Kent Hospital has looked overseas to boost its nursing ranks. From left, local nurse Terri Dulude, Melissa Ancanan, from the Phillipines, and Michelle Brittian, from Australia, stand at one of the operating rooms at Kent Hospital.
Michelle Brittain has come to the United States on vacation before, but she’s never been able to stay for an extended period and really get to know the country. Now she has her chance.
For the next year, Brittain is living in Warwick and working as an operating room nurse at Kent Hospital. Her husband, Nick Lind, came with her, and she’s got a Web cam on her computer so she can have video conversations with her family back home.
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On most days, however, Lind is the only other Australian she’s likely to see.
Brittain, a native of Perth, is one of 13 registered nurses hired by Kent from abroad to try to alleviate a chronic nursing shortage at the hospital. Seven are here already; the rest are expected by mid-July, said Marilyn Asselin, interim vice president for patient care services.
All the nurses are women, and all have at least three years’ experience, Asselin said. They’re coming from India, the Philippines, the United Kingdom, Singapore, St. Lucia, South Africa, even the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait – though because some have taken prior international assignments, some are coming by way of countries other than their own.
For Kent, which has had to rely on temp agencies to keep its nursing shifts filled, hiring from abroad is a much better option, Asselin said. “What you’re doing is you’re building your core staff, and that’s our goal – not to be as reliant on travel nurses who could come and stay, for example, six weeks at a time.”
Kent is not alone in this. Roger Williams Medical Center, another community hospital with a nursing shortage, has also turned to international hiring. And Rhode Island Hospital has paperwork pending for 31 nurses from abroad, spokeswoman Nicole Gustin said.
But while Rhode Island Hospital, with its urban location and academic ties, already feels like a mini-United Nations, with staff and patients from all over the world, Kent is a white suburb, with mostly white patients and white employees.
The hospital has been trying hard to diversify, and the new nurses, Asselin said, have given that effort a big boost. “This is a new opportunity for Kent Hospital, because the way we’re situated, traditionally we have not had a diverse work force.”
To make the most of this opportunity, Kent has invited Brittain, fellow OR nurse Melissa Ancanan – of the Philippines – and a colleague from India to speak about their cultures at the hospital’s annual Lang Fund Lecture, a special diversity event on May 11.
The hospital is also encouraging international and local nurses to interact. Along with a nurse educator, Jan Richards, who oversees the international program, Kent has assigned one local nurse to each of the newcomers, to serve as “sponsors” and hosts.
Brittain’s sponsor is Barbara Laraway, a veteran pediatric nurse and clinical practice instructor in a joint Kent-Community College of Rhode Island program. She said she volunteered to help because it seemed like “an interesting thing to do,” and good for Kent.
“I admire someone who would be willing to leave their country for an extended period of time to come here to a totally different country and blend in and work,” Laraway said. “And I think it’s a good thing. I think it’ll be a fun and good thing for the hospital.”
Ancanan’s sponsor, Terri Dulude, a nurse in Kent’s quality improvement program, already has two adopted children from different cultures and has hosted several exchange students, so it seemed like a natural thing to sign up for this. “It’s been a great experience,” she said.
Unlike Brittain, who has her husband with her, Ancanan is alone, so Dulude has tried to provide extra support. When she arrived, she had no driver’s license – a necessity in the suburbs – so Dulude suggested a driving school where she could get lessons. She’s taken her shopping, and they have lunch together periodically.
“When I got here, I was quite astounded at how welcoming everyone was,” said Brittain. “They went out of their way to be nice. They’ve done everything that they can to help us settle in, which has been very good.”
There have been some adjustments, Brittain said. Language issues, for one: All the nurses have to pass an English test, and obviously Brittain is a native speaker, but the terminology is sometimes different. She also gets “a few strange looks” sometimes when patients can’t understand her Australian accent – especially when they’re under sedation.
And the setup of the operating room, and nurses’ roles within it, are different from what Brittain was used to in Perth. “At home we have mostly all RNs working in the OR, and we share the duties amongst ourselves,” she said. “Here you have different types of people, like scrub technicians, and more segregated roles.”
After eight weeks at Kent, however, Brittain said she’s “starting to feel that I’m getting the hang of their routine.” And she’s comfortable in her American life. Her husband just got a job last week, doing sales. But she does still miss her country.
“We had an Australian lady come in the other day as a patient, which was really good,” Brittain said. “She understood me fine.”
