Hawkins said she is a nurse graduate “extern” at St. Francis, which is a transitional position until she passes the boards as a registered nurse.

She said the Tulsa hospital was “the first place I applied.”

“They invited me there,” she said.

Shockley said health care recruiters come on campus “all the time.”

“They come from Muskogee, Tulsa, even as far away as Fayetteville,” she said.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics says registered nurses constitute the nation’s largest health care occupation, with 2.5 million jobs. Of those, 59 percent are in hospitals.

Evon Ashley, nurse recruiter at Muskogee Regional Medical Center, said she goes out on recruiting lunches at six area nursing schools: Connors, Bacone, Platt College, Oklahoma State University-Okmulgee, Indian Capital Technology Center and Green Country Technology Center in Okmulgee.

“All the heads of management go out with me,” she said. “Students job shadow at our facility, and we have jobs posted on our Web site.”

Pay also is a good incentive, a 2007 story in the Muskogee Phoenix said MRMC paid a starting registered nurse with an associate’s degree $17.50 per hour, or $36,400 per year. Additional stipends were given for advanced degrees and working night shifts or holidays.

As heavy as hospital recruitment has become, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that employment at hospitals are expected to grow more slowly than in other health care industries such as physicians’ offices, home health care providers and nursing care facilities.

Nurses aren’t the only health care profession in high demand.

“It’s pretty much all health care areas,” Shockley said. “Respiratory therapists, physical therapists, occupational therapists are high on the demand list.”