Springfield, Mo.-based CoxHealth is planning to hire roughly 100 nurses from abroad to keep up with the system's need for healthcare personnel, the Springfield News-Leader reports.
"A nursing shortage is facing the United States, and we at CoxHealth believe we must try new solutions to fill the gap," CoxHealth's CNO Karen Kramer, BSN, RN, said in a news release cited by the News-Leader. "We always want to supply the healthcare that our community needs, and feel that bringing nurses to us is a good way of doing that."
The largest share of nurses will be hired from the Philippines, since English is one of the country's official languages, the other of course being Filipino. According to CoxHealth officials, the nurses will be thoroughly screened to ensure their qualifications meet the system's standards. Already, CoxHealth has interviewed prospective nurse candidates via video conferencing.
"We have been very impressed by the people we have interviewed so far," Ms. Kramer said in the release. "The U.S. and the Philippines have developed similarly strong standards for nursing over the past 50 years, so we feel that these individuals will seamlessly support our organization."
According to the health system, the international hiring initiative does not replace traditional, ongoing efforts to recruit nurses locally.
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