Altamonte Springs, Fla.-based AdventHealth has hired 10,000 registered nurses since 2020 across its central Florida hospitals and other healthcare locations in an effort to improve recruitment and retention efforts.
The non-profit health system also shared that it has cut the RN turnover rate in half since 2020 in Orlando, while also reducing travel-nurse reliance by 98% since the peak of the pandemic. AdventHealth hospitals in Flagler, Volusia, and Lake counties, all in Florida, have seen a 22% turnover rate reduction and 39% travel-nurse reduction, according to a May 7 news release shared with Becker's.
"We knew we needed to make recruitment and retention our organization's top priority, and so we pledged to invest in our team members like never before and sought to inspire and mentor a new generation of nurses," Cathy Stankiewicz, chief nursing officer of AdventHealth hospitals in Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties in Florida, said in the release. "We've made incredible strides in fortifying our nursing workforce."
In talking with nurses and addressing their most important issues, AdventHealth has provided more than $100 million in nursing pay and bonus initiatives, almost $40 million in employee tuition assistance since 2020, and offered employees 24/7 mental health resource access.
Other recruitment efforts include the addition of 4,110 patient care technicians and 930 licensed practical nurses over the last four years to help with the healthcare worker shortage and work intensity.
The health system has also expanded high school recruitment efforts and partnered nursing schools in central Florida to recruit nurses. It has invested $15.5 million in dozens of nursing schools in Florida.
"Already, 400 students have come through AdventHealth’s dedicated education units, with many being hired as full-time nurses," Michele Goeb-Burkett, chief nursing officer of AdventHealth hospitals in Flagler, Lake and Volusia counties in Florida.
AdventHealth University in Orlando also aims to triple the enrollment of nursing students to more than 1,200 by 2030. It also shared plans to bring an additional nursing instruction site to Tampa which is expected to open next January.