April 2007Nursing recruiters need long arms these days. Waiting for a new class to graduate from the nearest nursing school will no longer fill the gap between the high demand and short supply of qualified workers.
Because of the national shortage, nursing will continue to be a challenging area to source talent," said Merideth Northcutt, director of recruitment at Gwinnett Hospital System. "The acuity level of patients is higher, and more nurses are retiring, so you can no longer rely on one sourcing avenue. You have to have many strategies. Even though we have very low vacancy rates now, we're always looking for opportunities to load the pipeline." more
To fulfill an assignment in graduate school at New York University, Nikki Wilson designed a development program for a therapeutic center that would integrate sports and other activities into occupational therapy. Later, as a contract therapist with the Fulton County school system, Wilson brought that plan to life.
"In interacting with students at school, I saw that they needed extra assistance with their schoolwork and that they had very few recreational and social opportunities," said Wilson, MA, OTRL. "I wanted to be involved with these kids' lives as more than just a therapist." more
On most days, associate director Eve Heemann Byrd sees geriatric patients in her office at the Fuqua Center for Late-Life Depression at Emory University's School of Medicine. On Monday afternoons, however, she sees patients on her computer screen.
Since its launch late in 2004, the Georgia Statewide Telemedicine Program has connected doctors and professionals from 45 medical specialties with patients who live in rural Georgia. This year, the program added psychiatric counseling to its services. more