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Nurses are sought in in a variety of specialties |
ST. THOMAS, U.S.V.I. (March 1, 2007) – Registered nurses in all
specialties -- including medical-surgical, critical care, nursing
management, and certified nurse-midwives -- are being sought by
Schneider Regional Medical Center (SRMC), a family of facilities
providing comprehensive and specialty care in the gorgeous tropical
setting of the English-speaking U.S. Virgin Islands.
According to a hospital release, a massive 100-day recruitment effort
targeting RNs began March 1 for Schneider Regional Medical Center,
consisting of the Roy Lester Schneider Hospital and Charlotte Kimelman
Cancer Institute (opened 2006), both on the island of St. Thomas, and
the Myrah Keating Smith Community Health Center on nearby St. John.
“Exciting professional challenges in these up-to-date facilities are
just as attractive to nurses as the spectacular living (conditions),”
says SRMC’s Chief Nursing Officer Angela Rennalls-Atkinson, under whose
watch the 100 Days recruitment seeks to bring topnotch nurses to the
JCAHO-accredited SRMC.
The recruiting climate for nurses is highly competitive nationwide,
and jobseekers often overlook the English-speaking, dollar-based U.S.
Virgin Islands. Therefore, the initiative seeks to highlight not only
the professional opportunities, but also unabashedly stresses the major
fringe benefits – the Islands’ natural splendor and convenience as part
of the U.S.
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Schneider Regional Medical Center CEO Rodney Miller |
“This is paradise,” says Rennalls-Atkinson, simply. “I have worked
on the mainland myself. I spent most of my time in New York . One of the
things that pushed me here was snowstorms and temperatures below 30
degrees. Anything below 30 degrees is too cold!”
Instead of shivering and shoveling snow, she says, her nursing
colleagues enjoy excellent benefits including 19 paid holidays in
tropical beauty that’s a winter-whipped Northerner’s fantasy.
Rennalls-Atkinson observes that the staffers also generally enjoy the
Islands’ “social climate” -- working with ethnically, racially,
economically diverse population. And, she says, “a more leisurely pace
of life creates dramatically different, more humane and pleasant days.”
Delphine Olivacce agrees. “I first came as a travel nurse, and I
immediately fell in love with the people on the island,” says Olivacce,
who weighed job offers in Michigan , New York , California , Connecticut
, and Ohio before committing to the islands.
“Once I found out it was a U.S. territory, I was more relaxed,” says
Olivacce, now administrative care coordinator and clinical nurse
educator at SRMC. “I actually worked here for a little while, then left
and came back. I worked as a staff nurse, in intensive care, then moved
into supervision.”
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The Charlotte Kimelman Cancer Institute |
That range of opportunities, she notes, is a major attraction for
nurses who want to grow. “We are a small hospital -- a 169-bed
facility,” she says. “You have a very strong support structure here.
This is a place where you see your chief nursing officer everyday, and
you have access to senior leadership every day. It is more
family-oriented that most large institutions.”
Registered nurses in all specialties wishing to participate in
Schneider Regional Medical Center ’s 100 Days nurse recruitment in may
contact Marsulite Cohen at 340-776-8311 ext. 5068, or
mcohen@srmedicalcenter.org.
To learn more about Schneider Regional Medical Center , 9048 Sugar
Estate, St. Thomas, VI , USA , 00802, visit the hospital’s website at
www.rlshospital.org.
Images used here provided courtesy of
Schneider Regional Medical Center. |
