Opinions are changing

As recently as two years ago, we at Appoint Healthcare consistently heard ward and theatre nurses claiming they would never consider working within a nursing home. Reasons given were that it would de-skill them and damage a career path that they felt passionate about.

Despite these claims, more recently we have seen a significant uprising of ward and theatre nurses switching to nursing home roles. Why is this?

The race for nursing talent

Nursing homes have been facing a significant shortage of clinical staff. They’ve had to raise their game on applicant attraction. The same should be said for hospitals, but they appear to have been left behind in the race to recruit nursing talent.

The nursing home sector has redesigned itself over the last few years to be considerably more attractive. These changes have included a much more fluid and efficient recruitment process. We have seen huge improvements in response times from the point of receiving an application from a nurse to inviting them to interview. The ‘big five’ nursing home organisations in the UK are now frequently interviewing people within a week and submitting written offers out to them a day or two after the interviews take place. They also consistently aim for a one-stage interview process.

Interview processes in hospitals is slower

A typical private or NHS hospital’s interview process is much less efficient. For instance, it’s highly common for hospitals to book interviews for three weeks’ time or more. They often have more than one stage to their process, and the paperwork element is often very slow.

This is resulting in nurses being snapped up by nursing homes long before hospitals have even sent out an interview request. The nursing home industry has given itself a huge advantage by becoming much more agile within its recruitment process.

Benefits package within nursing homes are more attractive

Additionally, nursing homes have upped their package offering significantly, relative to hospitals. Aside from salary increases and improvements on shift pattern flexibility, we have seen the rise of the ‘golden handshake’ make a real difference to nursing homes’ ability to attract talent. This has proven to be very popular and attractive to nurses. Again, it’s something that the hospital sector has been slow to respond to.

There are valuable skills to be learnt in a nursing home

Finally, the role of a nursing home nurse has gone up in stature over the last two to three years. Less often do we hear that hospital nurses view working in a nursing home as a step backwards. Instead, there is a new perspective on the block: nursing home nurses are now seen as the ultimate generalist. They have the ability to excel in a number of skillsets.

Time to change?

It has been a startling change in a short time period. The shortages still exist, but the nursing home sector has to be commended for the improvements made. We can see this making a tangible difference to the sector.

For the private hospital sector, there is a real need to recognise this change, understand what has made the difference and respond quickly. The nursing sector is a rapidly-changing landscape at present and those who react quickly will have an advantage. From what we have seen and heard, the hospital sector has lost out on this more recently.

What are your thoughts on this? Have you recognised this or experienced these changes yourself? Let us know how our perspective measures up to your own experiences.