Lisa,

See below for responses in red. Looking forward to Palm Springs!

Questions:

1.      Have you experienced difficulties hiring TB nurses in your program?   Please explain challenges.

Yes, we have experienced difficulties in hiring TB nurses. State salary does not compete with the local hospitals, state agencies sometimes take awhile to process paperwork for new hires leading them to accept another offer, lack of knowledge related to TB leads nurses to look elsewhere for employment, and lack of strong recruitment initiatives.

2.      Have you experienced difficulties retaining TB nurses in your program? Please explain challenges.

Yes, we have experienced difficulties in retention of TB nurses. Nursing shortages leads new hires to lack mentors since their mentors are busy maintaining the patient caseload, lack of mentors leads new hires to feel frustrated with the day to day demands of a TB nurse, and training programs are weak. In our state, we had a re-organization of regions for our state agency which increased county volume for the nurses (ie - a nurse could now cover 3 counties which increased travel time and reduced desk time for follow-up).

3.      What strategies have you used to hire and retain TB nurses?

Salaries were adjusted, and we are working to pair new hires with a mentor. We are trying to strengthen our orientation process. 

Dear TB Nurse Colleagues,

 

Happy Spring!  Looking forward to seeing many of you in Palm Springs.  In preparation for presentation at conference I am interested in getting feedback on the below three questions.

Please respond by April 25th.  I plan on summarizing responses and am interested to learn if anyone out there has made specific efforts to improve hiring and retention in order to share with other programs.

 

Questions:

1.      Have you experienced difficulties hiring TB nurses in your program?   Please explain challenges.

2.      Have you experienced difficulties retaining TB nurses in your program? Please explain challenges.

3.      What strategies have you used to hire and retain TB nurses?

 

Thanks in advance and please feel free to contact me if questions or detailed information to share.

 

Lisa

 

 

________________________________

Lisa True, RN, MS

MDR Nurse Coordinator/Program Liaison

TB Control Branch  Center for Infectious Diseases

California Department of Public Health

850 Marina Bay Parkway

Richmond, CA 94804

(510) 620-3054 

Confidential FAX  (510) 620-3035

 

 

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