Some directly hired nurses leaving

The Commonwealth Health Center would again face a serious nursing staff shortage as some directly hired nurses are leaving the island for good beginning next month.

Sources said that at least 10 nurses from the Philippines are ending their contracts by the end of this month.

Five of these nurses were part of the first batch of Filipino nurses who arrived in December last year after being directly recruited by the Department of Public Health.

“I decided not to renew my contract because I’m preparing for NCLEX. My other batchmates are going to the mainland. One or two are preparing for [the] United Kingdom,” said a nurse who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity.

The DPH decided last year to accelerate its direct hiring process following its decision to terminate the services of staffing agencies.

The government believes that direct hiring would result in, among others, improved quality in the delivery of service. The government also believes that direct hiring would prevent frequent turnover of nurses since they get higher pay when directly hired.

The Office of the Public Auditor likewise earlier said that, although CHC would incur an additional cost ranging from $1.5 million to $2.6 million a year, direct hiring would improve the hospital’s capacity to retain qualified nurses, resulting in lower turnovers and improved patient care.

Over a year ago, a staffing agency official had predicted that direct hiring would not solve the fast turnover of nurses at CHC since other places have more attractive offers, including permanent residency for their families.

Bing Fabricante, president of Global Access Staffing Services, said that nurses anywhere in the world are easily recruited by agencies.

“There are many agencies that can easily entice nurses from anywhere once these nurses have the proper experience and working papers. Sadly, wherever they are, they can be recruited,” Fabricante said.

Fabricante, who is based in New Jersey, said the recent shortage of nurses in the mainland United States is a major factor that triggers the exodus of nurses from their current places of work.

Earlier, DPH physicians, in a published position paper favoring the shift to direct hiring, had conceded that “many CHC-trained nurses decide to seek their professional fortune in the U.S. mainland.”

In February this year, the DPH said that it was no longer hiring nurses directly because it had adequately met its staffing needs.

The first and last batch of directly hired nurses, totaling 36, arrived in late December 2003.

The department had also absorbed 75 agency nurses, using the 65 new positions authorized by the 13th CNMI Legislature.

The Legislature had adopted a joint resolution authorizing the 65 positions for the hospital due to the Dec. 31, 2003 deadline that signaled the shift in CHC’s hiring practice from agency hiring to direct hiring.

In the previous years, CHC sourced most of its nursing staff from agencies.

The CHC employs some 200 nurses.

Last year, then nursing department acting director Remy Tudela said that CHC continues to suffer from personnel shortage, citing there were only 205 nurses—22 short of the minimum staffing requirement.