Objectives

At NYC Health + Hospitals, more than 8,000 dedicated nurses provide care in public hospitals, neighborhood health centers, nursing homes and the city's jails. Our goal was to showcase the compassion and grit of NYC's public health system nurses and boost recruitment to expand the nursing force in high-need areas of ambulatory care, emergency rooms and home care.

 Several factors shaped our decision to create a high profile nursing recruitment campaign. 

• Nursing employment data found that a significant number of nurses in specific areas, such as emergency/trauma and long-term care, are expected to retire in the next five years.
• Interviews found that public health system nurses are drawn to work for our public hospital system and see it as a "calling" to provide care to underserved communities.
• Public health system nurses also expressed fulfillment and fierce devotion to their jobs and said they could not see themselves working anyplace else.  
• Nurses and Nursing students are among the most active healthcare professionals on social media.

With knowledge of recruitment needs and awareness of the strong presence of nurses on social media, NYC Health + Hospitals Communications & Marketing team created and launched NURSES4NYC, a multi-platform recruitment campaign to attract nurses and showcase their unique role in the public health system. 

Goals

• Boost nurse recruitment in expansion areas of ambulatory care and home care
• Attract more nurse talent in specialty areas where nurses are expected to retire in coming years
• Showcase unique mission of nurses in the NYC public health system

Strategy and Execution

Video Strategy: A Day in the Life of an NYC Nurse

To showcase the dedication of public hospital nurses and their work on the front lines of health in New York City's toughest communities, NYC Health + Hospitals partnered with the Bronx Documentary Center to produce three mini-documentary style videos focused on three different nurses.

The nurses included:

• Jasmine Pascual, a Pediatric Nurse in the Lower East Side who was drawn to nursing as a child when she witnessed the incredible way nurses cared for her sister who has cerebral palsy
• Shameer Ammerullah, an Emergency Room nurse in the Bronx, who switched from life on Wall Street to a career as a trauma nurse in one of the nation's busiest emergency rooms.
• Jennifer Jemmott, a Home Care Nurse, who provides care to patients in some of the toughest neighborhood in Brooklyn. 

Videographer Giacomo Francia spent several days with each nurse on the job and in their homes for a complete video portrait. Videos were posted on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and also utilized on the health system's intranet and internal communication platforms. 

The NURSES4NYC Campaign and the videos were launched in the first week of May 2019, during National Nurses Week when nurses are prominently featured in press and social media.

Results

Our social media campaign for May 2019 achieved these results:

• 4.1 Million Impressions
• 22K clicks to the NURSES4NYC website

Video Views

2.3K Twitter views

4.0K Facebook views

2.4K YouTube Views

8.7K Total Views

Since the campaign launched, our health system received nearly 600 resumes submitted through the NURSES4NYC website.

By October, NYC Health + Hospitals reported hiring 655 nurse staff including 426 registered nurses and 229 nursing support. By end of 2019, the health system hired more than 1,100 new nurses, ensuring high quality care to the people of New York City.

Media