Regina Foley, President & Chief Nurse Executive, Specialty Hospitals and Clinical Services, HMH
In an interview with Invest:, Regina Foley, chief nurse executive and president of Specialty Hospitals and Clinical Services at Hackensack Meridian Health, discussed attracting and retaining top nursing talent amid a global shortage. “We develop goals and priorities to strengthen the workforce and make sure we have the best and the brightest taking care of our patients,” Foley said.
Workforce challenges continue to roil the industry. How does Hackensack Meridian Health navigate the challenge in the broader nursing sector?
The global nursing shortage accelerated during COVID, and many hospitals and clinics are still suffering from significant shortages. We’ve been able to stabilize and strengthen our workforce with multiple tools. It started with Hackensack University Medical Center being a part of a national pilot project 25 years ago called Magnet designations from the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). It’s the highest credential nursing can achieve in the country. The hospital was an early adopter and one of the first identified nationally to achieve Magnet designation. Hackensack Meridian Health came together nine and a half years ago, and several of our hospitals, Jersey Shore University Medical Center, Riverview Medical Center, and Ocean University Medical Center, became the first system recognized with the Magnet designation. These examples show that achieving excellence and having aspirational goals are the foundation for nursing and are embedded in the fabric of our health network. This is why we develop goals and priorities to strengthen the workforce and make sure we have the best and the brightest taking care of our patients.
In recent years, we have created a robust and comprehensive strategy to attract and retain top talent, and it’s working; our nurse vacancy rate is half the national average.
How do HMH partnerships support workforce development?
Hackensack Meridian Health operates three nursing schools and is in partnership with other higher education institutions to continue to create a strong pipeline for the nursing workforce.
One of the foundational issues in the United States is that we don’t have enough faculty, and therefore, we can’t fill all the necessary slots. For our own schools, the faculty consists of our own team members. For our partner school, three positions are funded by HMH to support the program. Additionally, we have many master’s and doctorate-prepared nurses throughout our organization. We encourage those who are appropriately credentialed to work with their schedule so they can adjunct in universities and colleges to keep those faculty seats open.
What benefits do you offer nurses to retain top talent?
We also have extraordinary benefits, because once people come here, we want them to stay. We will hire nurses who may have an associate degree, although we want them to get a bachelor’s degree. That’s the standard for Magnet designation from ANCC, because those with a bachelor’s degree and national certification have better patient outcomes. We follow the evidence, and we have programs in place to support the evidence. We will support them with tuition reimbursement or tuition assistance programs.
For those who have always wanted to be a nurse but have a degree in another field, we have a bonus program. They can go to any New Jersey or Pennsylvania school with an accelerated BSN. Those programs are full-time, anywhere from 11 to 14 months. We support those individuals with a bonus of $15,000 to help with rent or anything they need. After they pass their boards, we give them $20,000, and their commitment is to work with us for three years.
I’ve been here 38 years, and that says a lot about an organization. I’ve been in different places and different roles. I received tuition reimbursement and mentorship from multiple individuals in the organization. It speaks to the culture, which is healthy and forward-thinking and is helping so many people thrive.
How does HMH leverage technology to assist nursing operations?
HMH successfully piloted the virtual nursing model, and today, we have virtual nursing within four different hospitals, which we are expanding throughout the network. Each of those hospitals benefits from having the bedside nurse who’s taking care of the patient daily, and another nurse working remotely who is communicating with the patient via a screen in their room. The virtual nurse will ease the administrative burden, from multiple pages of admission forms, assessing medical history, and confirming medications, to making sure we have the right next of kin. It’s a thoughtful conversation that takes a lot of time. And our nurses can get back to doing what they love, providing exceptional and compassionate care for our patients.
