SUTTER HEALTH: Recruiters Hope to Lure Nurses from Philippines
Unable to attract area nurses to fill its specialty nurse positions, Sutter Tracy Community Hospital is sending a recruiter to the Philippines to help relieve its shortage, the Tracy Press/Stockton Record reports. Rose Norwood, the hospital's education coordinator, said Sutter Tracy has difficulty recruiting and retaining nurses as "there are higher wages and better incentive packages in the Bay Area." Sandy Williams, the hospital's director of patient-care services and a Philippines native, plans to travel this month to her home country where she hopes to find four candidates to fill positions in the operating room and the child-care and delivery wards. The move follows the lead of Memorial Medical Center in Modesto, which pioneered a Filipino recruiting effort in 1990. Pointing to the success of that program -- "an almost unheard of" 50% retention rate after nine years -- Williams said she will screen candidates for six Sutter Health hospitals. Sutter Tracy CEO Gary Rapaport said that after the U.S. government lifted its hold on work visas to Filipinos, the hospital decided to attempt to cash in on the Philippines' nursing glut. Williams will still have to wait "up to a year" before the new hires' work visas are approved (Marsden, 7/9).
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