With many jobs open, hospitals scramble to recruit staff
By Sharon Salyer and Eric Stevick
Herald Writers
A report released today by a state hospital association warns of a staffing crisis where shortages of workers threaten hospitals’ ability to provide timely, quality care and it could get worse.
Faced with the same staffing shortages that hamstring hospitals across the state and the nation, local hospitals are taking unprecedented steps: Planning international recruiting trips to Ireland and Canada, advertising on cable news channels and offering employee bonuses to workers who help fill job openings.
"It’s an overwhelming problem for all our hospitals," said Cassie Sauer, spokeswoman for the Washington State Hospital Association, which wrote the report. "They feel like they’re competing for personnel."
Locally and across Washington, hospitals are reporting problems finding enough employees, including doctors, nurses, imaging and laboratory technicians, pharmacy workers and billing and medical coding clerks.
At Providence Everett Medical Center, 34 percent of current job openings are for registered nurses. Recruiters planned a 5,000-mile trip to Ireland, where nurses’ salaries average $25,000 a year, as part of their latest effort to fill nursing slots.
Although the trip was delayed because of the recent terrorist attacks, it will be rescheduled, said Carol Kubeldis, the hospital’s recruiting manager.
Employees also receive a $500 referral bonus for helping attract new hires, she said.
Stevens Hospital in Edmonds bought ad time on Northwest Cable News to help fill openings and planned a recent recruiting trip to Vancouver, B.C., which also was canceled because of terrorist-related border delays.
The Edmonds hospital with 1,400 full- and part-time employees has 50 current job openings, 33 of which are for registered nurses.
"We have, by far, more registered nurses than any other type of employee," said Bob Sampson, vice president of human resources. "They’re high priority."
Washington hospitals have a 10 percent vacancy rate for registered nurses this year, according to the state hospital association report.
Just as significantly, it says, the nursing workforce is aging, with 69 percent of Washington nurses more than 40 years of age. Younger nurses are in short supply and the ranks of students training to be nurses are thinning.
"People are going to retire," Sauer said. "There’s not people ready to take their place."
Concern about lack of nurses to meet future supply is the reason Everett’s hospital pledged $125,000 over five years to add a nursing faculty position at Everett Community College.
This step alone could help produce as many as 10 additional nursing graduates yearly, said Cheri Russum, hospital spokeswoman.
With nearly 60 percent of the hospital’s nursing staff graduates from the EvCC program, the grant to fund the teaching position is part of the hospital’s long-term nursing recruitment plan, Russum said.
Other steps are being taken as well.
The state has allowed Everett Community College to add 10 students per quarter to its nursing enrollment this year. The college now admits 30 students each fall, winter and spring quarter.
Even with these additions, it’s not nearly enough to meet community needs, said Patricia Black, dean of nursing and health professions at the college.
Moreover, the same shortage in the profession is duplicated when trying to recruit nursing instructors, Black said.
With the state’s aging nursing force, EvCC plans to step up recruiting efforts in the high schools, Black said.
The college has burgeoning medical assistant and phlebotomy enrollments. It would like to add other programs, such as radiology technology, to meet other health care demands but the start-up costs are daunting, Black said.
While attention is focused on the nursing shortage, it isn’t the only problem area for hospital hiring.
"I would just shudder if we had an imaging position come open," Carroll Brown, human resources director at Monroe’s Valley General Hospital, said of employees who operate X-ray and other medical scanning devices.
"When we have had openings, it’s a competitive market," he added. "They’re difficult to find."
Cascade Valley Hospital in Arlington has struggled in the past year to recruit doctors with medical specialties. Current staff openings are in imaging, including, X-ray and ultrasound operators, said Clark Jones, hospital co-administrator.
Staffing and recruitment will be a continuing challenge not just at Stevens Hospital, "but all the hospitals in the area and across the country," Sampson said.
At the Arlington hospital, "it hasn’t hit us too badly yet, "Jones said, "but it could tomorrow, and probably will."
You can call Herald Writer Sharon Salyer at 425-339-3486 or send e-mail to
salyer@heraldnet.com. You can call Herald Writer Eric Stevick at 425-339-3446 or send e-mail to
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