Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare International Nurse Program

Tanya Freedman, CEO of Connetics USA Nursing recruitment agency: Nikki, why did Methodist decide to recruit internationally educated nurses?

Nikko Polis, Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare Chief Nurse Executive: So, I mentioned some of that earlier on is that we are a very diverse nurse community and so when you look at the world now, we are very global and we are looking for nurses that want to and other healthcare providers. I want to mention for people who have the same heart that we have, which is putting patients and families at the center of all we do and we know that the nurses internationally are a good match for that.

So that's how we started on this journey is to say, okay, let's expand what our recruiting efforts are and that's how we went with the international perspective. What we find with international, and I think you see that in Linda and you see it in Jameson are our nurses that have a lot of expertise, which is what we're looking for. They have a lot of knowledge. They come to us with passion. But I think just their willingness to relocate to the US and I say this shows courage and grit and that's what it takes to be in healthcare.

For me, as you talk about the matchmaker, it's a perfect match for us.We are looking for people that match our culture, that have that share our values.

But we wanted to be a match for them as well and that's really part of that whole opportunity piece that we talked about is how do we help you grow and change? How do we help you get acclimated to the community again? and it's not just about you. If you come with a family, how do we help your family get to the right place in the right community for schools? Linda lives in the German town area and I think she lives there because of the school system for her two boys. So that's a really important piece, is how do we help your family really grow into this community and acclimate to the community?

We are diverse, because we have FedEx here, because we have international paper, St. Jude, and just a diversity at Methodist, it's easy for us to really think about global as the way to recruit. So we are proud. We are thrilled to be able to have this partnership with Connetics as a mechanism to get us the best and brightest and for us, it doesn't matter if they're in the United States or if they're in the Philippines or wherever they are.

It's really just trying to find the people that match with us and want to grow and change and take care of our patients.