Employer Quotes

The quotes below are about this issue:
Retention: Employers face high rates of turnover for LPNs, certified nursing assistants (CNAs), and RNs. This is particularly challenging for employers in Greater Minnesota; they find it challenging to attract qualified nurses because they cannot always offer salaries that are competitive with the salaries offered in the Twin Cities. Additionally, as mentioned above, many LPNs and CNAs become RNs for career advancement opportunities. This creates a constant shortage in LPN and CNA positions.

Employer Quote	Region
"I was just thinking from the acute-care setting perspective, we've really been trying to recruit the traditional bachelor prepared nurses because we feel like we are going to get some more of that critical thinking or that broad-picture view. And our struggle, in the Brainerd area is—while the data that was presented showed a pretty even mix—in our geographic area that doesn't exist. So, that's something that we have to recruit for."	Central
"I'm thinking of the turnover rate in these positions. I've experimented a little bit with pre-testing applicants over the course of the last year to see if we can make a dent. And we made a slight dent. But I wonder if we are able to take that into the educational format in terms of some pre-testing, in terms of predictability of these candidates that we are schooling, and where they might track? If we can help them track, then we can develop concentrations for them so that they are better prepared."	Central
"I don't want to undermine the wage, but the reality is that we, in the lab, are getting paid a lot less. So, we are seeing people leaving the laboratory to go into nursing."	Central
"We have a nice surplus of RNs right now because the hospitals were going for the baccalaureate degree nurses, so we picked up all of the others that were laid-off. The LPNs, we need that extra surplus because they don't stay with us very long. And I'm afraid when the economy gets better, if it does, we are going to see a lot of our nursing assistants leave because they can go to McDonalds and get a better salary. So, I do have concerns about our future, and I hope that you don't decide to reduce the size of your classes that you are educating just because of what your data is showing."	Central
"One of the barriers is that the college needs so many applicants in the class before they can run the class. And the turnover in CNA is greater than the output coming out as certified. Question: So, people work and then go on or leave? Employer: Right. They're student-based a lot, and so they're moving on in life. And that creates a hole for us, as an employer, that can't be filled that quickly."	Northwest
"Question: Are they like the LPNs who are taking classes to become an RN? Employer: Some are. Some are moving into nursing programs. Some are just moving on in life. I mean they're relocating, going to college."	Northwest
"The reality of hospital-based nursing is that we see patients 24/7. And the nurse that's been there more than five years—I'm sure that it's sunk in—that I've been here for five years and I still work on weekends. I'm still on night shifts. So, honestly I think we lose them to their family needs. Or, they just want better hours of work. And we probably can't get over that in a hospital setting. But I see a lot of great nurses leave because—rightly so—they're just looking for more stable hours of work. And I think about 70 percent of our nurses work in hospitals."	Northwest
"The people who are choosing to stay in it are the younger ones that need some satisfaction; they need somewhere to go within CNA. We're right now looking at what can we put in place for a career ladder within our organization, so that CNAs can accomplish things to get to another level and then another level of education or competency. Something that we can offer within our organization to keep them satisfied while they're going to school or if they end up choosing to remain a CNA, which we are hoping that a lot of people will choose to do. We want them to understand that this can be a career, and we want to slow down some of this turnover."	Northwest
"You're not getting the people that we would. The people we get, they stay with us for two years, and then they move on to greener pastures. You're not seeing the two years they take to get their competency up, and then they go somewhere else."	Northwest
"For the majority of them, life events will take them away from us. I'm the educator on the med-surg floor, and they get trained to be on the floor for one or two years. Eventually, they say, 'Oh, by the way, I'm going to CCU.' Since January we've lost six or seven nurses that were right above that two-year mark. So, we get them right up to that two-year mark, they get experience, they're ready to move up one more step, and then it's, 'By the way, I'm leaving. I got a job in the Twin Cities,' or 'I'm going to go to CCU.' Or they go to another department or something like that."	Northwest
"There is an employment issue of getting hired, but in our facility one of the biggest things is retention. People are going back to school more frequently now because of the online courses. And they're not staying in one place like we did ten or twelve years ago. People don't tend to stay in the same place for 35 years anymore. People are getting married, and they're moving. And I think that's the part where you look at the employment process of getting people. There's a bigger turnover compared to even five or ten years ago."	Northwest
"What we see, too—we're in long-term care and we see the same thing. We might not get LPN applicants, or if we do get an LPN applicant it's someone who is pursuing their RN degree and probably isn't going to stay in that position long-term. I think our program in Alexandria—when I visit with the LPN students—probably 80 to 90 percent are planning to move on to the RN program. So, it's hard to find LPNs that want to remain LPNs."	Northwest
"I think that there's a lot of availability of that two-year RN. We struggle more to get the four-year RN. In our organization, right now we are only hiring the four-year RN for acute care. And it also depends on the time of year. Right now, there is a pool of applicants, but by this fall we are really getting short on finding applicants. The other thing is that in Fargo—where we're taking a pool from the Minnesota side as well as from the North Dakota side—we are getting also a big pool of applicants that are coming from the Twin Cities. I don't know if you're seeing that at all in long-term care? We're getting a lot of applicants from the Twin Cities when they find out the hospitals there aren't hiring new grads. And then they're in our organization maybe a year, and then they move back. Question: Move back to the Twin Cities? Employer: Right. Or if you have a shift in Duluth—if there's not openings in Duluth, to look at outlines from the Duluth area as well. New grad applicants."	Northwest
"In this area, greater Minnesota, it is always challenging to find professionals. It doesn't matter what occupation."	Northwest
"Unfortunately, by the time you get them groomed over the course of one or two years, all of a sudden they're getting married and they're having babies. So, they're out for a while. Other respondents in the room are smiling because they see this happening, too. And then you get them back up to the point and then life events come back and, all of a sudden, it's, 'We're moving,' or 'This is happening, so I need to leave.' So, you've taken all that energy to groom that person, and then they're gone."	Northwest
"That reminds me of one of the issues that we have with balancing the workers. Sometimes we're short at one place, and we have too many at the next place, but the state regulations do not allow us to set up a healthy pool of workers that can work in more than one location. They regulate the rates that can be paid to those people, and they don't provide mileage for their travel. It's a huge issue to try to balance the workforce from community to community."	Southeast
"I'd like to speak for the retirement community business based upon conversations I've had with fellow CEOs and administrators. We're challenged at this point. It's comforting to hear that we're putting a lot of grads out, but we're challenged to find and retain nurses. In the rural areas, it's even more significant of a problem to find them. I hear stories—and these are national stories—where very bright kids can't get into nursing school because they only allow so many in. And there are shortages of instructors. There are reasons for that occurring, but it's pretty challenging right now, at least in our region down here in southeast Minnesota and above as well. I don't want to cause too much alarm, but I want to share that there are some pretty significant difficulties going on in our industry."	Southeast
"The other issue is whether you're considered urban or rural because those areas are paid differently by the state. You don't make that decision yourself about what you reimburse. So, those constraints are really a problem for people. Even being able to pay—even if they would like to pay their staff more—often they just can't in a rural organization versus an urban organization. Here in Winona, we are reimbursed less from the state than we would be in Rochester because Rochester is considered urban. So, those are challenges that we have behind the scenes in terms of attracting people."	Southeast