During the COVID pandemic, when hospitals across the nation were furloughing and laying off nurses and staff, Temple University Health System hired 400 nurses.
Today, Temple announced nearly $5 million in additional investments to enhance nurse scheduling, staffing, and recruitment throughout its Health System. Temple is hiring more than 200 nurses throughout the four-hospital Health System.
“This comprehensive package of investments is part of our continuous process of reviewing and strengthening our ability to anticipate, prioritize, and fill areas of greatest nursing needs for our patients,” said Michael A. Young, MHA, FACHE, President & CEO of Temple University Health System and Temple University Hospital.
The investments include:
- Flexible scheduling options such as weekend programs which provides greater flexibility for working parents or professionals in school
- Referral bonuses for Temple staff members that refer a nursing colleague that is hired at Temple
- Higher pay for float nurses, financial incentives for extra work time, sign-on incentives, and relocation assistance
- Additional investments forthcoming
“We are laser-focused on making Temple Health’s work environment for nurses as rewarding as possible,” said Angelo Venditti, DNP Executive Vice President of Patient Services and Chief Nurse Executive of Temple University Health System. “We’re using an innovative nurse hiring platform known as Incredible Health to proactively introduce Temple to prospective new Temple nurses, and we’re hosting Open House sessions to become mutually better acquainted. Many of our staff say Temple is like a family to them, which we hope to demonstrate to our newest recruits,” he added.
“Our current nursing vacancy rate is about on par with the national average and we have doubled our use of agency nurses to maintain very safe staffing levels,” said Young. “But our nursing vacancy rate is still higher than we’d like it to be. That’s why we are proactively doing something about it,” he noted.
“We met with our nurses and asked, ‘What ideas do you have? What have you seen that works?’ We have outstanding nurses and an effective scheduling and staffing system that anticipates the areas of greatest need and assists our leadership team in prioritizing. We’re supplementing that system with this new comprehensive package of investments, which will reinforce it even further,” Young added.