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Health woos students abroad to come back
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Posted on Apr 02 1999
In a move to entice local students return to the CNMI and serve in the Commonwealth Health Center, Public Health Secretary Joe Villagomez has urged local students studying abroad in health related fields to avail of the scholarships offered by the National Health Service Corps.
The Department of Public Health has began tracking down the more than 40 locals studying in the United States in various related fields namely nursing, medicine and physical therapy to encourage them to take advantage of this opportunity.
The National Health Service provides a four-year scholarship to deserving students. For every year of study funded by the scholarship program, the student would have to serve the Northern Marianas for a-year-and-a-half.
Due to current economic crisis which affect the hiring of health professionals in the US mainland, Villagomez said the Northern Marianas should begin producing its own doctors and nurses.
“It is the best way we can help the CNMI amid the current difficulties we are facing right now,” he said.
To ensure that they would return to the CNMI, Villagomez said the students would sign a contract with the scholarship program. A number of local health professionals, including doctors have already availed of the scholarship program.
The department head said the high turn-over of doctors and nurses at CHC is largely due to the fact that most of them are outsiders. Health professionals who come here stay for two years at the most.
With an estimated 10,000 patients every month at CHC, the hospital has been having difficulty responding to the health care needs of the community.
Villagomez, who holds a masteral degree in psychology from the New England Graduate School and from Harvard University, School of Public Health, is an example of a local medical professional who chose to stay despite lucrative job offers in the mainland.
While CHC continue to recruit nurses and doctors from the mainland despite the budgetary constraints, it still finds difficulty in attracting the best medical professionals because the salaries offered here are still lower compared to the US mainland.
