[cougarnurse]

I guess they are using this in the DC/VA/MD area. What all do you think about this? Anyone else experience this? Nurse.com - Right Nurse, Right Fit

In today's nursing employment market, a good job fit means more than having the right education, skills, and experience. It is crucial to create the right chemistry with a healthcare organization's team and fit into its culture.

Today's nurse recruiters are aggressively trying to encourage career development, reduce turnover, and improve retention rates, and job candidates need to demonstrate they have what it takes to become successful, long-term members of a healthcare team.

To find these unique applicants, hospitals and healthcare organizations are turning to a specialized pre-employment assessment tool called Healthcare Selection Inventory.

HSI, a Web-based healthcare-specific customer service survey, is putting a new spin on the traditional application process, according to Ann Bures, RN, MA, CHCR, a nurse recruiter at University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore and past president of the National Association of Health Care Recruiters.

"HSI helps us to identify good job candidates in terms of customer service, retention, and job performance," says Bures. "It gives us an idea of how they approach work and what their work ethic is like."

HSI, created by TestSource (www.TestSource.com), can be completed from any location with Internet access in 20-30 minutes. Applicants choose from multiple responses to 100 questions, and the results rate the potential for success on the job and include an overall performance index, retention index, and service excellence index.

HSI also helps healthcare recruiters, managers, and supervisors evaluate if a job candidate has the ability to express a facility's values in his or her day-to-day work life and in interactions with patients, families, and coworkers. Focus areas include work ethic, teamwork, energy, customer focus, decision-making, compassion, flexibility, ability to multi-task, attitude toward diversity, and openness to learning.

So how can nurses maximize their survey taking experience? Rule No.1 is don't think of the survey as a test that must be passed.

"All of us have assets and liabilities, and this tool will assess if you are able to see what your weaknesses are," says Michelle Jones, MBA, employment coordinator at Kernan Orthopaedic and Rehabilitation Hospital in Baltimore. "It's a matter of being honest and truthful."

The survey is structured so questions may be posed more than once in a couple of different ways. It gives recruiters and managers a "confidence in result scale" which measures if applicants respond to questions consistently, if they were paying attention, and if they are able to read the survey.

It also provides an "inflated response scale" that measures if applicants responded to questions in a forthright, realistic manner. In other words, if applicants only choose answers they think the recruiter or manager wants to hear, it will be flagged.

"There are no right or wrong answers," says Jones.

In addition, organizations may put a different emphasis on different areas, depending on their mission, philosophy, culture, and recruitment needs. Despite this, Jones says that scoring low in one particular emphasis area will not necessarily preclude someone from being hired.

"There is still something to be said about a human approach to hiring – factoring in who the person really is as opposed to just being what you see on a piece of paper," she says. Recruiters use the survey as only one snapshot in a complete portrait of a job candidate. An individual's results generate additional questions to ask in a face-to-face situation to help uncover if a low area is truly a problem or just the way an applicant interpreted the question.

For example, if a candidate scores low on teamwork, the recruiter might ask him or her to describe participation on a recent team project. Candidates who score low on customer service might be asked to provide an example of a how they dealt with an overly demanding patient.

"The best way to take the survey is to be totally honest and answer the questions in a way that makes you feel comfortable," says Bures. "If people answer questions in a direct manner, they should feel good that they are selling themselves as a candidate."

Recruiters say nurses seeking new positions should not stress over this new assessment tool. Simply understanding the current recruiting landscape and being forthright in answering survey questions will provide a big edge over other job candidates with equal skills and experience.

"Nurses should not feel that this is a way to screen them out, but rather a method to assure that they know what that they are applying for," says Bures. "Our goal is to provide the best information and seek out the best information from nurses so that we can both make the right decision about working for this organization."