CANADIAN RNS RECRUITED.

Byline: Naush Boghossian Staff Writer

GLENDALE - Christa Byrne was born and raised in Ontario, Canada, but when she graduated from nursing school, both she and her roommate decided to look for work in the United States - joining a wave of Canadian nurses staffing Southland hospitals.

``We were looking for something new and different from anything we'd ever seen. It was a new experience, a new place, a new opportunity,'' said Byrne, 26, who's been working full-time at Glendale Adventist Medical Center for six months. ``It's hard to get full-time work in Canada out of nursing school.''

Glendale Adventist officials say that tougher state staffing requirements, a short supply of nurses and hospital expansion projects have forced them to recruit heavily in Canada.

More than 60 Canadian nurses are in the pipeline to begin jobs at the hospital, including 30 who already have proper licenses, immigration clearance and signed letters of agreement with the hospital. The other 30 are in the process.

``They are going to be a sizable part of who we're bringing in,'' said Gwen Matthews, senior vice president for clinical services, who has been to career fairs in Canada three times since last fall. In all, the hospital employs 600 registered nurses.

Hiring nurses from Canada also is attractive to local hospitals because of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which eases immigration between the two countries for those seeking hard-to-fill positions, Matthews said.

Glendale Adventist initially resisted recruiting internationally because Matthews had heard the nursing shortage was worldwide, and she was reluctant to take staff from hospitals also in need.

But what changed her mind last fall was hearing that nurses in Canada were unable to get full-time employment.

``That's when we decided we're going to tap into their market,'' Matthews said.

Charles Idelson, spokesman for the California Nurses Association, said Canadian nurses have been coming to work in the United States for the past few years, but he's skeptical that hospitals are forced to recruit them because of a shortage of nurses.

Local hospitals like Kaiser Permanente have done a good job in recruiting California nurses by offering competitive wages, pension plans and a direct say in patient-care issues - steps that attract U.S. citizens seeking jobs, he said.

``We don't believe it's necessary for hospitals in California to be recruiting nurses from other countries,'' he said.

As a result of staffing-ratio mandates, the number of nurses employed in the state has grown, with an additional 30,000 registered nurses in California in the last three years, he said.

Taking nurses from a country in which many of the provinces are experiencing nursing shortages is unfortunate, Idelson said.

``If Canadian nurses are coming in large numbers to the United States, it probably would have a destabilizing effect on the Canadian health care system,'' he said.

While Canadian nurses are helping fill the demand at Glendale Adventist, Matthews said recruiters are still primarily focusing on persuading local people to consider nursing as a second career and partnering with nursing-education programs to provide the training and education needed to bring people into the field.

``We would like to tap into the local economy at a maximum level and build that,'' Matthews said. The hospital is sponsoring a program with the Los Angeles Unified School District in the fall to encourage potential nurses.

Naush Boghossian, [phone]

naush.boghossian(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

Vera Josic, a registered nurse recruited from Canada, checks a patient's record at Glendale Adventist Hospital.

Gus Ruelas/Staff Photographer