With 20-plus years of nursing and management employment, Roxanne Giannerini has experienced firsthand the challenges faced by medical facilities in managing their recruitment strategies. Working in the field, she came to realize that true breakthrough results could be achieved if healthcare organizations would acknowledge the unique challenges associated with nurse recruitment and dedicate the necessary resources to hire experienced staff.
In 1993, Giannerini decided she would take her experience and innovative ideas and form her own company, Recruitment Specialists Inc. (RSI). Her goal for RSI was to assist healthcare facilities large and small to quickly and affordably fill open nursing positions with the best candidates available. She currently has a staff of 30 employees and has consistently placed more than 800 nursing positions annually.
All of RSI’s customers report seeing more than a 50 percent reduction in vacancy rates – and in fact, RSI helped one of its clients reduce more than $5 million in temp agency costs in less than a year.
Giannerini attributes much of her company’s success to the level of experience and solid skill set of her staff. “We know healthcare,” she says. “Recruitment is our core competency – and we get results.”
Giannerini adds that, as a company, RSI is a “marathon runner.” In other words, employers who seek a short-term solution to recruitment, such as “100 nurses in 100 days,” are “10K runners.” But the RSI difference is that “we run marathons, which requires endurance, patience and timing.”
Also, Giannerini emphasizes that RSI’s nurse recruiters are RNs with management expertise. More importantly, through skillful monitoring of patient-care delivery, customer satisfaction, market trends and changes in the competitive environment, RSI can customize solutions to meet the needs of each client’s unique situation.
Giannerini received a Bachelor’s degree in Nursing from the University of Maryland, and was employed by Kimberly Quality Care for 14 years as a regional director for a national Medicare home and healthcare staffing agency. She is the founder and former president of the Maryland Association for Staffing Services, and played an active role in the Maryland Association for Home Care. Giannerini now serves as the President Elect of CMSA Maryland Chapter, and also is a member of the American Hospital Association, the American Society for Healthcare Human Resources Administration, the American Organization of Nurse Executives, and the Maryland Organization of Nurse Executives.