Elizabeth Deleon Stolkowski was recruited from her home in the Philippines almost thirty years ago to work in America as a nurse when she was only 20 years old. The young University of the Philippines graduate left Manila with return airfare, warm weather clothing and dreams of a new life in America.
Now twenty nine years later, Stolkowski who today is a nurse, nurse educator and immigration lawyer has teamed with husband and business partner Dan Splain, a former Pittsburgh health system and managed care executive, to do just that with their University Heights, Ohio based Nursing Resources International, Inc.
“Ive seen both sides of the issue in my healthcare career in the United States, and this is the right thing to do at the right time,” Stolkowski states.
Founded in early 2002, Nursing Resources International specializes in finding high quality nurses in foreign countries, like the Philippines and Central American countries, to help alleviate the shortage of nurses in the United States. Clients range from large health systems to smaller skilled nursing facilities and home health agencies. But filling job openings for healthcare providers is only part of the picture.
Depending on the statistics you choose to believe, the shortage of registered nurses in the United States today ranges from 150,000 to half a million and that number is projected to grow to more than one million in the next decade.
Splain says that nursing shortages are nothing new. There have been cyclical shortages in the past, like the early 1970s when Stolkowski was recruited.
“This shortage, though, is much different,” according to Splain. “Americans are living longer and making unprecedented demands on the health care delivery system. Simultaneously, one-third of the nurses in the United States are at or near retirement age. We have a recipe for a protracted severe shortage and the resulting quality of care issues.”
Another factor exacerbating the shortage is the lack of qualified nursing instructors to staff nursing schools, many of which scaled back programs or closed when reimbursements shifted in the 80s. Last year, nursing schools turned away 5,000 nursing students leaving many qualified candidates who want to get into nursing with nowhere to turn.
This tremendous shortage of nurses affects both the continuity and quality of care since nurses are overworked and overwhelmed. Many health care providers turn to staffing agencies to fill the gap but at a cost. The staffing agencies frequently charge hospitals and nursing homes two to three times the normal hourly cost for an employed nurse in some cities as high as $80 to $90 per hour.
This is where Splain and Stolkowski come in. They not only find well-educated and qualified nurses, they follow the nurse through every phase in the process from the qualifying exams taken in their home country through the immigration process. They even teach the nurses things that Americans take for granted like how to save money shopping for groceries by using coupons. According to Stolkowski, “We monitor every nurse to ensure that the placement is working for both the facility and the nurse, no matter what part of the country it is in.” Nursing Resources International also works with the employing facility when necessary to educate current staff on working with the newly arrived foreign nurses. Stolkowski says this is critical since the nurse typically signs a two or three year employment agreement with the facility.
David E. Kolb, President and CEO of Oak Brook, Illinois based HFN, Inc., one of the countrys oldest and largest health care networks, says that HFN aligned as a partner with Nursing Resources International, because Stolkowski and Splain have the perfect experience and personalities to make this complicated process work seamlessly.
They both understand that this is a people business that has to satisfy the employer and the newly recruited nurse. They dont just find a nurse and abandon them in a new environment, he says. “One of the big things they are doing is something HFN has long had an interest in improving the quality of care while reducing cost.”
And this is no easy task given the complexity of the entire process. Nursing Resources finds the nurse, verifies their qualifications, tests their English language skills, gets them through the qualification exams and immigration process and meets them when they get off the airplane in the United States.
“We will never just dump a nurse in to a facility,” says Splain. “This has to be a partnership between the recruited nurse and the employer. Our job is to create a win-win situation.”
Roy Buchta, Executive Vice President of Interim Health Care in Pittsburgh already has a Filipina nurse on staff recruited for him by Nursing Resources International, and has five more in the immigration pipeline. He says Splain and Stolkowski, both former Pittsburghers, even assisted the nurse in finding housing and settling her family.
“We provide 10,000 hours of care each week. We also turn away work, because we need more nurses,” Buchta states, adding that Splain and Stolkowski are helping him meet Interims ever growing need.
Margie Lim, Manager of Patient Care Recruitment at Saint James Hospital, Chicago Heights, Illinois, says she tries every new and innovative way possible to fill nursing shortages in her two facilities. This includes using Nursing Resources International.
“Each case is different and each individual is different. Problems can pop up with each case, like someone forgetting to bring a document to an exam, and NRI handles everything,” Lim says. She adds that Stolkowski even holds review courses for nurses brought to Saint James to help them pass the Illinois licensing exam.
“She knows what it takes and is there to help. We are very pleased with Nursing Resources Internationals service and with the nurses we have,” Lim adds.
Right now Saint James has five nurses from the Philippines and Lim says she has contracted with Nursing Resources International for anywhere from 45 to 60 nurses over the next several years.
Nursing Resources International is retained by a health care provider to fill a specific need based upon the employers criteria. They recruit nurses as well as physical therapists, occupational therapists, pharmacists and other health care professionals.
Stolkowski says, “I have two clients the recruited professional and the employer. Both must be happy for us to have a successful placement.” Stolkowski adds that her philosophy is rather simple. She will not make an offer to a professional that she would not hire to work for her and conversely, she will not represent a facility that she would not be willing to work in herself. Nursing Resources has offices in University Heights, Ohio and Oak Brook, IL. Additionally, Stolkowski and Splain set up an office in Manila almost two years ago since nursing education in the Philippines is comparable to that in the United States and Filipinos have an excellent command of the English language.
Last year more than 10,000 nurses from the Philippines came to the United States and, according to Stolkowski, the Philippines has the highest literacy rate in Asia as well as a surplus of nurses. With more than three hundred nursing schools there are simply more qualified nurses in the Philippines than there are jobs.
Nursing Resources International also recruits nurses throughout Central America and recently established an office in San Jose, Costa Rica. “This just makes good business sense,” according to Splain. Nurses from throughout Central and South America are well educated and bilingual. This fills a great need since the demand for Spanish/English bilingual healthcare professionals is growing daily.
If the experts are even half right in their projections of shortages, we will be recruiting nurses and other healthcare professionals for many years and from many nations, says Stolkowski.
