How can hospitals engage their current employees in the recruitment of qualified nurses? A referral bonus and self-determination perspective

To investigate the impact of promising a referral bonus and an autonomous referral request on nurses' referral likelihood and the quality of their referrals.We applied a 2 × 2 between-participants factorial design with referral bonus and autonomous referral request as experimental variables.In May 2019, 110 nurses working in Belgian hospitals were shown a fictitious e-mail with a request from their employer to look for potential new-hires and filled out an online survey measuring referral likelihood and quality.Promising a referral bonus did not affect nurses' referral likelihood and quality. Instead supporting self-determination theory, nurses exposed to the autonomous request were more likely to refer and assure referral quality than those exposed to the controlling request.Hospitals can increase nurses' referral likelihood and quality by framing their referral request in an autonomy-supportive way.Recruiting nurses are more important than ever in the current Covid-19 crisis. Our findings offer practical insights on how hospitals can engage their employees in the recruitment of nurses (i.e. through framing referral requests in an autonomy-supportive way).目标: 调查转荐奖金许诺和自主转荐要求对护士转荐可能性及转荐质量的影响。 设计: 我们采用2×2参与者间的因素设计,以转荐奖金和自主转荐请求作为实验变量。 方法: 2019年5月,110名在比利时医院工作的护士收到一封虚构的电子邮件,信中表明院方想要雇佣一些新员工,并让其填写一份线上调查,以衡量其转荐的可能性和质量。 结果: 转荐奖金许诺不影响护士转荐的可能性和质量。与自决权支持理论恰恰相反,自主转荐请求的护士比面对掌控请求的护士进行转荐的可能性更高,且转荐质量有保证。 结论: 医院可以通过自主支持方式确定转荐请求,藉此提高护士转荐的可能性和质量。 影响: 身处于当下新冠肺炎危机之中,招聘护士比以往任何时候都显得重要。我们的研究发现为医院如何让员工参与护士招聘工作提供了切实的见解(即以自主支持方式确定转荐请求)。.