While writing about the evolution of nurse recruitment for an article in a recent issue of HR Pulse Magazine, Sharon Kushner was able to draw on her more than 30 years of nursing experience—most in leadership roles—for inspiration. Kushner knows firsthand what it takes to develop a successful, high-quality nursing staff in today’s rapidly changing medical environment.
“I [bring] significant experience as a mentor and teacher,” she says, adding that clients and colleagues appreciate a consultant who can be critically analytic in helping others discover previously overlooked impediments to successful problem solving.
Since joining RSI in 2001, Kushner has focused on a number of key areas. She led two onsite recruitment teams, and most recently collaborated with Michael Giannerini, Director of OnSite Support Services, to develop the company’s newest onsite consultation program. Also, she led the OnSite team in writing RSI’s policy and procedure manual and served as a resource for RSI’s employee and contractual handbooks.
Currently serving as Professional Development and Quality Specialist for RSI, Kushner is responsible for the mandatory corporate orientation program, oversight of continuing education, and the development and oversight of the corporate quality assurance program. In 2004, she was appointed to the Advance for Nurses’ Regional Industry Advisory Board.
Prior to joining RSI, Kushner served as an educator at a private teaching hospital in New Orleans, where she developed the first critical care course in the southeastern U.S. endorsed by the National Critical Institute of Education. She has worked as a nurse manager in two different facilities, reducing turnover rates, developing staff and implementing innovative plans to enhance patient flow. She also worked as Director of Patient Care Services at a 350-bed community hospital in Baltimore, where she developed a five-year strategic plan for the construction and development of a free-standing oncology center. Kushner earned her MSN in nursing administration from Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton and is a member of the Sigma Theta Tau and Phi Kappa Phi honor societies.