Desert Regional Makes an Unusual Call for Male Nurses

California, April 3

One local hospital is going to new extremes to tackle the nursing shortage.

Desert Regional Medical is targeting men and in an unusual way.

Men are being targeted by Desert Regional with a new billboard campaign along Interstate 10.

The billboards are just the latest campaign by Desert Regional to target men and it may be working.

Nationally, men make up about 8% of the nursing population. But at desert regional, officials there report that men make up about 15% of nurses there.

The state nursing shortage is part of a larger statewide health-care worker shortage, according to Wisconsin’s Department of Workforce Development. Health-care jobs are projected to increase by 13 percent by 2012, while the need for health care is projected to increase 30 percent.

"When you can talk to those male nurses that live in Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, they are kind of interested in coming out here," Registered Nurse Rick Terukina says. "So that's why the target market is here this year."

A nurse just out of college makes on average, about 27 to 28 dollars an hour.