International recruits are on the rise at Bendigo Health, with strong numbers of staff coming from overseas crucial to addressing staffing shortages.
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In the past 12 months, 54 international recruits have started at the hospital, comprising of 37 nurses and 17 doctors through the emergency department, intensive care unit, aged care, inpatient wards and special care nursery.
In the next six months, a further 41 recruits are expected to arrive.
Bendigo Health's director of workforce planning and resourcing Kristy Paisley said numbers had "dramatically increased" and it was a sign the organisation's recruitment strategy was working.
"We've promoted Bendigo Health as a world leading health service in the regions and our exceptional new hospital," she said.
The hospital offered recruits four weeks of free accommodation when they started.
"When they come here, they want to feel supported and welcome and offering that initial accommodations really beneficial for the new employees," Ms Paisley said.
Registered nurse Diana De Guzman started at Bendigo Health one month ago.
With 15 years of experience in Singapore, Ms De Guzman said the COVID-19 pandemic meant she was cut off from seeing her family in the Philippines, after her home country restricted visitors.
She was reunited with her family in Bendigo.
"I just realised that work is as important as your family as well," she said.
Ms De Guzman said the work-life balance Bendigo Health promoted was a big benefit.
"In Singapore, after our shift we don't usually go out or just go home and rest, but here we have a work-life balance," she said.
"We get to have a quality time with our family, we tend to have time to have dinner with friends, it's a good thing for us, for our mental wellbeing as well."
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Dr Malshani Wanniarachchi, who has been in Bendigo for six months as she works towards her general registration, said the health system in Bendigo was a big improvement on her former workforce in Sri Lanka.
"It's always been a dream to come to Australia, to be in a well developed health system, to get the experience and the work-life balance," she said.
"We feel very supported and I feel I'm in a better place making my decisions and managing patients."
Dr Wanniarachchi said she was aware of workforce shortages in Australian health care, although it meant the door was open for more international medical graduates.
"There's more room for international medical graduates to start working here, but [the shortage] hasn't necessarily affected my role here, negatively," she said.
"We are not doing more extra work or over[time] despite this shortage of medical doctors, it's just an opportunity for others to come here and work as doctors."
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Jonathon Magrath
Jonathon has been living and working in Bendigo since March 2021, currently working as a general reporter. Contact him on jonathon.magrath@austcommunitymedia.com.au.
Jonathon has been living and working in Bendigo since March 2021, currently working as a general reporter. Contact him on jonathon.magrath@austcommunitymedia.com.au.
