 GBMC Employs Successful Recruitment
and Retention Pilot Program
Like most hospital officials responsible for recruiting,
Susan Coe, director of human resources at Greater Baltimore Medical Center
(GBMC) couldn’t figure out why the hospital was struggling with luring
nurses to the Towson-based hospital and keeping them there. With a team of
hospital officials, Coe designed “Teamwork is Rewarding,” a program
that uses existing nurses to help retain new recruits. The program also
provides an intense six-month training academy for new recruits to help get
them adjusted and prepared for the job. “Teamwork is Rewarding” is
designed to stabilize and reduce turnover through the creation of a more stable
work environment.
“We came to the conclusion that we wanted to take the
approach of making it everybody’s responsibility to assimilate and orient
new hires and take the responsibility in a nurturing and welcoming way,”
said Coe.
Although GBMC had difficulty in retaining nurses in several
specialty areas, they had significant retention concerns with oncology nurses.
With this in mind, the hospital made a decision to pilot the program,
“Teamwork is Rewarding,” in the recruitment of oncology nurses. The
program was put in place for the first time in 2004 and is geared toward recent
nursing school graduates.
GBMC, which has 314 beds, had previously assigned one nurse
on a unit who would get a small bonus to help new recruits get acclimated to
the job. With “Teamwork is Rewarding,” every nurse is now responsible
for educating, demonstrating, and showing people how to do the job and acting
as a resource for newly-hired nurses.
With the new program, existing staff still receives bonuses
but they’re only awarded if the new recruits stay in the job for the
duration of their six-month training. They also must staff the unit efficiently
and have to be compliant with standards set by the Joint Commission on
Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) as measured by mock surveys
and favorable satisfaction surveys of new recruits.
“It really does take a village to raise children or to
bring people in and assimilate them into an organization and we were willing to
allocate significant resources to this program,” Coe added.
All full-time and part-time employees can participate in the
program. Bonuses are based on how many hours the employee works. Coe said GBMC
has chosen to invest a significant amount of money in bonuses because it
offsets the amount of money the hospital spends in training and then losing a
single employee.
“It pays itself back in financial terms and it pays the
organization back in terms of patient satisfaction and employee
satisfaction,” she said.
In the first 90 days of the six-month training academy for
oncology nurses, participants get a reinforcement of basic medical surgical
skills and basic concepts in oncology. In the second 90 days, new staff members
work to refine their skills in the oncology setting in appropriate ways that
build on their strengths.
Through the training academy, GBMC was able to recruit two
nurses in March and two in July and all four are still with the hospital.
Coe says the hospital plans to extend the program to other
shortage areas including telemetry, and clinical areas such as radiology and
pharmacy.
Laurie Mead, vice president of oncology and womens’ and
professional services at GBMC, said she’s already seen a significant
difference in the oncology unit in the year since “Teamwork is
Rewarding” and academy training programs have been launched.
“The morale has gone up so much and is so
positive,” Mead said. “The program has rejuvenated our existing
nurses and brought us new nurses.”
Contact:
Susan Coe
Greater Baltimore Medical
Center
443-849-3752
scoe@gbmc.org (Back to the top)
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