East Tennessee Association of Health Care Recruiters Wins National Award
"They may be small, but they sure are mighty" were the words used to describe the East Tennessee Association of Health Care Recruiters at the annual National Association of Health Care Recruiters (NAHCR) conference, held in San Diego, CA, July 4-9, 2005.
Each year, NAHCR bestows a Chapter Achievement Award to the chapter that has shown outstanding achievement within the past year. Currently, there are 54 chapters across the United States. The 2005 Award was presented to the East Tennessee Association of Health Care Recruiters (ETAHCR).
ETAHCR are a group of local hospital nurses and allied health professional recruiters that share a common goal of increasing the pool of qualified health care professionals in East Tennessee and promoting healthcare careers to area youth. The membership includes Rhonda Sims, Blount Memorial Hospital, Angie Merriman, Covenant Health, Janet Hill, University Health System, Patricia Chaloux, Baptist Health System, Lisa Osterman, East Tennessee Children's Hospital, Kelli Jones, St. Mary's Health System, Dana Whittle, University Health System, and Jill England with Coordinated Healthcare Services.
Some of the accomplishments of ETAHCR that were award worthy included the uniqueness of the collaborative approach to regional recruitment, the creation of a regional website about the East Tennessee region and related health care employment opportunities, and the development of a interactive Youth link on the website to be used by teachers K-12.
Thousands of experienced and student nurses have been exposed to East Tennessee through the collaborative efforts of recruitment by this group at the state and national level. The group has reached thousands of middle and high school aged youth via healthcare career fairs and local classroom presentations. The ETAHCR group was also asked by the Tennessee Hospital Association to serve and chair the Workforce Development Pipeline project that resulted in a tool kit of "best practices" to help recruit youth into health care professions. The toolkit was distributed to THA members across the state.
Future goals of the ETAHCR include:
- Addition of Spanish version of the youth link
- Focus on "undecided majors" college students
- Increase national exposure through joint advertisements
With the widely publicized concerns about the nursing and health care professional workforce shortages, the ETAHCR group is committed to continue to recruit experienced health care workers to our region, promote East Tennessee as a desirable place to live and work, and to continue to work with the youth of our area to promote health care careers.