Last week was

National Nurses Week and this week is National Hospital Week. To mark

these occasions and to show their appreciation for nurses and other staff

members, Fayette Community Hospital did some special things.

Last Tuesday,

everybody got some ice cream served by the executive staff members. The

members who drew the short straws had to serve the ice cream to the night

staff at 2 a.m. Tuesday and Darrell Cutts, President of Fayette Community

Hospital, was one of the early-bird servers. In addition to the ice cream,

nurses also received T-shirts with the slogan "Nursing: Lifting Spirits

and Touching Lives," had a cookout on Friday, and met with vendors

who provided some educational information as well as trinkets and tokens.

The nursing

industry is going through a peculiar time. There are currently many openings

and nurses truly have their pick of jobs and where to work. This makes

nurse retention a difficult endeavor but both Cutts and Beth Breeden,

clinical manager of the Minor Emergency Care Center and co-chairman of

the Retention Committee believe Fayette Community Hospital is up to the

task.

There are close

to 700 employees at Fayette Community Hospital and Cutts estimates that

over half of those employees are nurses.

"There

is a lot of pressure and stress for nurses," said Cutts. "There

are a lot of opportunities here with various shifts and areas to work

in. We'd like them to investigate what they want to do and give them that

opportunity. We want the nurses to feel like this job isn't just a paycheck."

Breeden agreed

with Cutts, stating that opportunities for expansion help with the hospital's

good retention rate. "We want to grow our nurses and help them meet

change within the medical world, which is always changing," she said.

"Opportunities will increase as we grow as an organization."

In addition

to their attempts to retain nurses, the hospital also does a lot to recruit

nurses. There are a number of recruitment days during the year and staff

members who recruit new nurses receive bonuses.

There are a

lot of special weeks at Fayette Community Hospital, including National

Lab Week and National Radiology Week, but it is often the day to day treatment

that keeps employees happy and industrious.