How to Convert Travel Nurses to Full-Time Staff
- 1). If you are a nurse manager or administrator, you may wish to get in a little before the morning shift begins. This way you can observe the traveling nurses before ending their night shifts. If there are nurses on that shift that you want to convert, approach them and tell them what a great job they are doing. Since travel nurses make very good salaries, this may be an issue. Ask the travel nurses what additional perks would entice them to come on full time.
- 2). To consider converting, first the traveling nurse has to have the mindset to do so. The best candidates are nurses who are somewhat ready to settle down. Always being the "new kid on the block," at some point it is appealing to find a more permanent home.
To appeal to an outsider, you have to have a great hospital. The unit has to be a welcoming place to work with reasonable ratios, educational opportunities, fair managers and more. Traveling nurses know how to determine these things quickly since they work in so many different hospitals. Travelers also have to know that their positions are going to be eliminated, and you are going to replace them if they do not come on board. To make this work, you must actually have permanent people coming on to demonstrate competition. - 3). Help to create incentives for traveling nurses to convert. Talk about your high standard of care. If you offer good staff/patient ratio and offer educational opportunities, make that known. Also, be flexible. If creative scheduling is something that is important, start getting creative. New nurses also like to know that they are welcomed. You may wish to implement a mentor program or "buddy system" to make the new nurse feel comfortable. Ask their mentor to not only show them around the hospital but also the community. Familiarize them with shopping, dining out and cultural opportunities in the area. Traveling nurses are used to feeling like outsiders. You may also wish to offer a sign-on bonus to offset the probable decrease in salary. Small gift programs have also worked as an incentive and help to boost morale. For instance, on a quarterly basis, give out Wal-Mart gift cards, pens to wear around their neck or coffee mugs. While this may sound small, sometimes the payoffs are big.
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