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Health Care Matters is edited by Karen A. Hart, RN, BSN, and Sandy Haeberle, RN

800.582.4668
e-mail: healthcare@hodes.com

HODES/CAMPUSRN STUDENT SURVEY

Background/Methodology

As has been the case in recent years, health care professions continue to experience worrisome shortages, with government projections indicating this scarcity of talent will only continue to intensify. Concurrently, educational issues exist that can impact enrollments and graduations of these very professionals. Read More >

 

RecruitingRx

Perhaps you seek relief from exorbitant search or contingency recruiting fees, or simply need to fill certain jobs in a flash. RecruitingRx, a new solution from the Hodes Health Care Division, can solve these issues and many others. Read More >

HODES/CAMPUSRN STUDENT SURVEY

Background/Methodology (continued)

This includes nursing, where enrollment in entry-level baccalaureate programs increased by 13.0 percent from 2004 to 2005. Though this increase is indeed positive, nursing colleges and universities denied 32,617 qualified applications primarily because of a shortage of nurse educators.

According to the American Medical Association (AMA), since 1985, the number of allied health training programs in critical areas has declined at an alarming rate. There has been a 60 percent decline in clinical laboratory medicine programs; a 30 percent fall-off in nuclear medicine therapy programs; a 21 percent drop in radiography programs, and a 67 percent drop in respiratory therapy programs. And, as with nursing, there is a critical dearth of faculty in those areas.

Health care providers are joining forces with educational institutions to increase class size and help ensure that the talent we need will be there to care for our patients in the future.

In an effort to examine issues in the health care professions student population, Bernard Hodes Group partnered with CampusRN.com, a student portal, in an online survey of its members. The survey was available from October 25 - November 7, 2005.

The purpose of this study was to better understand the characteristics of future health care employees currently enrolled in college programs. The research sought to understand what attracts the new generation of health care professionals to the field and how they obtain positions. Our research delved into what information these students look for when researching employers, what details about positions and employers are important to them, and how they go about looking for jobs.

Our ultimate goal was to provide our clients and the health care recruitment community with insights into this demographic group, thus enabling them to more effectively structure their college recruitment programs and strategies. The student sector will remain an important demographic for recruiters in the health care arena as they seek to fill open positions and plan for the future.

Demographics

A total of 1,237 respondents completed the survey from October 25 - November 7, 2005. The largest percentage (43%) of respondents will graduate in 2006. Nearly one half of survey respondents (46%) were between the ages of 18-24 and 28 percent were over 35. Ninety-two percent were female and 82 percent were Caucasian. The majority (88%) was enrolled in nursing programs, and the largest percentage of respondents was located in the Southeast (35%).

Key Findings

As in previous surveys, respondents indicated a desire to help people was their major motivation for pursuing a health care career; conversely, parental/family influence was least significant in determining career choice.

Over half (56%) were attending college directly out of high school, one fifth (21%) came to health care from another career, and 8 percent did so following marriage and raising a family. Only 1 percent had come to health care after the military.

Over half (56%) were attending college directly out of high school, one fifth (21%) came to health care from another career, and 8 percent did so following marriage and raising a family. Only 1 percent had come to health care after the military.

These findings differ from previous surveys, including the National Student Nurses' Association student survey in 2004. That survey, for example, found that only a third of students came to their nursing program directly from high school. And our Men in Nursing survey found that 17 percent of respondents had entered nursing from the military, a contrast to the mere 1 percent cited in the Hodes/CampusRN survey. These findings highlight the significance of an integrated approach in marketing facilities to the student population. Truly one size does not fit all.

Other key survey results include that student respondents chose employer fit, followed by loan forgiveness and employer size as the key considerations in job selection. The Internet was the most frequent means of learning about jobs, cited by 70 percent of respondents, followed by word of mouth (61%) and clinical rotations (55%). Clearly students are “wired” and using technology in their career planning and job searches.

CampusRN.com respondents applied for roughly three jobs online this year. Nearly nine in ten respondents (89%) applied for one to three jobs online in 2005. Roughly one half of respondents said they were very likely (16%) or somewhat likely (37%) to apply for a job sent via unsolicited e-mail. One quarter (24%) indicated that they would be very unlikely to apply for a position through an unsolicited e-mail.

Corporate websites (49%) and print materials (45%) were neck-and-neck in terms of how respondents prefer to obtain employer information. The high scores for print materials are interesting given the ease with which respondents said they accessed information online. It may be that students feel the need to have something tangible in their hands (a brochure, for example) so that they can compare facilities more easily or that the detailed information they are seeking is not available on the websites.

Only one in ten (12%) of CampusRN.com respondents said they received assistance from a facility with the expectation of being employed there upon graduation. Of those who did receive assistance, over half (51%) received a scholarship from the facility. Over two fifths of respondents (43%) were currently working at a health care facility while in school.

One fifth (21%) of study participants had previously externed at a health care facility. Nearly one third (29%) of those said they planned to work at the facility in which externed following graduation. Of the three quarters (71%) who did not plan to remain at the facility of their externship, the main reasons cited were relocation following graduation or employer fit.

Nine in ten respondents (89%) believed that it would be very easy (46%) or somewhat easy (43%) to obtain a job after graduation. Of those that believed it would be difficult, there did not seem to be an overriding reason provided. Some felt that there would be fewer opportunities for management-level RNs (for those completing advanced degrees), while others saw the difficulty as caused primarily by local labor conditions.

The overwhelming majority of respondents (84%) felt that their perception of a health care career remained positive following exposure to the reality of health care through clinical rotations. Thirteen percent of respondents indicated they now have some reservations about entering into a health care career. Nearly all respondents (96%) said they would choose a health care career, if given the choice.

Over half (58%) of respondents said they planned to return to school for an advanced degree within five years of graduation. Two fifths (42%) anticipated working at a local facility in a staff capacity, and one fifth each planned to get into education/training (22%) or work at a facility out-of-state (18%). Sixteen percent planned to become a manager at a local facility and 11 percent planned to use their health care degree in a related industry.

We thank our partners at CampusRN.com for their assistance in the development of the survey instrument, solicitation of their members, and input into the analysis and findings.

Further survey information--including a valuable recruiter’s “to do” checklist about technology and media--as well as other key strategies for the student population, will be available on our Health Care section in March.

For assistance with your campus recruitment needs, contact your Hodes representative or the Health Care Division directly at 800-582-4668 or e-mail us at healthcare@hodes.com.

RecruitingRx

RecruitingRx places an experienced health care recruiter in your staffing department. That professional can then tackle numerous recruiting tasks for you, from sourcing, screening and interviewing, through conducting background checks and extending offers. With the RecruitingRx solution, we can also: assess your recruiting process and make recommended improvements; affect change implementation; lend technologies support, and conduct metrics benchmarking. 

For more information, please contact Steve Mitchell, vice president, Hodes Health Care Division, at 978.263.6695 or via e-mail at sgmitchell@hodes.com.