$14,000 sign-on bonuses attract nurse applicants to Colorado Mental Health Hospital jobs

A $14,000 sign-on bonus to attract nurses to the Colorado Mental Health Hospital in Pueblo amid a staffing shortage is yielding some early results. 

Since the Colorado Department of Human Services announced the hefty bonus, 17 nurses have been hired at the state’s two psychiatric facilities, the second of which is located in Denver. In all of 2022, CDHS hired just three nurses, according to Jordan Johnson, communications manager for the Office of Civil and Forensic Mental Health.

During the most recent recruitment period, which features the bonus, CDHS received 133 applications and is currently interviewing or reviewing materials from 73 of the applicants, Johnson said.

Last year during the same recruitment period, CDHS received 47 applications. 

“However, in order to be fully staffed, the hospitals need to hire around 200 nurses. Until then, both hospitals still have closed units without the staff to operate them,” Johnson said in an email to the Chieftain. 

In March, the Pueblo facility had approximately 150 nurses on staff, said Pedro Almeida, deputy executive director of administrative solutions for CDHS. At that time, the hospital was continuing to navigate the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, which made it more difficult to recruit and retain nurses, Almeida said. 

CDHS did not respond to a request from the Chieftain seeking information on how many nurses it currently employs at the Colorado Mental Health Hospital in Pueblo. 

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CDHS announced in March that it was offering the $14,000 bonus to allure in- and out-of-state nurses to both hospitals. National recruiting efforts are tabbed as one strategy that could help states where the demand for mental health care workers is projected to outweigh the supply.

Colorado is one of those states and is projected to fall 54,000 health care workers short of demand in 2026, according to a 2021 report from Mercer. 

CDHS had offered a sign-on bonus between $2,000 and $7,000 last September. To curb resignations and incentivize people to stay, it offers a $5,000 retention bonus and has a referral program that allows people to net a separate $1,000 bonus if they refer someone to an open position. 

The bonus lapses after June 30 and is highlighted next to a salary figure, job description and qualification list on CDHS’s job postings for nurses. There isn’t a clause tied to the bonus that states applicants who are hired before that date must work a certain amount of time at either facility to receive the bonus, Almeida said. It is paid out in increments over a nine-month period.

Chieftain reporter Josue Perez can be reached at JHPerez@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @josuepwrites.