key: cord-0961679-4i0n6kh1
authors: Binda, Filippo; Bisesti, Alberto; Pazzaglia, Silvia; Laquintana, Dario
title: Using video presentation to recruit healthcare workers during COVID-19 pandemic
date: 2020-09-07
journal: Acta Biomed
DOI: 10.23750/abm.v91i3.10341
sha: 970a7ea6bd4901613ff9f4fbd252cebb46135a5b
doc_id: 961679
cord_uid: 4i0n6kh1

During COVID-19 pandemic, the recruitment of new personnel was necessary to guarantee an adequate healthcare level to all patients affected by SARS-CoV-2 virus. In order to deal with the sanitary emergency, unusual selection procedures have been adopted inside the public health system by searching for new healthcare personnel. The recruitment of new candidates with a short self-introduction was very effective and permitted to select 65 nurses.

management of new personnel were necessary to guarantee an adequate healthcare and to avoid high ICU workload-to-staffing ratio, which is associated with an increase in patient's mortality (6) .

Recruiting personnel into the public health system normally requires candidates to participate in an open competitive exam and it is therefore impossible to select candidates with specific requirements (7) . The pandemic severely strained the working world and people management, which had to dramatically change their mode of operation (8) . In particular, in order to deal with the sanitary emergency, unusual selection procedures have been adopted inside the public health system by searching for new healthcare personnel with specific requirements for working in the ICU.

The recruitment criteria used by our hospital included an initial selection of the numerous CVs received and the following request to a pool of candidates to introduce themselves with a short self-introduction video, answering specific questions and describing their job skills. The association between video and recruitment procedures has been spreading for a couple of decades, when the diffusion of video-call applications made it possible for recruiters all over the world to 'meet' a candidate -even though virtually -before the in-person job interview (9) .

This strategy, which is usually a prerogative of medium-large companies in the world of human resource management, allows to search for every kind of professional figure. Furthermore, due to the ongoing lockdown, face-to-face interviews to assess the level of competence and skills required to work in the ICU were not feasible since travels between different regions were not allowed in order to reduce spread of SARS-CoV-2 (10).

In March 2020, our Department of Healthcare Professions recruiters received 251 CVs from nurses candidates. The majority of candidates (59%) were female and the overall mean age was 35 ± 10 years; 117 (47%) candidates came from Lombardy Region, while 132 (52%) came from other Regions and 2 (1%) from abroad. Only 84 (33%) candidates had work experience in acute care facilities and 14 (6%) had the Master Science Degree in Critical Care Nursing. Screening of candidates who were asked for the self-introduction video allowed 65 candidates to be selected for the recruitment. All the selected candidates had the specific requirements such as strong personal motivation, experience in critical care settings and immediate availability to work in the ICU.

The training plan for the new personnel included a short period of continuously supervision, consultation and collaboration with the senior critical care nurses of the resident staff. The foundation of this intensive program consisted of orientation on the the most important nursing care aspects of critically ill patient with SARS-CoV-2 infection such as artificial airway management and prone positioning maneuver, and donning and doffing of all personal protective equipment.

The use of this recruitment method during the emergency phase, unusual for the public health system, has been very effective and represents an evolution in the health care thanks to the optimization of the time dedicated to the recruitment of new personnel.

Fundings: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

Author contributions: Authors FB, AB, SP, and DL have all contributed to the manuscript equally. Our manuscript has been approved by all authors. This study was performed at the Department of Healthcare Professions.

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Each author declares that he or she has no commercial associations (e.g. consultancies, stock ownership, equity interest, patent/licensing arrangement etc.) that might pose a conflict of interest in connection with the submitted article