Cheryl Martin (Host): Are you looking for a new opportunity to advance your career in nursing? Consider joining our team. Nurse recruiter Michaela Woomer is here to talk about the positions, bonuses, and advancement opportunities offered by Memorial Health System. This is Memorial Health Radio with Memorial Health System Ohio.

I'm Cheryl Martin. Michaela, this is exciting news that you have jobs available for nurses. Tell us more. What kinds of nurses are you recruiting?

Michaela Woomer, DPN, RN: Thank you, Cheryl. We are recruiting all kinds of nurses, registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, nurse practitioners even, who want to work at the bedside, but we're not just focused on the experienced nurse. We are also very focused on our new graduates, those who have just finished either their LPN program or their RN program, or who are finishing an LPN to RN bridge program. We have opportunities for everyone. We have pathways to put them through. We have a nurse residency program that our new grads actually attend to help give them additional resources, peer partners, mentors, additional instructors within the organization and educators to just help them feel comfortable, confident, and competent within their role at the bedside as a registered nurse.

Of course, our experienced registered nurses have multiple opportunities as well. They can work within a clinic setting should they wish to do that. Though the majority of our registered nurses will work at the bedside, whether in the inpatient units, the emergency departments, or the surgical departments.

Host: Now, Michaela, interviews for these positions, are they taking place virtually, in person, or both options?

Michaela Woomer, DPN, RN: Right now, we really do prefer the face to face, one on one type of interview style, but we do offer virtual interviewing for those folks who are a fair distance away from us. We are located in rural southeast Ohio, so we know that there are quite a few people who may have to travel quite a ways to get to us, so when I contact these folks for their interviews, we do discuss maybe how far away they are and whether or not they're able to come for a face to face interview, as would be the preferred option.

Host: Now, talk about your pay. Is it competitive?

Michaela Woomer, DPN, RN: It is very competitive. Unfortunately, I cannot release the numbers to you, but it is very competitive. I love that our organization looks at the market every year. Every year we do this for every position, not just nursing, within our organization. And we look at the market locally, regionally, and nationally to make sure that we are remaining at or above the competitive wages for other healthcare systems that are our same size and location, you know, approximately.

Host: And what about a relocation package?

Michaela Woomer, DPN, RN: We do have relocation for those individuals who are more than 100 miles away from our main campus, which is the Marietta Memorial Hospital, located in Marietta, Ohio. If they are further than 100 miles away, then we do pay up to 5 dollars per mile for their relocation.

Host: Five dollars a mile?

Michaela Woomer, DPN, RN: Correct.

Host: Okay, and are there signing bonuses for any nurse that you hire?

Michaela Woomer, DPN, RN: There are sign on bonuses for registered nurses at this time. That can be either experienced registered nurses or even our new graduate registered nurses as soon as they have passed their boards and have taken an official registered nurse position. I can share with you what that sign on bonus is. So right now we are offering one, two, or three year sign on bonuses for 6,000 dollars each year.

Host: And this is a sign on bonus, you're saying if someone accepts the three years, they are committed to staying with you for three years, or is that based on experience?

Michaela Woomer, DPN, RN: No, that's correct. They choose. So if they sign a three year commitment, that means they are saying, I commit to be with your organization for three years. Now, a lot of people have asked me the question, does that hold me to the one position that I've started in? And the answer to that is no. They're allowed to move into different departments if they wish to do that within their three year commitment. They are just saying that they commit to work with our organization as a registered nurse, preferably full time, but if they started with us as a part time nurse, then that's what they're saying. I'm going to definitely stay with you as a part time nurse.

Host: And will that nurse get the 18,000 upfront, or 6,000 each year?

Michaela Woomer, DPN, RN: It is paid out 6,000 each year at the beginning of those years.

Host: Okay. And what sort of incentives do you have for those nurses who want to further their education?

Michaela Woomer, DPN, RN: Great question. We actually have quite a few different incentives for those individuals who'd like to further their education. The one initial thing that I can talk about is tuition reimbursement. So if we have any registered nurses currently who are diploma or associates level nurses and they want to go back for their bachelor's degree, then we can provide reimbursement for them to do that.

If we have an LPN who wants to go back for their registered nurse degree, we actually have a couple of options. We have the tuition reimbursement that I just discussed, but we also have student tuition assistance programs. We have two of them. One is specific to our local schools, WVUP and Washington State, and the registered nurse programs there.

That is actually a grant funded program that we can help pay up to 24,000 dollars for students to go get their RN degree. And it's actually paid to the student, so therefore if they already have financial aid or Pell Grants or things like that to pay for their school, this money can help them pay for rent, for child care, for food, whatever else they need, supplies for school, etc.

The other program that we have for students wanting to go get their RN degree is for any school, not just WVUP and Washington State. But any school RN program and that again is actually up to 24,000 as well, but this time we build a relationship with the school and we pay the student's bill of tuition and fees directly to the school so that student doesn't have to worry about the stress of having to work and pay for school at the same time.

Host: Sounds like a great program. Now, Michaela, once someone goes through the interview process, how long should it take before they get a job offer?

Michaela Woomer, DPN, RN: Typically, I let my candidates that they should hear something back from us within a seven day turnaround time and I say seven days because of course sometimes we go over that weekend and I don't want to say five days if it might only be three business days. So I say a week, calendar week, typically they're either going to hear something from me about whether or not we want to move forward with step two, which is shadowing.

A lot of our candidates, I do offer to them to get on the floor and meet the team, meet the manager, see what the job might actually be like before we offer them a position or before they decide that they want that position. And after that is then when we would either make the offer or not make the offer to them.

Host: Anything else you'd like to add?

Michaela Woomer, DPN, RN: I think nursing is a wonderful career and I'm excited to bring on anyone and everyone who wants to be a registered nurse. Our health system is very open and very friendly and very educational based for these nurses to grow in their roles as registered nurses. But we also know that not everyone wants to remain a bedside registered nurse.

Some folks want to go more into education. Some want to go into quality. Some want to go into leadership and we have pathways for every direction that a nurse would like to go. So starting with us as a registered nurse can never be a bad thing.

Host: Michaela Woomer, thanks for coming on to talk about this opportunity for nurses to advance their careers at Memorial Health System. The best of luck.

Michaela Woomer, DPN, RN: Thank you very much. I appreciate it, Cheryl.

Host: Well that wraps up this episode of Memorial Health Radio with Memorial Health System. Head on over to our website at MHSystem.org/careers to get more information. Please remember to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast and all the other Memorial Health System podcasts. Thanks for listening to Memorial Health Radio.