How to Use Nursing Job Boards: 5 Tips for Facilities

With the ongoing nursing shortage impacting the healthcare industry, it’s important for facilities to have a comprehensive recruitment strategy in place. Luckily, a variety of online tools are available to help recruiters reach and connect with qualified candidates. Nursing job boards in particular can serve as an effective mode of increasing the visibility of facility openings.

But, what exactly are nurse job boards and why should you consider using one? We’ll walk you through everything you need to know about nurse-specific hiring platforms, including tips to help you get the most out of them.

What Is a Nursing Job Board?

A nursing job board is an online website or platform where facilities can advertise job opportunities to different types of nursing professionals, such as:

• Registered nurses (RNs)
• Licensed practical nurses (LPNs)
• Certified nursing assistants (CNAs)
• Advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs)
• Other assistive care professionals

These posts contain a description about the available role, facility, and application instructions. Job boards typically centralize multiple openings across different facilities so that nurses can easily browse and apply for roles that best suit their skills and preferences.

When Should You Use a Nursing Job Board?

While many facilities maintain job boards through their own websites, it can sometimes be difficult to get postings in front of the right people. If you’re noticing that your company’s job board isn’t reaching enough applicants, or your nursing vacancies are harder to fill than other types of roles, it may be time to diversify your online recruitment methods.

Nursing job boards can be a helpful tool since they exclusively target nursing professionals. Not only do they focus on a more specific audience, but they can also help you expand your online reach as they can have a broader regional, or even nationwide, reach. Below are some more pros and cons of using a nursing job board.

Pros

• Reaches a larger pool of the right kind of applicants
• Quick way to centralize and review applications
• Cost-effective recruitment method

Cons

• Less personal interactions than manual recruitment methods
• Can sometimes lead to an unmanageable volume of applications
• May attract more spam applications that aren’t aligned with the role

5 Tips for Using Nursing Job Boards

If your facility is using a nurse job board for the first time, it’s important to prepare a strategy beforehand. Follow these tips to maximize the utility of whichever job platform you decide to use.

1. Prepare a Well-Written Job Description

Before using a job board, it’s important to write a thorough job description for each role that you’re trying to fill. Ensure your descriptions have all relevant information that applicants would want to know about your facility and the role. Here are a few examples of what you may want to include:

• Duties
• Benefits
• Qualifications
• Compensation
• Scheduling

Additionally, including frequently searched keywords in your descriptions can help optimize your posts for search engines and ensure your postings are being seen by the right people. You can find keywords using tools like Google’s keyword planner.

2. Select an Appropriate Platform

After you’ve written a job description, it’s time to find a platform that’s best suited for your needs. There are many third-party job boards available for facilities to use. If you’re wondering how to find the best job sites for nurses, you can start by asking the following questions:

• Is this platform used uniquely by and for nurses?
• Does this platform have a reliable support team that can help me optimize my posts?
• Is this platform housed by a company that has a wide reach in the nursing community?
• Does this platform offer search filter options that appeal to nurses (remote nursing jobs, location, schedule, etc.)?

3. Keep Job Postings Updated

After you’ve found a suitable platform and posted your job descriptions, it’s important to keep your postings up-to-date. If you continue to leave closed job postings up, this can cause frustration among prospective candidates. Ensure you’re taking postings down as soon as roles are filled so that applicants aren’t spending time applying to jobs that aren’t available. Keeping your postings fresh is also one way to help them surface better with search engines.

4. Track Your Analytics

Many job board sites are built with analytical tools that enable you to assess the performance of your postings. If the platform you decide to use offers these tools, seize the opportunity to track your analytics. This will give you insight on which postings are doing better than others and give you a chance to further optimize your job descriptions.

5. Actively Engage With Your Applicants

If your job postings are getting seen and you’re receiving applications from high quality candidates, respond to them in a timely manner. It’s likely that these applicants are also being noticed by other facilities, so it’s important to start building relationships with top candidates as soon as possible to get ahead of the recruitment game.

Use a Nursing Job Board That Reinforces Your Strengths

Are you looking for a reliable platform that gets your job postings in front of the right people? IntelyCare has you covered. Our job board helps drive traffic to your facility’s openings by providing access to a nationwide network of nursing professionals.