Villagomez: There were no plans for Korean nurses at the hospital

The Department of Public Health and the Commonwealth Health Center never advertised or solicited for several Korean nurses to come to Saipan and work as interns at CHC, Public Health Secretary Joseph Kevin Villagomez said yesterday.

In July, Jay Kim and Simon Shin from La Paloma Company contacted then- Secretary for Hospital Administration Joseph Santos about bringing Korean nurses to Saipan to work as interns at CHC, but although Santos said he would consider a plan, no promises of employment were made, Villagomez said.

Villagomez said Kim and Shin brought the nurses to Saipan approximately three weeks ago with no concrete plan in place.

“They have now sought to force CHC into accepting these nurses into an internship program that does not exist,” he said in a statement. “In fact, it was irresponsible of Kim and Shin and La Paloma Co. to have brought these nurses to Saipan and/or made them promises for things not yet agreed to or that were outside of their control.”

When the nurses met with Villagomez, several of them said Kim promised them future work at CHC.

Currently, CHC does not have an internship program and is not adequately equipped for one, Villagomez said.

“With regards to any internship program, there needs to be a sanctioned curriculum and a full-time staff nurse or an instructor assigned to such a program to ensure that the participating students or nurses are indeed following the curriculum and/or accomplishing the stated goals,” he said.

The focus for nurses employed at CHC is to ensure proper patient care, not to serve as instructors for visiting interns, he added.

“It is for this reason that nursing students from the Northern Marianas College, the Loyola University in the CNMI and Emmanuel College all have sanctioned curriculum and their own instructors that are always present at CHC when their students are doing their clinical rotation,” he added.

It has been reported that the nurses paid Kim $6,000 for “transportation and arrangement costs.”

“While it is unfortunate that these Korean nurses may have unreasonably relied on the promises of Kim, Shin and La Paloma Co. to their detriment, this is not the responsibility of DPH and CHC. Any suggestion by Kim, Shin or La Paloma Co. that this situation is the responsibility of DPH and CHC is grossly misplaced,” Villagomez said.