Wednesday, May 14, 2003
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Wednesday, May 14, 2003 |
FCH events during National Nurses Week and National Hospital Week just part of what retains nursesBy MICHAEL
BOYLAN
Last week was National Nurses Week and this week is National Hospital Week. To mark these occasions and to show their appreciation for nurses and other staff members, Fayette Community Hospital did some special things. Last Tuesday, everybody got some ice cream served by the executive staff members. The members who drew the short straws had to serve the ice cream to the night staff at 2 a.m. Tuesday and Darrell Cutts, President of Fayette Community Hospital, was one of the early-bird servers. In addition to the ice cream, nurses also received T-shirts with the slogan "Nursing: Lifting Spirits and Touching Lives," had a cookout on Friday, and met with vendors who provided some educational information as well as trinkets and tokens. The nursing industry is going through a peculiar time. There are currently many openings and nurses truly have their pick of jobs and where to work. This makes nurse retention a difficult endeavor but both Cutts and Beth Breeden, clinical manager of the Minor Emergency Care Center and co-chairman of the Retention Committee believe Fayette Community Hospital is up to the task. There are close to 700 employees at Fayette Community Hospital and Cutts estimates that over half of those employees are nurses. "There is a lot of pressure and stress for nurses," said Cutts. "There are a lot of opportunities here with various shifts and areas to work in. We'd like them to investigate what they want to do and give them that opportunity. We want the nurses to feel like this job isn't just a paycheck." Breeden agreed with Cutts, stating that opportunities for expansion help with the hospital's good retention rate. "We want to grow our nurses and help them meet change within the medical world, which is always changing," she said. "Opportunities will increase as we grow as an organization." In addition to their attempts to retain nurses, the hospital also does a lot to recruit nurses. There are a number of recruitment days during the year and staff members who recruit new nurses receive bonuses. There are a lot of special weeks at Fayette Community Hospital, including National Lab Week and National Radiology Week, but it is often the day to day treatment that keeps employees happy and industrious.
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