If you’re a foreign nurse considering working in a U.S. hospital, there are many steps to complete in the immigration process with the help of an employer sponsor. You can read more about the eb-3 immigration process here, but what about actually getting placed in a hospital?
This is how Shearwater places foreign nurses in U.S. hospitals.
We know moving to the U.S. is a big commitment, and foreign nurses have done a lot of work to get to this point. That’s why we’ve developed a thorough placement process to ensure a great hospital match for every nurse. Because of this placement process, 75% of our nurses stay with their hospital after their contract ends.
We are extremely selective with the hospitals we choose to work with and only place nurses in hospitals with which we have a contractual relationship. We affirm that each hospital’s values align with Shearwater’s values, so that it will be an excellent and fulfilling work environment.
Speaking of hospitals, this is where the placement process begins. Our client services team in Nashville is proactively communicating with hospital clients to determine their clinical needs resulting in requests for Shearwater nurses. These requests outline how many nurses they need, and which units need them.
It also includes specific skills and competencies they’d like the nurses to have, as well as an interview and arrival timeline.
From here, the client services team will enter this request into a database to alert our clinical team.
The clinical team reviews the details of the hospital’s request and carefully selects the best nurse candidates to fill these positions.
So how do we select which nurses are best when we have so many waiting to come to the U.S.?
We consider a variety of factors such as their clinical background, experience, arrival timeline, immigration status, and other hospital-specific needs. We also consider any nurse preferences that have been expressed.
Once the nurses are chosen, our nurse development team in Manila will contact each nurse to present the opportunity and make sure they’re interested. Think of it as agreeing to submit a job application. Once nurses are confirmed, our teams in both the Manila and Nashville office help create and update their resumes before they’re submitted to our client services team.
The client services team sends each candidate’s resume to the hospital, along with their potential arrival date. Most hospitals will have their specific unit managers review these resumes and select who they’d like to interview. The nurse development team will then prep the selected nurses for their interviews with the hospital.
A video interview is scheduled for a time that works best for both the hospital and each nurse.
We make sure our nurses are well prepared for the interview to help them succeed, and most of our nurses pass their interview. If it’s not the right fit, it doesn’t mean there aren’t other placement opportunities.
For nurses who pass their interview, they will decide to accept the offer from the hospital or not. There may be legitimate reasons to decline an offer, and we want each nurse to make the best decision for them. If a nurse declines an offer, Shearwater will seek to understand the reasoning to help guide future opportunities.
After an accepted hospital offer, our immigration team works hard to finish your immigration and credentialing process to prepare nurses to arrive in the U.S. as quickly as possible.
We care deeply about each nurse’s experience, and this placement process is one of the ways we ensure foreign nurses start their U.S. nursing career well.
