Amidst the worst nursing shortage in over four decades, nurse employers are looking for ways to attract and keep their nursing staff. But how? To stay competitive, hospital administrators can offer their nurses financial solutions such as student loan repayment help and banking solutions tailored to healthcare professionals. 

Over 70 percent of nursing school students walk away from graduation with debt from student loans. Over two thirds of nurses feel anxious about their student loan debt, according to Laurel Road, a digital banking platform with a vested interest in nurses’ financial success. In fact, a recent Laurel Road survey found the average nurse expects it will take ten years to fully repay their student loans. Ten years!

But with Laurel Road’s tailored solutions for healthcare employees, you can prioritize your team's well-being and refuse to let financial stress impact your nursing staff. Below, we’ll share your nurses’ financial frustrations and offer you a roadmap to empower yourself and your team and lead your nurses to financial freedom!

Financial Challenges Faced by Healthcare Workers

“Professionals within healthcare, especially nurses, face unique financial challenges, often balancing higher student loan debt with demanding, high-stress jobs and long, irregular hours,” says Diana Welch Howell, head of Healthcare Partnerships & Strategy at Laurel Road. 

The Burden of High Student Loan Debt

Nurses are graduating with an average of $40,611.00 of student loan debt, with interest rates from 5.50% to 6.87% APR. With that amount of debt at a 6.5% interest rate and monthly payments of $275.86, it would take 20 years to pay off that loan. A new graduate nurse earns an average of $71,053 annually, and that payment takes a sizable chunk out of their wages.

Limited Time for Financial Planning

Many nurses have little time to spare for a financial planning deep-dive on their own. If a nurse has a family or other obligations, their time shrinks even more.

High Cost of Living in Healthcare Hubs

Overall RN median annual take-home pay is $86,070, but where nurses live can majorly affect their cost of living. And while salaries somewhat reflect location cost of living, busy healthcare hubs rarely match the hike in expenses.

What Laurel Road Can Do for Healthcare Employers

As a human resources leader, you are tasked with talent attraction and retention, and have juggled employee burnout post-pandemic, says Howell. “We believe that financial peace of mind is essential to overall wellbeing and career satisfaction…so we created Laurel Road for Healthcare Employers to give nurses access to this financial wellness benefit through their employer.”

Access to Tailored Financial Products & Services for Healthcare Workers

Laurel Road has several unique benefits to address the significant financial stress nurses are facing in the workforce today. Resources offered by Laurel Road can help eligible nurses manage and pay down their student loans, says Howell. These offerings include:

• Student Loan Counseling: Through one-on-one counseling, student loan experts analyze nurses’ debt and help them understand their repayment and forgiveness options. Laurel Road has helped borrowers achieve an average of $118,000 in federal student loan forgiveness¹.
• Loan Repayment Services: Help employees enrolled in Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) or Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) manage the complex program requirements and keep track of qualifying payments with a prepaid membership.
• Banking Solutions: A competitive high yield savings account and other options can help nurses jumpstart their savings goals.
• Contribution Programs: Directly contribute to employees’ student loans and facilitate student loan payments.
• Financial Education & Resources: Providing financial education tools and resources to help nurses reach their financial goals.

Between student loan guidance and solutions, banking, and employer contribution assistance, Laurel Road has a lot to offer your nurses.

Additional Perks to Partnering 

One of the many benefits to partnering with Laurel Road is that employees may be eligible for special offers such as rate discounts and rewards. When banking with Laurel Road, nurse employees will have access to:

Student Loan Refinancing: employees may be eligible for a rate discount. Through Laurel Road, nurses are eligible for personalized rate options online in only a few minutes—with no impact to their credit score. 

Personal Lending: Eligible employees may be eligible to receive a rate discount on personal loans, helping them to pay off high-rate credit cards and other high-interest debt, get money for home improvements, and pay for major life events.

Laurel Road Loyalty Checking^SM: Designed to address the needs of nurses through benefits like a relationship-based cash rewards when nurses make qualifying, recurring monthly deposits. 

Laurel Road High Yield Savings®: Employees can earn competitive rates on their entire account balance, with no minimum balance to open, and no monthly maintenance fees.

Visit Laurel Road for more information: www.laurelroad.com/

“Laurel Road members also have access to exclusive discounts on premium brands, subscriptions, and services through Laurel Road Perks!^Ⓡ, curated to help save time and money at home and on-the-go," says Howell.

Digital Tools

Laurel Road offers a competitive array of digital resources that enable their nurse members to manage their finances on their own time. “As a digital-first bank, we make managing finances easy and accessible for nurses, beginning with our mobile app,” says Howell.

The mobile app makes it easy for nurses to:

• Monitor their finances in real time 
• Manage savings and loan repayment
• Deposit checks right from their phones
• Explore and shop Perks!

Laurel Road also offers resources aimed at reducing overall financial stress, including budgeting tools, savings calculators, and a large library of interactive educational articles. 

How to Communicate the Value of Laurel Road’s Financial Resources to Your Team

You have plenty of fantastic options to share Laurel Road’s benefits with your team. “Laurel Road for Healthcare Employers program provides a dedicated partnership manager to support all aspects of the program,” says Howell. These include: 

• A dedicated partnership landing page, which serves as an entry point to all offers and product solutions your employees can receive. 
• A program toolkit that allows a quick and seamless program launch and integration with all assets and information in one place
• Ongoing reporting with insights on employee engagement within the program
• Quarterly co-branded special offers and discounts on premium products
• Ongoing communication and marketing pieces that can fit into your company’s internal communications plan

Highlight Financial Wellness Benefits During Recruitment

Nurses are paying attention to employers that offer financial wellness benefits in their recruitment strategies. According to a survey from the American Staffing Association, 70 percent would take advantage of free counseling on student loan debt. 

Regularly Remind Staff of Available Resources

Keep these benefits visible with regular reminders for your nurses to take steps to financial freedom. You can do this through:

• Onboarding materials
• HR benefit newsletters
• Tailored webinars
• Digital and social media inclusions 
• Desktop screensavers
• Bringing Laurel Road on-site 

“At Laurel Road, we understand that healthcare employees – clinicians and non-clinicians – have unique financial challenges and goals. Meeting with healthcare institutions and organizations individually helps us to better understand their constituents’ financial needs and goals, allowing us to customize a benefit program that supports each employee without breaking the budget,” says Howell.

Put Your Team on the Road to Financial Success

“As hospitals and healthcare systems face challenges of employee burnout, talent attraction and retention, Laurel Road can help employees find financial peace of mind,” says Howell. 

Nurses are looking to their employers to help with financial stress more than ever before. “Leveraging Laurel Road’s deep healthcare roots and student loan expertise, we set out to help healthcare professionals through employer-provided resources tailored to their specific needs, ultimately increasing organizational productivity and retention,” says Howell. 

Don’t let financial stress impact your nursing staff’s well-being and performance. Reach out to Laurel Road today to:

• Prioritize Your Team's Well-Being! Take the first step toward a more financially secure and satisfied workforce today!
• Empower Yourself and Your Team! Experience the benefits of Laurel Road for yourself. If you love it, share these advantages with your colleagues—at no cost to your organization.

This article is sponsored by Laurel Road.