Hiring: Yes.  Very few nurses respond to recruitment efforts for the TB program: salary is significantly lower than community healthcare facilities and there is no recognition of experience or academic preparation. Additionally, it can take 2-3 months for recruitment paperwork to be processed, particularly if we are requesting a salary more than 15% over what was originally offered. 

Retention: Yes.  Public health work is exhausting and never ending. Nurses are often concerned about making errors and jeopardizing their career. They do work M-F and 8-5 but work can not be finished if they do not do extra hours. Training and mentoring is available but can not be fit into their busy day. They leave to work in a more reasonable, less frustrating environment. 

Strategies to retain:  Salary is an ongoing issue that effects every part of our agency. There are salary realignments happening now however, they will take years to take full effect. Training support, recognition awards, mentoring efforts, improved case management tools and site visits are some ways we are attempting to improve general work conditions for our TB nurses. Will it make a difference? Only time will tell. 

Thanks,
Denise

Denise Dodge,RN
TB Nurse Consultant
"Division of Tuberculosis and Newcomer Health
109 Governor Street, Richmond, VA 23218"
P-804-854-7968
F-804-371-0248

On Mon, Apr 9, 2018 at 8:27 PM, ntca.simplelists.com listserve <nobody@simplelists.com> wrote:
(Previous discussion continued)
RE: Daily digest for tbnurses@ntca.simplelists.com - Amy M Hill (09 Apr 2018 09:25 EDT)
RE: Daily digest for tbnurses@ntca.simplelists.com by Amy M Hill (09 Apr 2018 09:25 EDT)
Reply to list

    Good Morning,

     

    Amy Painter said it perfectly below.  

     

    In addition, Oklahoma RIF’d approximately 300 positions March 1st, and are not  replacing them. Therefore, many nurses that we not part of the RIF are now leaving as well because of the expectations and fear of the state not being able to make payroll. Oklahoma State Health Dept had mismanaged funds and were missing $30 million dollars. We had $15.00 left after payroll! We are now on our 4th Commissioner in less than 6 months.

     

    Have a great day,

     

     

    Amy Hill, RN

    Oklahoma State Department of Health

    TB Program Manager

    (O) 405.271.4060

    (F)  405.271.6680

    AmyH@health.ok.gov

    https://www.ok.gov/health/

     

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    From: ntca.simplelists.com listserve [mailto:nobody@simplelists.com]
    Sent: Saturday, April 07, 2018 7:19 PM
    To: tbnurses@ntca.simplelists.com
    Subject: Daily digest for tbnurses@ntca.simplelists.com

     

    (Previous discussion continued)

    Re: Daily digest for tbnurses@ntca.simplelists.com - Rice, Amy (07 Apr 2018 09:14 EDT)

    Re: Daily digest for tbnurses@ntca.simplelists.com by Rice, Amy (07 Apr 2018 09:14 EDT)
    Reply to list

    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. 

    Amy R.  (Rice) Painter, RN, BSN
    Midlands TB Program Manager
    Midlands Public Health Region 
    S.C. Dept. of Health & Environmental Control
    Mobile: (803) 587-4469
    Connect: www.scdhec.gov  Facebook  Twitter

    This e-mail and any included attachments are intended only for the addressee(s). The information contained herein may include privileged or otherwise confidential information. Unauthorized review, forwarding, printing, copying, distributing, or using such information is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful. If you received this e-mail in error, or have reason to believe you are not authorized to receive it, please delete this message and notify the sender by e-mail.

    From: ntca.simplelists.com listserve <nobody@simplelists.com>
    Sent: Friday, April 6, 2018 8:24:16 PM
    To: tbnurses@ntca.simplelists.com
    Subject: Daily digest for tbnurses@ntca.simplelists.com

     

    Difficulties hiring and retaining TB nurses/Solutions - True, Lisa (CDPH-CID-DCDC-TCB) (06 Apr 2018 15:26 EDT) Difficulties hiring and retaining TB nurses/Solutions by True, Lisa (CDPH-CID-DCDC-TCB) (06 Apr 2018 15:26 EDT)
    Reply to list

    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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To reply to a posting, simply reply. To start a new thread, address it to 
tbnurses@ntca.simplelists.com and put in a concise subject line.
You are on the daily digest setting for the listserve.The archives for 
this list are at http://ntca.simplelists.com/tbnurses.
If you have problems with the listserve, please contact Lorna 
Will at lwill@tbcontrollers.org