nebraska Center for Nursing
Rhode Island State Nurses Association www.risnarn.org
Susan Trossman is the senior reporter of the American Nurse at the ANA.
Nurses work hard to bring young people into the fold.
www.nursesource.org
Johnson & Johnson
www.discovernursing.org
www.texasnurses.org, click on “career info”
(800) 201-3625
www.center4nursing.org
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