{"id":11775,"date":"2020-06-08T18:19:48","date_gmt":"2020-06-08T22:19:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/advertise.nurse.com\/?p=11775"},"modified":"2025-08-12T12:11:58","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T16:11:58","slug":"recruiting-retired-nurses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nurse.com\/solutions\/blog\/recruiting-retired-nurses","title":{"rendered":"Recruiting and Retaining Retired Nurses During COVID-19 and After"},"content":{"rendered":"

Have you considered recruiting retired nurses?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

With the onset of COVID-19, some governors and healthcare organizations publicly pleaded for retired nurses to consider either volunteering their services or return to work.<\/p>\n

One health system that recruited retired nurses before COVID-19 struck and ramped up the practice when the pandemic hit, was Northwell Health in New Hyde Park, N.Y., said Judy Howard, vice president of talent acquisition for Northwell\u2019s corporate human resources.<\/p>\n

Northwell Health serves the New York Metro area\u2014a COVID-19 hotspot.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur census doubled at the peak of COVID-19. Further, healthcare is a different industry, requiring a broad-based recruiting strategy \u2013 especially with regards to RNs,\u201d Howard said.<\/p>\n

Recruiting retired nurses plays a key role in the overall recruiting strategy at Northwell.<\/p>\n

\u201cTypically, if someone is a lifelong nurse, they have a calling, a mission and a passion for the profession which they pass on to others,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The latest data show the U.S. could have a shortage of nearly one million nurses by the year 2025, according to Howard.<\/p>\n

\u201cAchieving good staffing levels requires an innovative approach which includes hiring retired RNs,\u201d she said. \u201cRetired nurses bring a wealth of knowledge to an organization and its staff,\u201d<\/p>\n

A nurse who came out of retirement<\/strong><\/h3>\n

One nurse who came out of retirement was Debra Letourneau, MSN, RN, NE-BC, assistant director for nursing at Huntington Hospital<\/a> in Huntington, NY, part of the Northwell Health System.<\/p>\n

Letourneau\u2019s last day of work was January 31. Less than one week later she received a call from her former boss asking her if she wanted come back. The offer was for a job in the same position she had before\u2014assistant director for nursing but now as a per diem staff member instead of a part timer.<\/p>\n

After talking it over with her family, Letourneau decided to accept the offer. Soon thereafter, she began the onboarding process and on March 31, Letourneau was back at work.<\/p>\n

Given Northwell\u2019s<\/a> practice of recruiting and retaining retired RNs, Letourneau had already been on the list of retiring nurses who were interested in coming back to work when a position opened up. \u201cEven though I retired, I was not ready to completely stop working,\u201d Letourneau said. \u201cI saw this as a way to ease into retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Remaining in the nursing workforce as per diem staff provides Letourneau with the flexibility she was seeking with regards to scheduling\u2014eight hour shifts instead of 12, and a lower number of shifts she\u2019s required to work each month.<\/p>\n

Offering flexibility to older nurses can increase recruitment and retention <\/strong><\/h3>\n

The flexibility Letourneau enjoys now as a per diem coincides with observations made by David Auerbach, PhD., health economist, and external adjunct professor at Montana State University in Bozeman, Mont.<\/p>\n

In a recent interview with NURSE.com<\/a>, Auerbach said given the large numbers of retiring baby boomer nurses in the U.S., it could benefit healthcare organizations to strategize on ways to retain these nurses.<\/p>\n

\u201cProviding opportunities to work in less physically demanding roles for older nurses along with options for less rigorous schedules, may result in more nurses being willing to delay their retirement,\u201d Auerbach said.<\/p>\n

Howard said Northwell utilizes feedback from focus groups to uncover the features of a job retirees are looking for such as shift length and offering a variety of practice areas to work in.<\/p>\n

Retired nurses returning to the workforce sometimes prefer roles that don\u2019t require direct patient care, Howard said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cWhen this occurs, it\u2019s important to provide opportunities to work in roles they\u2019re looking for,\u201d he said. \u201cWorking as a nurse educator is one example. With their wealth of experience, they make great educators.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weighing the decision to recruit retirees<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Not all hospitals recruited retired nurses to help with COVID-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe originally looked at targeting retired nurses,\u201d said John (Jack) Blake, assistant vice president of human resources at Scripps Health in San Diego. \u201cHowever, with the stay-at-home orders including people over the age of 65, we backed off that idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scripps decided to pursue other strategies to increase staffing, one of which was to look internally at nurses who were being flexed in other areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe surveyed their background to see who could float into the ICU and emergency department,\u201d Blake said.<\/p>\n

Senior healthcare recruiter Lori Rogers, who has worked with multiple healthcare organizations for more than 16 years said some hiring managers can be reluctant to bring back retired nurses who have been out of practice for a certain period of time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve not been involved with recruiting retired nurses, as some\u00a0hiring leaders may not want to hire a retired nurse at the bedside or for a critical care role if it’s been more than two years since they’ve been in practice,\u201d Rogers said. \u201cSome hiring leaders may feel that there could be too much to learn or they might take longer to train.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finding qualified retirees<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Howard said when COVID-19 hit, Northwell culled their database for nurses who had retired within one year or based on their prior role, to identify retirees they could reach out to who could jump back into the fray with quicker speed.<\/p>\n

Effective methods used to find external candidates of all ages include:<\/p>\n