Welcome to the first issue of a new MHA publication that will profile Maryland hospital and health system efforts to recruit and retain a thriving workforce. Our first issue focuses on successful efforts directed to assure adequate nurse staffing. Future issues will include features on initiatives directed toward other components of the hospital workforce.

While you will receive each issue via e-mail, all the profiles will be posted at index.htm They will be organized by subject area as well as by publication, so you can search for ideas and features that meet your specific areas of interest.

We invite your input and story ideas. Please direct them to Catherine Crowley or Nancy Fiedler at MHA.

Shore Health System:
From High School Counselors to Elementary and Middle School Students — The Patient Approach to Nurse Recruitment

The Care of New Nurses at Carroll County General Hospital:
“Mother them; baby them; nurture them . . . ”

If an issue goes unaddressed, “New nurses may jump from hospital to hospital, looking for something they may not find.” That is why Carroll County General Hospital’s Leslie Simmons uses full-time mentors to coach new nurses and answer their every question
—quickly. . . .

Western Maryland Health System:
Self Scheduling + Closed Units = Happier Nurses

“Happier and more satisfied nurses” is the reason for Western Maryland Health System’s dramatic jump in inpatient satisfaction scores (to the 85th percentile), says the health system’s Nancy Adams. She cites self-scheduling and the “closed unit” concept as building blocks. . . .

Sinai Hospital:
Foreign Nurse Recruitment – Getting Beyond “Stealing” Nurses

In talking to Vice President for Patient Care Services Diane Johnson about Sinai Hospital’s foreign nurse recruitment effort, you get the distinct impression that she is a resilient person. That’s because after a conversation about her Philippine recruitment experience—a conversation that describes “aggravation, pain, and heartache” and an “emotional roller coaster”—she ends on an upbeat note: “For us, it was time well spent.”

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