It’s Nurses Week: How to attract and hire nurses on social media

Nurses deserve a global standing ovation. This past year, nurses everywhere have worked—and continue to work—tirelessly and selflessly to care for millions of patients battling COVID-19. So this May, like each year before, we take a moment to celebrate nurses around the world. Working alongside our clients, we help healthcare organizations engage with the nursing community, as well as attract and hire nurses on social media during National Nurses Week and International Nurses Day.

What are International Nurses Day and National Nurses Week?

International Nurses Day is recognized on May 12, the anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birthday. Florence Nightingale, the mother of modern nursing, brought light to patients during the War of Crimean—literally. She was known as “the lady with the lamp” who alongside 38 other nurses cared for each patient no matter the conditions. International Nurses Day honors nurses everywhere and is meant to bring awareness to the challenges nurses face to push for growth and innovation in modern nursing.

Since 1990, National Nurses Week has been observed on May 6-12. and includes National RN Recognition Day on May 6, National Student Nurses Day on May 8, National School Nurse Day observed on the Wednesday that falls in the week, and ends with International Nurses Day on May 12.

Nurses on the frontlines deserve the spotlight not just this week, but always. Below we share just some of the tips we offer our own clients on how to create engaging social media campaigns that target employees and candidates in one of the fastest growing professions today.

95% of healthcare workers have either maintained or increased their social media usage during the pandemic, so this year’s Nurses Week may generate even more activity and attendance among the nursing community than ever before.

When planning a week’s worth of social media posts, content variety is key. Repeating the same 1-2 posts each day of the week can quickly tire any existing and potential followers, so you’ll want to collect and prepare a healthy number of images and copy to keep the content fresh and unexpected.

We recommend varying not only the assets but the type of post to ensure a complete and balanced content mix. Include a serving of employee spotlight posts, job posts, and DEI and diversity messaging—all of which are the posts most likely to drive the most applicants. Below are a few examples from CareerArc clients.

Perhaps the simplest and most obvious post to put together is the “greeting card” that marks the occasion with a thoughtful and personal note to nurses everywhere.

Last year BJC HealthCare recognized their incredible nurses with a social campaign that featured the faces of their nursing team. These posts are simple but effective, each recognizing a member of their workforce with engaging and simple imagery, conveying a heartfelt note, and providing a link to join BJC. This post alone garnered over 80 reactions.

Shine a light on one nurse’s story

Celebrating your nursing professionals is a powerful and authentic way to attract talent. Employee spotlight posts do just that by focusing on one employee’s personal experience working at a company.

Here’s a post from Mercy Medical Center that share the journey of two employees through a brief quote displayed directly on the image beside the employee’s headshot. While it may look difficult to compose at first, rest assured you will not need a design team to put these together. Download this set of free employer branding templates tailored for healthcare organizations you and compose a post in minutes.

Optimize posts with the hashtags that celebrate #NursesWeek

Hashtags are a must if you want to reach, attract, and hire nurses on social media on social media.

Using relevant and timely hashtags effectively inserts your posts into the ongoing conversation around a specific topic or event. For example, throughout the week nurses often follow the #nursesweek hashtag, as well post their own content using that hashtag. When they do they have a higher likelihood of discovering your posts that include the same hashtag.

Beyond making your posts more searchable and discoverable on social, these hashtag also help your post signal your support and participation in this year’s Nurse Week festivities and celebrations on social media.

Here are several suggested hashtags to use during Nurses Week:

#nationalnursesweek
#nationalnursesday *Use only on May 6
#nursesweek
#healthcareheroes
#nursetwitter *Use only on Twitter
#nurses
#nurselife
#nursesrock
#RN
#hiring

Here’s an employee spotlight post from BJC HealthCare that uses several hashtags, including the branded hashtag #BJCNurses generated over 130 likes.

Related: Learn how CareerArc helped Boulder Community Health more than double their job views 

Lead with benefits, compassion, and growth

In spirit of International Nurses Day, it’s important we listen to the challenges nursing professionals face. Reflect on the culture and benefits that nurses need today to be successful in their careers. COVID-19 has taken its toll on our healthcare workforce and challenges such as grief and exhaustion are rampant.

With so many hospitals in need of nurses, nurses have a choice of where to work. Gain a competitive edge by sharing what your organization does to provide an environment nurses want to work in. According to our Future of Recruiting survey, 86% of candidates use social media in their job search, 82% consider employer brand and reputation before even applying for a job, and what passive candidates want most today is work-life balance. .

The posts we highlight above show how these organizations emphasize career growth, flexible scheduling, and compassionate employer practices. All of these rank high in importance for all job seekers, including nursing talent.

As we learn more about what nurses need to work through COVID-19, and beyond, we expect other key benefits to rise in demand.  Companies that offer mental health resources, more work-life balance, and creative perks will can earn the attention of top candidates. If your organization is offering these benefits, it’s important to share this for awareness. With 70% of the workforce on social making up passive talent, your post may be the impression needed to convert a passive job seeker into an active one and more effectively hire nurses on social media.

Here’s a post CareerArc helped publish on behalf of Carly, a talent acquisition sourcer at HCA Healthcare. The post links to their interactive job map, powered by CareerArc, showing the wealth of open positions and the number of growing teams and locations across the country.

Listen and engage

There are lots of ways we can honor our nurses today and in the future. It’s important we continue to improve the working conditions and innovations within the healthcare industry. One of the most powerful but overlooked ways to do this is through listening.

Nurses at your organization may be participating in Nurses Week on social media. Be sure to follow their account and like or comment on a post to show your support. Pay attention to any common themes in their post. These can help drive ideas on how your organization can improve their working lives. Listening is the best step to building an authentic connection with nurses and the nursing community this Nurses Week.

Want to reach more qualified healthcare talent? Sign up for a CareerArc demo today to learn how we help brands compete for top candidates in healthcare.