IN THIS ISSUE:
Employees Matter-keeping new nurses
Communication Corner-re-evaluating your marketing program
News You Can Use-a new tool in recruiting
Just for Fun-signs you're on technology overload


Staying Power:
Keeping New Nurses at Your Organization
Nurses fresh out of nursing school are usually full of excitement and enthusiasm. Ready to put their skills to work, they are eager to start their career in healthcare. However, after just a few weeks in the "real world" many of these smiling, happy nurses are finding themselves engulfed in a nightmare. Many are left guessing if they should even stay in the job they've spent so long training for.

Today, many new nurses are finding themselves in a dire situation. After getting hired, they are often rushed through a brief training session, and then expected to jump right into the routine. They learn rather quickly that the pace is fast, and the responsibility is terrifying. And because everyone else has so much to do, or because staff is short as it is, these new nurses often have no one to turn to for help and guidance. In other cases, they're just too afraid to ask for help because they fear looking stupid in front of the more experienced nurses. Faced with such a grim outlook, many new nurses leave to go work at another facility or quit the profession all together.

Simply put, if we want young people to choose and stay in our profession, we must commit to properly nurturing the next generation(s). Here are some steps that will help young nurses adapt:

Be empathetic. New nurses have different learning curves and understanding this will help decrease frustration when someone "just doesn't get it." Furthermore, experienced nurses need to stop gossiping about the mistakes and blunders new graduates make. This type of environment simply drives nurses away.

Be a mentor. Mentoring programs are a retention effort, and they help new employees with the culture. In an effort to keep new nurses from becoming overwhelmed and leaving within their first year, hospitals around the country are implementing formal mentoring programs that pair first-year nurses and other new employees with veterans.

Provide feedback. While in school, nursing students usually receive daily feedback. So, follow suit and provide new nurses with constructive criticism. If they're doing something wrong, let them know in a gentle manner, and go through the steps they need to perform to correct the problem.

Get them involved. New nurses are often eager to join committees, get involved in leadership activities, and contribute to system changes. So, do all you can to involve new graduates in decision-making and shared-governance activities.

Say thank you. Remember that just saying "thank you" or writing a note of appreciation for a job well done can mean a lot after a hard day on the unit.

Bottom line: you need to encourage the new graduates on your unit to succeed. Nursing graduates are eager to do well, to learn, and to be accepted by their peers in the workplace. So do your part, and play an active role in keeping new graduates in the profession.


"The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing at the right place, but to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment."
-Dorothy Nevill


How Does Your Marketing Measure Up?
Four Factors You Need to Consider
Looking to improve the marketing practices in your healthcare organization? Who isn't?! After all, marketing programs can always use to be fine-tuned and tweaked.

Below are four elements you should consider when it comes to a marketing program:

1.a marketing plan
2.a marketing budget
3.the right human resources
4.defined metrics that demonstrate marketing's impact on the business

Healthcare organizations that consistently address these four factors are more likely to achieve their business and profitability goals. So, if you're not already implementing these components, you should seriously consider doing so.

Let's take a closer look at the four components.

1. A Marketing Plan
A marketing plan serves as a road map, providing a course of action. A good marketing plan should include a clear set of objectives along with a set of strategies that will help you achieve these objectives.

In your plan, be sure to document your organization's key market differentiators. This should include why people should buy from you and how you are better and different from your competitors. Documenting these factors requires you to know your target as well as their problems and needs. You will then be able to position yourself to meet those needs. In short, this forces you to be customer centric-a critical factor when it comes to successful marketing.

2. A Marketing Budget
Being ready for the market takes an investment. To justify this investment, you need to provide the rationale behind every marketing dollar spent. This will take some time and effort up front, but in the end it's worth it. Remember, having a stable budget enables the marketing team to operate on a long-term basis rather than just day to day. You will not have to go back to the boss to request funds time and time again.

3. The Right Human Resources
Marketing, especially in healthcare, has been hindered by lean staffs in recent years. In many companies, marketing efforts are led by those who are inexperienced or simply unqualified to be in a marketing position. The lack of marketing expertise and inability to leverage external experts can prevent your organization from achieving their goals. Bottom line: if you want marketing to succeed, you need a staff with marketing know-how.

4. Defined Metrics
To be successful, you must establish the right metrics for linking marketing investments to business goals. Historically, the most common metric used to measure marketing's effectiveness has been "number of new deals." Only problem is that this is actually a metric for sales. There are three gauges that marketing should drive: market share, lifetime value, and brand equity.

These gauges should be identified in your marketing plan and directly linked to the appropriate marketing objectives. Items that might increase market dominance include customer preference and rate of customer acquisition. For improving lifetime value and brand equity, your efforts should focus on frequency of purchase, visits, referrals, and so on.

While the above may seem obvious, many companies have yet to master these basics. By just considering these components and how they can be applied to your healthcare organization, you are one step closer to a winning marketing program.


"We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action."
-Frank Tibolt


Networking Sites:
The Latest Trend in Recruiting
The popularity of online networking sites such as Friendster.com is exploding. In fact, Fortune magazine calls online networking sites "the hottest online trend," enabling professionals to connect with vast networks of people for social, business, and career purposes. Recruiting site Monster.com recently added a networking function for users, and other online communities have followed suit by helping their members find job leads.

How Can Your Organization Take Advantage?
The stage is set for healthcare organizations to tap into these networks. Thousands of healthcare professionals boasting the desired skills and personality traits you're looking for are out there-just waiting to be hired.

One of the best ways to take advantage of online networking sites is through your internal referral program. Extend your program to reward those who bring in top candidates from such sites. Remember, a great recruit your workers meet through a site such as Friendster.com is as good as one they meet at church, the grocery store, etc.



Technology Overload!

Remember the good ol' days before fax machines, cell phones, and instant messaging? No? Well, neither can we! The truth is, our society is almost completely reliant on technology. So, you should get a laugh out of the following statements.

You know you're on technology overload when:

You enter a password in the microwave.

It's been 10 years since you've used a real deck of cards to play solitaire.

You have an entire page of phone numbers just to reach your immediate family members.

You have a daughter peddling Girl Scout cookies on the Web.

A week after you buy your new computer, it's been declared obsolete and is being sold at half the price.

Your excuse for not staying in touch with others is because you don't have their e-mail addresses.