“It pays to plan ahead. It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark.”
-Thomas Edison
As a marketing coach and mentor to several home care business owners in home health, hospice and private pay skilled services, I want everyone to look beyond the horizon and plan for the upcoming nursing shortage that may impact your business. Many times it seems that we as an industry wait until our backs are against the wall before we react. Of course, this could cost our businesses revenue.
Just three years ago, several of my clients struggled to adequately staff nursing and therapy visits. This meant they were turning away business. They actually ended up losing market share because of their inability to take referrals and had to spend a lot of time, energy, and treasure to gain it back.
Below I’ve listed several sobering statistics about the upcoming need of nurses.
Current State of Nursing Needs in the United States
- Nursing designated to be the most in-demand profession through the next decade.
According to the latest projections from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics published in the November 2009 Monthly Labor Review, more than 581,500 new nursing positions will be created through 2018 (a 22.2% increase), making nursing the nation’s top profession in terms of projected job growth.
- The latest published Congressional Budget Office report found that the demand for RNs is expected to grow by 2% to 3% each year through the year 2025.
The shortage of registered nurses in the U.S. could reach as high as 500,000 by 2025 according to a joint report released in March 2008 by Dr. Peter Buerhaus of Vanderbilt University School of Nursing, Dr. Douglas Staiger of Dartmouth University, and Dr. David Auerbach of the Congressional Budget Office.
- Evidence shows nursing shortage trends remain unaffected by current economic slowdown.
On December 4, 2009, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that the healthcare sector of the economy is continuing to grow, despite significant job losses in nearly all major industries. Hospitals, long-term care facilities, and other ambulatory care settings added 21,000 new jobs in November 2009, a month when 85,000 jobs were eliminated across the country. As the largest segment of the healthcare workforce, RNs likely will be recruited to fill many of these new positions. The BLS confirmed that 613,000 jobs have been added in the healthcare sector since the recession began. An additional 581,500 new jobs will result from the current demand, making the nursing profession the largest need of new jobs for any occupation. Additionally, hundreds of thousands of job openings will result from the need to replace experienced nurses who leave the occupation.
- Demand for qualified nurses will get more and more competitive in the next few years.
Officials with the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) released projections that the nation’s nursing shortage would grow to more than one million nurses by the year 2020. In the report titled “What is Behind HRSA’s Projected Supply, Demand, and Shortage of Registered Nurses?” analysts show that all 50 states will experience a shortage of nurses to varying degrees by the year 2015.
So here’s the problem you are facing: the current adjusted unemployment rate for nurses is less than 1%. To attract new staff, you will need to lure working nurses away from their current positions.
Online job search engines, newspaper ads, and job postings with your state employment commissions will not attract the type of qualified candidates you will need to maintain and grow your business.
Stop wasting time and money on ineffective recruiting. Instead, take your business to the next level with iTarget Recruitment Campaigns, which allow you to zero in on each individual in your audience through the revolutionary science of variable data. If you are looking to attract qualified nursing and therapy staff, contact us today. We’ll show you how to reach all qualified nurses and therapists in your service area and provide you an online view of their applications before you even decide whether to make contact.
TAG Home Care Marketing owns lists of hundreds of thousands of verified state nursing and therapy prospects from every region of the country. Reply to this link and I’ll give you a free personalized market analysis of all the nursing and therapy professionals located within a 50- or 100-mile radius of your agency. Click here.
This is a free no obligation report that should prove to be invaluable to your agency as you grow your referrals and revenue.
For even more discussion on this proven strategy, simply contact one of my sales coaches at TAG Home Care Marketing for a FREE 30-minute coaching call. Click this link www.HomeCareCoachingCall.com or call 866-232-6477.
Working to grow your referrals,
Adam
a.k.a. – Home Care Referral-Man
Eric Likie!