In order to incorporate into its ranks the best students of the Nursing & Allied Campus of the South Texas College en McAllen (STC)officials from the Laredo Medical Center recently organized a recruiting tour.
To make this plan attractive to college students, Laredo’s largest hospital system is offering up to $25,000 in hiring or recruiting bonuses for those students, along with a host of other benefits such as tuition reimbursement and help with federal tuition loan repayment programs.
The president of South Texas College, Ricardo Solis, who was until 2021 the president of Laredo College, the most important technological campus in Laredo, was surprised by the magnitude of the offer made by the STC to recruit its students with degrees that require two years of study in the field of respiratory therapy care.
“This is a remarkable and surprising offer from the private sector for our students. I have never seen or heard of him before. A hospital offering $25,000 in sign-on bonuses to our students with a two-year degree. Nobody has offered such a large sum before,” Solis told the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service.
Solis said he has seen and heard of young people becoming RNs receiving hiring bonuses, but not in the amount Laredo Medical Center offers under this program.
“Hospitals aren’t even paying nurses that much to work with them. I don’t think anyone else is getting this. Not following a two-year degree,” she asserted.
The education offered by the STC to its students has made hospitals in South Texas such as the Laredo Medical Center look to its graduates for high-paying jobs.
“It is a testament that the private sector, especially abroad, recognizes that STC students bring the most value. Regardless of the field, this is not nursing, this is respiratory care…it’s amazing. That kind of bonus for a short period shows that our students are very important in all fields of health,” said Solis.
Laredo Medical Center It comprises a 326-bed hospital, a freestanding emergency room, two urgent care clinics and several outpatient care centers throughout the community, hence the importance it places on recruiting the best and most highly trained specialists in the field.
