Julie Lee, who is staying at an apartment in Chinatown, said she has been waiting for more than a month now for her internship at the hospital.
In an interview, Lee said she arrived here on Sept. 6 and was told she could begin her internship on Sept. 16.
However, she added, businessman Jay Kim, who brought her to Saipan, told her there was some “communication problem” and that she had to wait.
Lee said she doesn’t know what the problem is.
She paid Kim $3,750 to process her documents, including the internship arrangement cost.
She said she submitted her documents to Kim by mail prior to her arrival here.
She was also supposed to pay $1,200 for an English course, but she has already been in New York where she took her NCLEX, and all she needs to do is review English lessons at home.
Since she arrived on Saipan, Lee said she has spent over $1,000 for food and lodgings.
She said she can “hold on” until December.
Lee said the nine other nurses from Korea who want to work as interns at CHC are studying English at the University of Loyola in Susupe.
These nurses believe that after completing 100 hours of English lessons they can work as interns at CHC.
Dire need
Three of them were interviewed by this reporter yesterday. One declined to be identified.
Suk Yong Yang said they are studying at Loyola two hours a day, from Monday to Friday, and when they complete the course in three months, they expect to work as interns at CHC which she heard is in dire need of nurses.
Sun Hee Song said she thought they could be interns at the hospital while learning English at the same time.
She said she did not expect that they have to take an English course first.
They want to be interns on Saipan so they can get familiar with the U.S. medical system, the nurses said.
Suk Yong Yang and Sun Hee Song said they have been spending $500 for their rent and more than $500 for food each month.
Jay Kim, in a separate interview, reiterated that he never promised the Korean nurses jobs at CHC.
But he said he told them that there was a great demand of nurses on Saipan and that they could be interns here.
He showed this reporter a copy of the letter from then-hospital administrator Joseph Santos dated July 2, advising Kim to tell the Korean nurses to prepare the needed documents and to get a license from the CNMI Nurse Licensing Board.
Kim said the nurses complied with these requirements.
Santos, in his letter to Kim, said: “We look forward to collaborating with your company in providing meaningful internship experience for the nurses.”
Simon Sin, publisher of the Korean-language Saipan Times and an associate of Kim, said if there is no sanctioned internship program for the Korean nurses, the Department of Public Health should create one.
“It is for the benefit of the CNMI to have Korean nurses doing internship at the hospital,” he said.
False promises
Public Health Secretary Joseph Kevin Villagomez, in a separate interview yesterday, said CHC is not encouraging nursing interns, especially from countries where English is not the first language, because of liability issues.
Patients and medical personnel must understand each other, he said.
He said Public Health has nothing to do with false promises made by Kim and Sin to the Korean nurses.
“They made promises to these nurses that we weren’t part of. One of the [false] promises is that they can come here as interns and then when they are done interning, we will be more than willing to hire them,” said Villagomez.
He added that CHC is not willing to accept interns unless they are linked with Northern Marianas College’s nursing program, the University of Loyola or Emmanuel College.
These institutions have instructors who can look after the interns at CHC, he said.
“We don’t have the means of looking after interns,” Villagomez said.
“All the nurses are busy ensuring the proper delivery of healthcare. My number one issue in terms of liability is if there is a crisis and nurses are yelling and saying, ‘Can you bring me A, B & C,’ and they don’t understand what A,B & C is because their English is not up to par then people’s lives could already be in danger. This is the liability that the government is not willing to take.”
