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Covenant Healthcare System has recruited 108 nurses from India, in response to a severe nursing shortage in Wisconsin and around the country.
The nurses are expected to arrive within a year, according to Bob Scott, director of human resources for Covenant’s Brookfield hospital, Elmbrook Memorial.
The hospital group is now spending $17 million a year hiring temporary nurses to fill the vacancies. The effort marks the first time a Milwaukee hospital has sought out such a large group of foreign nurses to help fill the critical need for bedside care. The nurses have agreed to work for three years.
Covenant worked through Brookfield-based Global Healthcare Recruiters Inc., a 2-year-old firm, said Scott Allen, executive vice president of operations for the recruitment firm. Covenant was Global’s largest recruitment to date.
“These are generally poor folks,” Allen said of the recruits. “Their ability to migrate to the United States on their own is described as like winning the lottery.”
The company’s undisclosed fees include the expenses for bringing the nurses to Milwaukee, including initial training, transportation and paperwork.
The new nurses will undergo intensive orientation programs once they arrive, said Rose Labriola, vice president of patient services at St. Francis Hospital, who was part of the six-person recruitment team.
To familiarize them with American-style bedside care, the nurses will be trained as certified nurse assistants.
Labriola said the nurses, recruited from areas within southern India, have three- or four-year degrees and an average of five years of experience. The nurses received their nursing education in English.
Recruiters interviewed 277 Indian nurses during a two-week trip that ended Nov. 20. India does not have a nursing shortage and trains more nurses than it can employ, Scott said.
The nurses will be paid standard salaries based on experience and will be eligible for thousands of dollars in signing bonuses. Nurses are paid about $24 per hour in the Milwaukee area.
Some experts say cultural problems could arise when hospitals hire foreign nurses. They warn that such steps are not a permanent solution to the nursing shortage.
Katharyn May, dean of the School of Nursing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, expressed some misgivings about over-reliance on foreign recruits.
“The overarching concern that I have is that the practice of nursing is not context-free. It is, in fact, to a significant effect culturally bound,” May said. “So I think that we are putting a tremendous burden on foreign-educated nurses who come to practice in this country. It’s a quantum leap, truly a quantum leap.”
Bijili.com
Covenant Healthcare System has recruited 108 nurses from India, in response to a severe nursing shortage in Wisconsin and around the country.
The nurses are expected to arrive within a year, according to Bob Scott, director of human resources for Covenant’s Brookfield hospital, Elmbrook Memorial.
The hospital group is now spending $17 million a year hiring temporary nurses to fill the vacancies. The effort marks the first time a Milwaukee hospital has sought out such a large group of foreign nurses to help fill the critical need for bedside care. The nurses have agreed to work for three years.
Covenant worked through Brookfield-based Global Healthcare Recruiters Inc., a 2-year-old firm, said Scott Allen, executive vice president of operations for the recruitment firm. Covenant was Global’s largest recruitment to date.
“These are generally poor folks,” Allen said of the recruits. “Their ability to migrate to the United States on their own is described as like winning the lottery.”
The company’s undisclosed fees include the expenses for bringing the nurses to Milwaukee, including initial training, transportation and paperwork.
The new nurses will undergo intensive orientation programs once they arrive, said Rose Labriola, vice president of patient services at St. Francis Hospital, who was part of the six-person recruitment team.
To familiarize them with American-style bedside care, the nurses will be trained as certified nurse assistants.
Labriola said the nurses, recruited from areas within southern India, have three- or four-year degrees and an average of five years of experience. The nurses received their nursing education in English.
Recruiters interviewed 277 Indian nurses during a two-week trip that ended Nov. 20. India does not have a nursing shortage and trains more nurses than it can employ, Scott said.
The nurses will be paid standard salaries based on experience and will be eligible for thousands of dollars in signing bonuses. Nurses are paid about $24 per hour in the Milwaukee area.
Some experts say cultural problems could arise when hospitals hire foreign nurses. They warn that such steps are not a permanent solution to the nursing shortage.
Katharyn May, dean of the School of Nursing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, expressed some misgivings about over-reliance on foreign recruits.
“The overarching concern that I have is that the practice of nursing is not context-free. It is, in fact, to a significant effect culturally bound,” May said. “So I think that we are putting a tremendous burden on foreign-educated nurses who come to practice in this country. It’s a quantum leap, truly a quantum leap.”
Bijili.com
