Market Shift : Sluggish economy, returning workers squeeze health care jobs.

By Laura Raines

Pulse editor

2:57 p.m. Wednesday, March 3, 2010

In April 2008, Mariana Jordan’s husband lost his job for the second time due to the slowing economy.

“The next day, I got up, got dressed and headed out the door,” said Jordan, RN. “I’d been retired four years, and when my husband asked me where I was going, I said, ‘I’m going to get a job.’ ”

Jordan had worked at Northeast Georgia Health System’s Ronnie Green Heart Center in Gainesville before having both her knees replaced. At 63, she was looking for work that is less physically taxing than open-heart surgery. She found it at the first place she applied — Gwinnett Medical Center-Duluth, where she works in the intensive care unit.

“I’d been nursing since 1981, had a lot of ICU knowledge and looked pretty good on paper, so I got a call from Stacy Wait, the ICU director, within two days of my application,” Jordan said. “I give her so much credit for hiring someone my age.”

It was challenging at first. Jordan was concerned about learning new medications and technology, but she had confidence in her nursing ability.

“I was able to hold my own and it’s fun to share what I know with younger nurses. We teach each other,” Jordan said.

She enjoys the work and plans to stay for a while.

“Things got bad in a hurry when my husband lost his job, but we’ve pulled ourselves out of a real mess,” Jordan said. “Nursing is a wonderful profession. It was probably the best decision I ever made in my life.”

Jordan was fortunate not to be looking for a job in 2009, when the economy really went sour. The recession has abated the nursing shortage temporarily and made health care a highly competitive market for job seekers.

“We’re in a great position from a hiring standpoint,” said Theresa Brockenbrough, recruitment manager for Southern Regional Medical Center in Riverdale. “Last year our vacancy rate for nurses was 3 percent, down from 7 percent the year before. I haven’t seen it that low in the 12 years I’ve been here.”

In today’s job market, nurses are more grateful to have jobs and less likely to switch employers, Brockenbrough said.

“Atlanta is a very competitive health care market, and before, it was a real cat-and-mouse game with salaries between hospitals,” she said. “Not every hospital was able to give [salary] increases last year. Fortunately, we did.”

Brockenbrough also has noticed an upswing in employee referrals, with about 50 percent of applicants referred by current employees.

“We’re seeing former nurses return to work, and hearing stories about laid-off spouses and lost medical benefits,” Brockenbrough said.

At the same time, patient volume has decreased, making it harder to justify hiring recent nursing school graduates, who require more training.

“We still hired new grads last year, because you have to look to the future, but there’s a much bigger pool of applicants in all areas of health care these days,” she said. “We can be more selective and hire only the best-qualified.”

Physical therapists, occupational therapists and speech therapists are in short supply, but there’s an abundance of radiologic technologists because there are more schools in the area, Brockenbrough said.

With 11,000 employees, hiring for WellStar Health System’s five hospitals is like staffing a small city, said Kay Spruill, recruitment director. Last year, she was bombarded with far more applications than she had positions.

“Of the 133,000 applicants, about a quarter were in nursing, and we filled about 500 to 600 nursing positions,” Spruill said. “We’re definitely seeing a richer, broader labor pool than in previous years.”

Many nurses have delayed retirement due to fractured nest eggs and economic uncertainty. Others are returning to the profession or seeking new employers. Nurses who worked in doctors’ offices and other areas where demand has decreased are coming back to acute care.

“Nurses who were working part time or PRN [as needed] are interested in full-time positions, wanting the salary and benefits,” Spruill said. “Nursing vacancies have dropped to 2.6 percent, and the turnover rate is under 3 percent.”

WellStar is no longer spending much money on traveling or contract nurses. The WellStar Temps supplemental staffing program provides nurses who are hired to fill in as needed when full-time employees take leave.

The deteriorating housing market and high unemployment rates have slowed turnover in the labor market as a whole.

“Managers aren’t relocating because they can’t sell their homes and their spouses can’t find jobs in the new city,” Spruill said.

For the first time, she sees more first-time nurses and other new employees interested in pensions. “They’re looking at the whole package, not just salary,” she said.

Swelling the administrative applicant pool are people who have never worked in the health care sector.

“People are looking for stability. They’ve realized that their businesses aren’t financially sound, and they’re looking to health care as a safe place,” Spruill said. “We’re a stable ship in very rough waters, but we have to be smart in how we navigate.”

Spruill has tried to balance between hiring new nursing graduates and returning professionals.

“Both bring different strengths to the table,” she said. “We love the energy and motivation of new grads, but older workers often bring strong work ethics, rich life experiences and wisdom. We’re hiring a blend.”

Knowing that the abundance of applicants will drop off in better times, and that nursing shortages are likely to return, WellStar administrators aren’t neglecting retention strategies. They create a welcoming culture with succession and advancement planning, shared governance for nurses, tuition reimbursement and extensive benefits.

“Our orientation and training for re-entry nurses is similar to the extensive on-boarding of new grads, because we want our people to feel supported,” Spruill said. “We want to be the employer of choice.”

It proved to be the best choice for Lori Tricarico, RN, BSN. Last year, she took a refresher nursing course through Kennesaw State University and did her clinical course with WellStar.

After an absence of 14 years, Tricarico was hired in January to work in the operating room at WellStar Kennestone Hospital. She had worked in the OR for seven years before taking time off to raise her daughters.

“I always knew I was meant to take care of people and I missed nursing,” Tricarico said. “Now that my girls are 15 and 17, it seemed like a good time to get back in. I’m so glad to be in a profession where I can make a difference and support myself and my family.”

New technologies, electronic charting and streamlined operations created a steep learning curve, but Tricarico said her preceptors and managers never made her feel like a fish out of water.

“Everyone here has been so wonderful, and I was thrilled there was an opening in OR, and that I had those skills. I’ve heard that new grads are having more trouble getting hired,” she said.

Last August, Gwinnett Medical Center hired 48 new graduates, but the health system also has taken returning nurses who have kept up their licenses into its residency program, said nurse recruiter Johnetta Williams.

“If I post a position, someone who is working PRN will come forward to say she wants it,” Williams said. “Our vacancies are down. The recession has eased the nursing shortage somewhat. With the volume of applications so high, it takes us longer to find the qualified candidates, but there are still opportunities. Health care is stable.”