CHESAPEAKE, Va. (WAVY) — It’s Draft Day at Chesapeake Regional Healthcare, and nothing could prepare the group of future nurses as staff members shaking pom-poms cheered them on as they made their way down a blue carpet.

“This is the coolest thing. I love the celebration time we got coming in,” said nurse Kajarah Pettway, a recent newcomer to the area who came looking for a job in the medical surgical unit.

“We were kind of told it was going to be kind of like, set up like a football draft, and it kind of is,” said Hope Marshall, a nursing student from ECPI.

Competition for health care workers is fierce, with a nationwide nursing shortage that is predicted to get worse as aging baby boomers need more care. Chesapeake Regional used the creative idea to try and give them a recruiting edge. Nurse managers lead the blitz .

“We’re just trying to do something fun, engage our community nurses, bring them into our hospital, show them what our culture here is at Chesapeake Regional Medical Center,” said Acute Care Services Director Kimberly Green.

The draft participants huddled up with nurse managers and learned about the specialties they were applying for, including mother-baby, ER, medical-surgical and cardiac.

Then they went to one-on-one interviews, which were set up a bit like speed dating.

“Not quite as fast,” Green said. “They got a little bit more time, but it is a little bit like speed dating.”

While the draftees played games and built connections, the nurse managers met to make a playbook of sorts, selecting which nurse recruits would be the right fit for their team.

Of the 35 participants, 28 were chosen for the draft and 25 signed on the spot.
The hospital considers it a big win.