Healthcare recruiting during the Ebola outbreak

What is being called by the World Health Organization (WHO as, “The Most Severe Health Emergency in Modern Times,” the Ebola outbreak, is definitely putting the damper on healthcare recruiting and staffing.

According to the latest WHO figures, the Ebola epidemic has killed more than 4,000 people worldwide.  And as of Sunday, there is a healthcare worker in Dallas who contracted the deadly virus from her patient, who passed away last week. This is the first person-to-person transmission on US soil.

Nurses all over are scared that hospitals are not well prepared.  As many as 85% of nurses surveyed by National Nurses United last week say that their hospitals have not even had educational training sessions on Ebola. A VERY scary statistic.

If your medical staffing agency focuses on the Dallas or Texas region, as so many healthcare agencies do, then you may find it extremely difficult to recruit to that region of the country.

We would love to know what our healthcare staffing agencies are doing to help their nurses be prepared and ready for the Ebola outbreak.

• Are you taking matters in to you own hands with your healthcare professionals providing them with training?
• Are you reaching out to your clients to make sure the staff that you send there is trained and prepared to deal with an emergency situation? 
• What are you saying to your healthcare professionals that are concerned?

Let us know in the comments below, how you are handling this health emergency.