Las Vegas Valley Hospitals Take Search for Nurses Far and Wide: Year-round recruitment efforts even extend to other countries

(This article originally appeared in the Las Vegas Review Journal on February 22, 2004 - Reprinted with Permission)

In their search for registered nurses, Southern Nevada hospitals are casting a wide net over not just the state or the region, but a good chunk of the globe, too.

For instance, a recruiting trip by Valley Hospital and Medical Center to the Philippines led Arlene and Dwight Generoso to Las Vegas and RN positions at the hospital.

The Generosos both earned nursing degrees in their native Philippines. When a friend told them that a Las Vegas hospital was interviewing nurses at a Manila hotel, they decided to check it out.

The couple began training at Valley in September. Arlene is completing her training as a critical care nurse, while Dwight is working in Valley's emergency department.

Bill Giezie, director of human resources for Valley Health System, says the international program that brought the Generosos to Las Vegas is only part of the system's year-round RN recruitment efforts.

Valley offered the Generosos immigration assistance and paid them a stipend during their training here. In return, the couple have committed to work for the Valley Health System for three years.

"For me, I like it, because of the growth in my career," Dwight says. "It's not even gradual, it's explosive. The finest equipment and all the finest people are here."

Cheryl McKinney, an RN and education specialist at Valley Hospital, notes that of the 10 RNs recruited along with the Generosos - Valley's first international class three will work in emergency medicine, three in labor-delivery, three in intensive care and one in a medical-surgical unit.

The nurses' training included 12 weeks of clinical and classroom work, as well as additional mentoring and instruction throughout the hospital, McKinney says.

The Generosos say their biggest adjustment was becoming familiar with the more sophisticated equipment used here and the greater documentation U.S. hospitals require.

"Even patients are different," Arlene says. "Basically, patients in the Philippines are more meek. They don't demand as much of a nurse. Here, they want to know, What are you giving me?' Usually, in the Philippines, patients don't dp that."

But, such differences aside, Arlene says, "patient care is patient care."

Giezie says Valley recruiters make one or two international recruiting trips each year, most often to the Philippines and India.

"There are many places in the world where nurses do not have good career options, and the standard of living in the United States is seen as attractive," he notes.

Local hospitals also recruit internationally on a less-expansive scale. For instance, Candyce Wehrkamp, vice president of human resources for St. Rose Dominican Hospitals, says recruiters there make annual trips to Canada.

"They speak our language and have exactly the same training," she says. "We've been extremely fortunate in that our one trip to Canada last year resulted in about 12 hires."

Southern Nevada hospitals also recruit closer to home, first by persuading valley students that nursing is a career worth considering.

"I think some hospitals are talking about going into high schools and recruiting at an earlier age," says Natalie Gardner, nurse recruiter at Mountain View Hospital. "We're starting to do some of that, just growing our own nurses here."

Hospitals here compete for graduates of RN programs at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Nevada State College and the Community College of Southern Nevada.

"Most of the applicants we hire here are local applicants," Gardner says, although Mountain View recruiters also regularly visit the University of Nevada, Reno and nursing schools in Utah.

Outside of Southern Nevada, job fairs are a prime recruiting tool for local hospitals. Gardner says Mountain View recruiters attend four to six job fairs a year, while Giezie says Valley recruiters typically attend 12 to 15.

Hospitals also use advertisements to find RNs who might wish to relocate to Southern Nevada.

"We do a lot of advertising in snowier areas in winter-time to help bring in RNs," Gardner says.

Helen Vos, chief nursing officer at Mountain View Hospital, notes that Southern California also is a fertile recruiting market, mostly because "the cost of living here is definitely better."

Giezie says Valley Health System each year hires 50 to 60 nurses who decide to move to Southern Nevada.

"You're looking in areas all over the country, and what you're doing is marketing not only opportunities in the hospital system, but also Las Vegas, Nevada," he says.

"And," Giezie adds, "there are a lot of folks who really see relocation to Las Vegas as a goal."

Copyright Nevada Nurses Association May 2004
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved