The Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. financial assistance program was created last year for the hospital to wean itself off from its dependence on foreign nurses and cultivate nurses that graduate from the Northern Marianas College. <\/p>\n
CHCC public information officer Sami Birmingham-Babauta said that the CHCC financial assistance program is not money to send students to nursing school.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe currently have nurses working at the hospital who were involved in the program. It\u2019s not so much[about] students get[ting] money to go to school as it is really financial assistance [so] they don\u2019t pay for the National Council Licensure Examination or any of the study and review materials,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Birmingham-Babauta said a nursing graduate from NMC who enrolls in the program is given one year to work as a graduate nurse at CHCC. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is somebody who hasn\u2019t taken the NCLEX yet\u2026 This is great for hands-on learners because they get to experience what they see and study from their books and they get two weeks off prior to taking the NCLEX,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
While working at CHCC and preparing for the NCLEX, the nursing graduate gets paid for hours put in at the hospital.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey get paid wages while working at CHCC as they have a contract and they are paid as a graduate nurse. This is a common program in the [United] States too,\u201d Birmingham-Babauta said<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the event they pass the NCLEX exam, they are given a new contract as a licensed registered nurse or licensed nurse practitioner for another two years at CHCC.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the event they do not pass the NCLEX, they can retake the exam but that would forfeit [their chance of] working at CHCC because the program is geared to give the new nursing graduates hands-on study paired with textbook study before the NCLEX exam,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
In an earlier interview, CHCC CEO Esther Muna said the hospital is working on providing incentives for students who want to pursue nursing and eventually hire them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are finding ways how we can provide incentives for students who are pursuing the course of nursing and we talked about incentives like [student] loan repayment and provide bonuses if you sign a contract with CHCC because giving incentives is a practice in the U.S.,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe love our [foreign workers] but the reality is we also have the young generation that are coming in who\u2026are passionately pursuing degrees,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Hiring nurses locally is also one of the reasons why CHCC is not aggressively applying for H1-B nurses.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe law specifically says that if you are going to [petition] a nurse for an H1-B visa\u2026one requirement is that the applicant must have a bachelor\u2019s degree. The reason we opted against it is we are basically preserving the pipeline of NMC because, if we are going to require that everyone has a bachelor\u2019s degree, then [foreign nurses] that have bachelor\u2019s degrees can be processed as H1-Bs,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we do that, it means we are blocking the college students that are coming from NMC. We don\u2019t want to do that as we want to preserve our pipeline, preserve local hires, and also take care of those who have been here for quite a long time,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Birmingham-Babauta said the program has been effective in terms of cultivating the local workforce.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s really great that the program is established as we are able to recognize that we have graduate nurses and kind of mimic other jurisdictions out there in how they nurture and handle their graduate nurses,\u201d she said<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re proud that we\u2019re able to provide a learning environment for student nurses, especially for those who find it easier to learn what they practice and experience. We see the success of that when they pass the NCLEX on their first try. CHCC is very excited that we are able to offer that kind of learning experience,\u201d Birmingham-Babauta added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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