Developing the Next Generation

Photography by James Moore

America is in the grips of a national nursing shortage, a problem that goes back decades but has intensified in recent years due to the aging of the workforce.

The American Association of Colleges of Nursing reports that of the roughly 4 million nurses at work in the U.S. today, about 25 percent, are age 50 and over. This fact is expected to accelerate retirements over the next 15 years, creating nearly 176,000 nursing vacancies annually per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. And that doesn’t even take into consideration the additional demand created by the aging Baby Boomer population and younger nurses changing careers after burning out during COVID.

In such a job market, smaller hospitals are often at a distinct disadvantage in attracting and retaining the nursing talent that’s required to serve patients. But Ozarks Healthcare has leveled that playing field with a robust slate of nursing programs designed to land and keep nursing talent today and well into the future.

“I think that across the nation, everyone could use more staff,” said Karlee Marvin, nurse education supervisor. “At Ozarks Healthcare, we feel like we are in a much better place than we were even a couple of years ago, especially with our residency and our externship programs.”

Ozarks Healthcare's success story begins with extensive recruitment and has been aided of late with the opening of outstanding facilities, such as its medical office building. Marvin said the opportunity to work in a new, state-of-the-art facility is a strong draw for many prospective nurses.

“We continue to grow because of all of the specialty providers that we offer and the procedures that we perform here. I think that is definitely a draw,” she said. “The physical improvements we have made over the last few years make the hospital that much more enticing. The new office building is beautiful on the outside and even more beautiful on the inside. We have a gym now that is available and free to coworkers, we have Grill 59, and a coffee shop serving Starbucks coffee.

“I think when people see all we have to offer, it’s really beneficial for the hospital, especially among our locals. We want our locals to grow up here, go to school here and then take care of their community here.”

The combination of professional amenities and constant recruiting has resulted in new hires that split evenly among traditional nurses a few years removed from high school and non-traditional nurses who have come to the profession as a second career.

“I think both traditional and nontraditional nurses are looking for the same thing,” Marvin said. “They’re looking for a job that will take care of them and that will grow with them.”

Bringing this diverse group to the same starting point after hire is the purpose of Ozarks’ nurse residency program, a 12-week ramp-up that has been instrumental in getting new employees off to a solid start.

“In our nurse residency program, we put two cohorts through per year in January and June,” Marvin said. “It is essentially a program where we take brand-new nursing school graduates, support them and walk them through finding their perfect job at Ozarks Healthcare. They learn the hard and soft skills of nursing, and they are able to see Ozarks Healthcare as a whole and not just the one department they think they want to work in.

“Nursing school and clinical time are so different from real-life jobs. We’re able to put them through all of our different inpatient departments and give them the time to see and work with those coworkers and find their perfect fit where they feel comfortable and are ready to grow in their new jobs.”

The residency program combines work shifts, class-based learning and guest speakers to help match new nurses to the job that best fits their skill set, personality and career goals. Once they choose a department, additional specialized training follows along with the assignment of a mentor. All of which, Marvin said, help contribute to nurses’ professional success.

“That first year of nursing is hard,” she said. “You are so overwhelmed by learning all the pieces and then essentially being the one who’s taking care of those patients. Having that mentor to reach out to means a lot.”

The hospital is also taking steps to connect with prospective nurses earlier and earlier. A brand-new paid externship program provides current nursing students with a 10-week summertime opportunity to augment their education in a real-world setting.

“They are assigned one-on-one with a nurse preceptor, and they are able to get in and learn a lot of those soft skills that are often not at the top of things they teach you in nursing school,” Marvin said. “They really learn how to talk to patients, how to talk to their preceptors and how to talk to providers.

“That’s been really successful. I heard back from the nursing instructors that the students who completed this externship were a completely different group of students walking into third semester clinicals.”

Ozarks Healthcare's MASH Camp reaches even younger students, introducing them to the nursing profession while still in junior high and high school.

“MASH Camp has been a highlight of 2022 for all of us,” Marvin said. “We had 96 seventh through 12th graders from all across the area attend, which was pretty significant. We did a three-day camp for the high schoolers and a one-day camp for seventh and eighth graders.”

Campers were given the opportunity to view nursing from a number of departmental perspectives and perform simulations using advanced medical equipment. 

“One of our cardiac thoracic surgeons came in and taught the high school students how to suture on bananas,” Marvin said. “Another huge highlight was a class led by one of our orthopedic and spine surgeons who showed students a brand-new surgical robot. We also took a group into our cath lab, gave each of them a role to play, and they mimicked a full cath procedure. We created an epidemic within the classroom so they were able to see how quickly an epidemic could spread.”

Marvin said reaching youngsters at this age is critical to generating interest in the profession, which bodes well for the future.

“One of my favorite parts of MASH Camp was we ended with bringing in representatives of the career opportunities within healthcare,” Marvin said. “We had X-ray there, we had the high school involved in some of their biomedical science classes there, we had air evac. We also invited parents so they could get information on how to look into local educational opportunities.

“As an organization, I think our name and our brand have grown over the years along with all of the specialties and career opportunities that are right here within the walls. We wanted to show how it’s possible to specialize as a nurse here locally, more than you ever could before. I think that speaks to people. One of our top healthcare system goals is to be the employer and the provider of choice, and the more we can promote that in the community, the more successful we’re going to be going forward.”