10 Tips for Recruiting Nurses on the Web.

Build a special site and they will come.

The Internet is changing the face of recruiting. There are at least 100,000 websites with job listings--2.5 million resumes and 600,000 jobs posted online. And Web-based advertising costs about $377 per hire as compared to $3,295 per hire for print advertising.

When recruiting, consider adding a special nursing jobs section to your organization's website. Why? Most of the research shows that nurses tend to look for jobs within a 10-mile radius of the school from which they graduated. Moreover, most nurses prefer to work in their own communities--and thus are quite likely to know the basics about your organization.

If you can advertise in your city's home page or even just add a link from that site to yours, nurses will find you. Nurses want information about many things that have an impact on nursing practice--and thus on whether they think your organization would be a good fit for them.

Site Specifics

Here are 10 things to include on the site:

1. A description of your nursing practice environment. How are decisions about the nursing care of patients made? Is there a nursing clinical specialist to support staff nurses? Is shared governance the norm? Is professional growth a priority? Is the organization union or non-union? Is there flexible scheduling? Job sharing? How are nurses evaluated?

2. Your mission statement and philosophy of nursing. How does nursing fit in with the organization's mission? Is there a chief nursing officer? Does that chief nurse have line authority, or is he or she merely staff to the CO0? Is nursing research encouraged? Is there an ethics committee and are nurses a part of it?

3. Geographic and demographic information. Post information about the organization and the populations it serves as well as the number and types of specialty services it provides.

4. Benefits. Be specific about educational benefits and leave, child and elder daycare, 401k plans and disability benefits.

5. Orientation procedures. Describe internships, preceptorships and mentoring opportunities. Is the hospital a teaching hospital?

6. Credentialing requirements. What are the nursing-specific requirements above and beyond the JCAHO requirements? Describe pay differentials for certified nurses and the career ladder that exists. How does the organization help nurses build their career portfolios?

7. Online resume submission with a response in 24 hours or less. This generation is e-savvy. The electronic age brings with it rapid-fire response expectations. Hesitate and you lose.

8. Biographical sketches of key nursing personnel. Also include a description of their positions and reporting relationships. This will give a good idea of just how valued nursing is in your organization.

9. Useful links. This lets visitors know how "plugged-in" you are to the larger practice world.

10. Restructuring information. Is the organization in a growth stage or is it downsizing? How are relationships with staff? Morale? The bottom line? Be honest about what the organization is like. It doesn't pay to deceive people.

Nurses are using the Internet to find employers who fit their needs and expectations. Employers can do the same, "sourcing" ideal candidates to interview from among those who apply online. Additionally, you can track candidates through the steps in the hiring/ selection and attrition process to determine when you lost them/ won them/need to go back to the drawing board. You can even do an online exit interview.

With the average age of nurses hovering around 46, the trick to attracting, tracking and keeping a stable nursing workforce must include attracting younger nurses, and younger nurses, increasingly, are looking to the Web.

Leah Curtin, RN, ScD(h), FAAN, is editor-in-chief of CurtinCalls, an irreverent, fact-filled scan of nursing and healthcare, Cincinnati, OH. Roy L. Simpson, RN, FNAP, FAAN, is vice president of Cerner Corp., Kansas City, MO.