Posted on 02/23/2014 5:07:13 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Lucy Meg Quinit, pictured Friday at Trinity Health in Minot, is one of a group of 86 nurses from the Philippines recruited to work in Minot.
MINOT, N.D. – Filipino nurse Lucy Meg Quinit thought she and her family would miss home more as they adjust to a new life in North Dakota.
But Quinit is among more than 80 nurses from the Philippines that Trinity Health in Minot has recently hired, and the new recruits have formed their own support community.
“That’s one of the reasons we’re not getting so homesick,” said Quinit, who has worked for Trinity Health for one year.
International recruitment is one way Trinity Health has responded to western North Dakota’s oil development, which has increased patient loads in Minot while making it more difficult to retain staff.
“The oil boom has really, really had a tremendous effect on health care in general,” said Barbara Brown, Trinity’s chief nursing officer.
Trinity Health, a regional trauma center with a service area of 20 counties, continues to hire nursing graduates from local colleges and universities, as well as around the country, and has no problem getting applicants, Brown said.
But the high cost of living in Minot makes it difficult to attract and retain staff, and many hires from elsewhere in the country choose to move closer to family after they gain experience, Brown said.
Trinity Health responded by developing a recruitment plan, which included traveling to the Philippines about two years ago and interviewing more than 150 nurses, Brown said. During that trip, they hired 86 Filipino nurses, and they continue to conduct interviews via Skype when they have a qualified applicant, she said.
For Quinit, a native of Cebu City, the opportunity to work in the U.S. was something she wanted for years so she could have access to better opportunities.
“Nurses there are really paid so low,” said Quinit, 42.
Quinit moved to Minot about a year ago, and her husband, Dexter, and their sons Darren, 6, and David, 2, joined her after they completed the school year there and she had found an apartment.
Quinit works weekdays in Trinity’s podiatry clinic and her husband works nights and weekends for Trinity as a central processing technician, a schedule that allows one parent to always be with the boys.
In the winter, Darren has questioned why his mom would choose to move them to such a cold city, but he likes his school so much he wishes he could go to kindergarten on weekends.
“It wasn’t hard for him to adjust. He loved it right away,” Quinit said.
Most of the other Filipino nurses also have their families in Minot and they get together for birthday parties and holidays. They use technology to keep in touch with family back home.
“I still get to talk to them almost every day, if not every day,” Quinit said.
Trinity is now considering recruiting nurses from Canada as well, Brown said.
“I think we have to,” Brown said. “We have to continually look at all the different opportunities we might have because we’re not the only ones. Everyone’s struggling to make sure they have people.”
Yes, pigs and chickens on the spit are most common here.
My wife orders a roasted pig for any party that we have.
I think I have never met a Filipino who couldn’t sing. We have friends we have gone camping with. Best singing around the campfire I have ever heard.
One thing the article doesn't mention: when the boom came and populations doubled in Williston and increased significantly in Minot, there were also medical staff who were retiring because of the looming ACA (AKA Obamacare). So, in a way, for medical facilities there was a double whammy.
BTW, decades ago when I was born, the attending physician was from the Philippines. He remained in practice within 100 miles of DC for the rest of his life, and was my physician as a young man as well (before I moved west). He was an excellent doctor.
As for the current trend, it sure beats having understaffed hospitals and clinics.
Unfortunately, that's the more liberal group and about half of the State population. Check out a county map of the last US Senate election (where Heitkamp won) and you'll see the split. Blue in the East and on the Reservations, Red in the west.
I refer you to my Post 16. Maybe your experiences have been different.
Just hope they speak English at work.
Today America is just an economic zone for foreigners to flit in and out of as they please
Spent a few years putting in wells in Nth Dakota and Wyoming, all I’ll say is get ready for the shock of your life. Bitter cold ad it stays that way for along time, plus they’re having the problem we are here in the Permian Basin. The housing shortage is bad with people paying enormous amounts of money for little housing. One bedroom apartments that once rented for 400 a month are now going a thousand and more, a two bedroom two bathe house will bring 1500 to 1700 a month. FEMA trailers are going for 800 a month and they’re parked in Man Camp’s all over the Permian Basin. While I apreciate what Sean is trying to do it’s not the cakewalk he make it out to be.
She couldn't believe she was living in the land of halo-halo !
It quickly became spring and during that summer, I bought all KINDS of winter stuff she obediently accepted, but I think secretly thought I was nuts.
Sure enough ... winter came again about eight or so months later and ... waddaya' know?, she jumped right INto snow/cold living.
She has since told me she doesn't mind the cold and snow because she has the clothing.
THIS year in SW Pa., because of extended exrtreme cold, her only complaint was keeping her feet warm ...
I just said, welcome to winter.
If there were NO imported talent, and the economy is as screwed as we think it is ... how many more business and industries would just fold because they couldn't pay the help?
Not trying to start trouble, but the less expensive imported labor does fulfull a place where "easing" might keep a company (and the product(s) we love) afloat.
Just sayin'
Your recipe sounds delicious ... we're gonn'a give it a try this week
Or am I projecting ?
/8^)
No cassava cake? you’re missing out...
“Only a dozen because your wife stops you from eating them all”
________________________________________________________
Oh, I save a few for her ;)
We just got back from the mountains. Haidi has the keys to the house, so until she shows up, we are locked out. Some luck huh? I am doing WIFI from outside.
Locked out in 80 degree paradise ... I can handle it.
I think if anything your figures are low.
Friend of mine has a small house in Culbertson, hardly in the middle of the action, and five years ago he was renting it for three grand a month.
Haven't talked to him lately. Big lefty, hates oil, thinks the world will operate on sunshine and hot air. But his Bakken rental check just bought him a retirement home in Arizona.
Yup. It’ s the same way in South Dakota
Tell her this tale.....
My mother became friends with Let let, a Philippina nurse in Al Khobar Saudi Arabia. I took an engineer there from Medina Minnesota to look at some of his equipment having problems. He stayed about three weeks. He took a shine to Let let.
They married. She worked as a nurse in Minnesota, rising to supervisor and mother of 3.
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