7 Strategies to Accelerate Permanent Nurse Hiring at Your Hospital
7 Strategies to Accelerate Permanent Nurse Hiring in 2025
Hospitals in 2025 are still facing a serious nursing shortage, with the American Nurses Association projecting a shortfall of over 1 million registered nurses by the end of the year. Despite improvements in travel nurse availability and temporary staffing, the long-term solution remains building a robust permanent nursing workforce. But doing that is not easy—the average time to hire a permanent nurse is still 81 days, according to NSI’s latest Retention & Staffing Report, and the national vacancy rate hovers around 9%.
Speed is critical. Studies continue to show that nurses overwhelmingly accept the first offer they receive, often prioritizing faster decisions over higher pay. Healthcare organizations that move quickly are the ones attracting top talent.
Here are seven evidence-backed strategies hospitals are using in 2025 to dramatically accelerate their hiring of permanent RNs:
1. Make Hiring Speed a Leadership Priority
Hiring delays often stem from misalignment between departments. When CNOs, HR leaders, and department heads treat nurse recruitment as a top priority, the organization starts moving faster. Set weekly hiring goals, track average days to offer, and make speed an executive-level KPI.
2. Standardize Communication Expectations
Set clear, measurable expectations for everyone involved. Top-performing systems in 2025 use Service Level Agreements (SLAs) like:
- Every applicant must be contacted within 24 hours
- Interview feedback is due the same day
- Offer decisions are made within 48 hours
- Recruiters extend offers within 1 business day
These micro-deadlines prevent applications from going stale.
3. Automate Early-Stage Outreach
Hospitals using tools like automated interview scheduling, AI chat assistants, and integrated messaging through Goodwork and similar platforms have shaved an average of 10–14 days off their hiring process. Automation frees up recruiters to focus on human connection where it matters most.
4. Hold Weekly Syncs Between Clinical & Talent Teams
Don’t let gaps grow between what nurse managers need and what recruiters are focused on. In 2025, many top-performing hospitals run 15-minute weekly stand-ups with nursing leaders and HR to reprioritize urgent roles and flag bottlenecks.
5. Pre-Schedule Weekly Interview Blocks
Make it easy for recruiters to book interviews by having nurse leaders block 2–4 hours per week on their calendars in advance. This practice ensures candidates aren’t waiting days or weeks just to meet a hiring manager.
6. Adopt Panel Interviews
Instead of forcing a candidate through three or four rounds, conduct a single, consolidated interview with all decision-makers present. It’s more respectful of the candidate’s time, and allows hiring teams to align on a decision immediately afterward.
7. Keep Interviewing Even After You Hire
When you fill a role, celebrate—but don’t stop interviewing. In high-turnover environments, continuing to build your pipeline prevents future slowdowns. Pipeline-building is just as essential as role-filling.
If your facility is serious about reducing its time-to-hire, now is the moment to rethink your process. Speed is a competitive advantage. Hospitals that build a faster, more candidate-friendly process will be the ones fully staffed in 2025.
👉 Explore how Goodwork can help your team hire better and faster.