Filling the nursing gap with interim staffing

Onward Healthcare, a nationwide provider of interim staffing services to health care facilities based in Norwalk has teamed up with Westport-based GrayGraham to design a campaign aimed at not only attracting clients, but also attracting registered nurses to the burgeoning "travel nursing" industry.

"Travel

"There is a current shortfall of 100,000 nurses in the country," said Kevin Clark founder, chairman and chief executive officer for Onward Healthcare, www.onwardhealthcare.com.

Clark, who also co-founded Cross-Country Travcorps, one of the leading providers of health care staffing in the country, launched his new health care staffing company this past spring, and recently partnered with one of the nation's largest private equity firms, Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe (WCAS). WCAS, which specializes in health care-related enterprises, committed $50 million of equity financing to the health care company.

Since opening its doors, Onward Healthcare has been able to attract hundreds of clients at different health care 'institutions in 35 states. The firm has been attracting registered nurses and allied health professionals who are ready for placement, but has a great need to attract even more.

Nursing Crisis

The United States in the midst of a nursing shortage that is projected to intensify as baby boomers age and the need of health care grows. Compounding the problem is the fact that the pipeline of new nurses is shrinking, with enrollments at nursing colleges and universities now in a six-year decline.

According to the latest projections from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics published in the November 2002 Monthly Labor Review, more than 1 million new nurses will be needed by the year 2010.

Today, 75 percent of all hospital personnel vacancies are for nurses, and companies are coming up with some pretty dynamic ways to get nurses through their doors and retain them.

"Incentives are important because it is a profession that has a lot of stress," said Clark.

One focus of Onward Healthcare's advertising campaign, which was designed by direct-marketing agency GrayGrahm, is an incentive program called "OH Founders," designed to motivate nurses to sign up with the company by providing a wealth of preferred, short-term benefits to those who respond by the end of 2002. The offer is being delivered via directmail postcards, sent to 150,000 prospects in three waves of mailings, and direct response advertising in nursing trades.

"The campaign strategy we developed rests on the fact that Onward Healthcare is truly reinventing travel nursing," said Jeff Gray, president of GrayGraham. "We married the industry experience of Kevin Clark with advent of new technologies, industry-leading benefits and innovative career opportunities for nurses to take the travel nursing industry in a new direction."

Incentive program

The print ads, which will be running in selected nursing trade publications, including Healthcare Traveler, RN, American Journal of Nursing and Nursing 2002, feature Onward Healthcare nurses engaged in lifestyle-enhancing situations such as surfing, hiking and skydiving, underscoring the added freedom and flexibility that Onward Healthcare membership affords them.

In addition to the "OH Founders" incentive program, the marketing campaign includes a sweepstakes featuring a $5,000 dream vacation as the top prize.

"We also have things like a $1,000 sign up bonus, private housing, and having one's health insurance paid for on their first day of work," said Clark.