South Nassau Communities Hospital opens doors to nurses of the world

Long Island Business News, May 19, 2006 by Claude Solnik

With a nationwide nursing shortage plaguing hospitals, Oceanside's South Nassau Communities Hospital is taking a novel approach: Build housing, and hope they will come.

If all goes according to plan, nurses who've traveled to Oceanside from around the globe will be able to walk to work at SNCH. In a creative approach to recruiting, the hospital is building housing for nurses and other health-care professionals specifically recruited from abroad.

The housing, dubbed Renaissance Staff Housing Complex on Merrick Road in Rockville Centre, is slated to open in July. The complex includes two 2-story Tudor-style apartment buildings with 11 apartments each, parking for 35 cars and landscaping.

In a written statement, the hospital said the housing will assist in its commitment to recruit and retain dedicated, experienced, compassionate health care professionals.

It's also the latest effort by health care providers to avoid a potential shortfall of nurses. Many nurses are retiring, placing a clear strain on the profession. Long Island's aging population only adds to the demand.

Local nursing schools such as Adelphi and Stony Brook University can't keep up with hospitals' needs and are having problems recruiting nursing instructors. Hospitals also face competition from home health agencies, which recruit nurses by offering flexible hours.

All of this comes as hospitals, such as South Nassau, invest millions in expansion.

Recruitment and retention is a major strategic issue facing hospitals, said SNCH President Joseph Quagliata.

Quagliata said South Nassau faces a particular combination of challenges: It recently opened a 170,000-square-foot addition and is gearing to open a new emergency room.

The nursing shortage is going to continue to get worse, not better, Quagliata said. South Nassau is growing at a very rapid pace and needs to recruit people.

So, as Quagliata said, the hospital invested in housing to attract and accommodate nurses from abroad and solve a medical professional housing problem in an area with few apartments and costly properties.

One of the ways we're [avoiding a shortage] is to bring very highly qualified nurses in from around the world - in our case, principally from India, he said. They will spend approximately a year [in housing provided by the hospital] while they develop roots in the community, and can then move out into their own housing situation.

South Nassau has in the past rented housing for nurses, but prefers the new approach, citing location as a major advantage.

This permits us to have people proximate to the hospital, Quagliata said.

While South Nassau is circling the globe to recruit nurses, others are relying on a supply closer to home.

We're not doing any overseas recruitment of nurses, said Terry Lynam, a spokesman for the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System. We're fortunate to have a good pool of local candidates to fill our positions.

Lynam said North Shore-LIJ's overall nursing vacancy rate is less than 4 percent, the lowest it has been in years, and as low as 1 percent at some of the system's hospitals.

North Shore-LIJ, he said, doesn't have any housing initiatives targeted at nurses, but has programs to retain and recruit nurses.

Even if hospitals aren't being as aggressive in recruiting from abroad, many have launched creative recruiting initiatives. Suffolk County Community College and Good Samaritan Medical Center created a nursing program at the former Sayville Junior High School, where Good Samaritan funds faculty and staff. Students agree to work for Good Samaritan for four years following training.