Abstract
The effective marketing strategies for employment and promotion of Advanced Practice Nurses (APNs) are based on the same principles as the marketing of any services and products. Therefore, it is important to identify marketing strategies that can be appropriate to help APNs to take the desired position.
Elements of Effective Marketing Strategies
The basic elements of the marketing strategy are the product, price, place, and promotion. While searching a job position, an APN should accentuate these elements in the strategies oriented to seeking the employment (Hamric, Hanson, Tracy, & O’Grady, 2013). For APNs, the product means the scope and quality of services that are provided by a nurse. It is important to accentuate the nurse’s skills, knowledge, and experience while describing the proposed services. The price is associated with the compensation. In most cases, APNs are actively hired because they are cost-effective in terms of covering more responsibilities for fewer costs (Blair & Jansen, 2015). The place means the accessibility to the proposed services. APNs usually seek job positions in local areas and communities where they live or studied. The promotion means the active cooperation with colleagues and leaders to inform about the fact of seeking a job and providing services.
As a result, the approaches that are based on these marketing elements and that can be applied at this stage are the following ones:
- the development of the professional portfolio with the information regarding the education, degree, certificates, experience, achievements, research interests, qualities, capabilities, and unique details;
- the development of the resume and curriculum vitae to inform about the education, experience, and the goal of seeking a position with the focus on personal and professional strengths;
- the identification of the desired position and the development of the targeted messages, cover letters, portfolio, and resume addressing the leaders of the concrete organization with the emphasis on required skills, knowledge, strengths, training, and values (Blair & Jansen, 2015; Hamric et al., 2013).
Effective Marketing Strategies
Strategies for seeking employment are effective when they allow APNs to expand the areas for the job search and increase the chance of being employed. It is possible to determine three marketing strategies that are effective to be used by APNs:
- Networking. Being a member of the professional organization, participating in professional conferences, communicating with other APNs, publishing articles in peer-reviewed journals, and contacting organizations where they worked as volunteers, APNs expand their professional networks. As a result, they receive more chances to communicate their skills and experience and be noticed by human resource managers. The part of this strategy is the development of the online network with the help of social media websites and communities (Zhang, Finch, & Finch, 2011).
- Seeking a position online. Nowadays, the online job search is one of the most popular and effective marketing strategies. APNs should visit websites of organizations they want to work for, check the availability of positions, send the targeted resumes, and contract managers. APNs can also locate advertisements on the websites for their communities.
- Promoting oneself. Another strategy is associated with speaking publicly about the professional strengths, qualities, and skills. This strategy involves such steps as the communication with community and healthcare agency leaders, interviews on radio and in newspapers, participation in community events, contacts with human resource managers, and the provision of resumes during the face-to-face communication (Hamric et al., 2013).
These strategies are important to inform the public regarding the APNs’ qualities, advantages, and strengths. In addition, using these strategies, APNs should also emphasize their role for the organization in terms of addressing the patients’ needs and improving the community’s health status.
References
Blair, K. A., & Jansen, M. P. (2015). Advanced practice nursing: core concepts for professional role development. New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company.
Hamric, A. B., Hanson, C. M., Tracy, M. F., & O’Grady, E. T. (2013). Advanced practise nursing: An integrative approach. New York, NY: Elsevier Health Sciences.
Zhang, L. F., Finch, L., & Finch, L. P. (2011). Accelerated Education in Nursing: Challenges, strategies, and future directions. New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company.