NURSING - REGISTERED NURSE: Employer

REGISTEREDC NURSE: ROLE PLAYING SCRIPT FOR EMPLOYER,
MS. POWERS, MASSASOIT COMMUNITY COLLEGE, SPRING 2008

It is Spring 2008. You are the Chief of Staff of Brockton Community Hospital (BCH), the highly respected community hospital in Brockton. BCH provides hospital care to all residents of the surrounding communities as well as Brockton and is especially well known for its quality of nursing care.

Every year, BCH hires 3 associate graduates in nursing who are certified as registered nurses. These positions at BCH are highly sought after and the competition is fierce. You are well aware that some of today’s most respected nursing staff at BCH are graduates of Massasoit Community College who started out in this position and advanced through nursing care assignments throughout the hospital into the senior positions which they hold today.

You have already interviewed a dozen highly qualified applicants who will be graduating with associates degrees in the spring of 2008. You’ve been hiring for these positions for five years now and know the type person who would fit well in the culture and share the values of BCH. Every once in awhile, an applicant comes along who shows you something special. You know immediately that this person would be of great value to the hospital for many, many years and you soften on driving a hard financial bargain because of the person’s exceptional potential. You’re never quite sure what that ‘something special’ is, but you know it when you see it and you see it in Ms. Tuli.

You interviewed Ms. Tuli yesterday. You were impressed with her poise and her work ethic as revealed when she discussed her work experience at an elderly care facility, her community service work at a local homeless shelter, and her 3.8 GPA while earning a associates degree. She has exactly the qualities BCH seeks for this job. At the end of the interview you offered her a job as staff registered nurse and asked her to return today to set her salary and start date.

As someone who has hired staff in the Brockton area for years, you’ve always offered competitive salaries. www.wageproject.org tells you that, because of a statewide nursing shortage which is driving salaries up, the salary range for this job title is now $58,00-$70,000 with a median salary of $64,000 for the Brockton office. The benchmarked benefits for this position add another $26,000 to the compensation package.

Because BCH is such a desirable employer and so many fresh-minted graduates want to work for you, the hospital typically pays new hires at the low end of the salary range. Last year, BCH’s starting salary for this position was $59,000. In this depressed economy, you don’t see any reason to start with an offer any higher than that. In fact, one person has already accepted an offer at that salary.  The BCH benefits package for this position is approximately $10,000.

Ms. Tuli’s job offer is the last piece of your work for the day. You have to leave in 15 minutes to get to the seminar in which you are the featured speaker.

When you and Ms. Tuli sit down to talk, your opening lines to her are:

“We’re so pleased that you want to work for Brockton Community Hospital. You’ll be a wonderful addition to our staff.

We have just a couple details to settle and you can sign our contract and we’ll see you after graduation.

I am authorized to offer you a starting salary of $59,000. You will be entitled to the standard benefits package all new employees get and we’d like you to start work on June 1, 2008.

If that’s okay with you, please read over this contract, sign it and you’ll be one of the BCH family!”

See how she reacts. Listen to her. Write down what points might persuade you to raise this offer. Write down what language she might use would make you hold the line and not raise her starting salary and why. Write down what objections you would raise if she wants more money. Discuss with her thoughtfully because you want to get her to accept your offer.

In this discussion, see what is the lowest starting salary that you can get her to accept and get her to accept a specific salary in the 15 minutes before you have to leave.

Remember, you made her a job offer because you were very impressed with her. Now it’s time to get her to work at Brockton Community Hospital.

Good luck