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GRMC Hosts Community Nurse Leadership Meeting
Nursing Leaders Discuss Ways to Improve Workforce Development
(Tuesday, December 7, 2021; Dededo, Guam) Guam Regional Medical City (GRMC) hosted a gathering of Guam’s nursing leadership today at the Dusit Thani Guam Resort. The meeting was facilitated by Dr. Gilbert “Punky” Mudge, Senior Advisor in the Health practice of the Albright Stonebridge Group (ASG) and Chairman of Blue Continent Healthcare Group (BCG), the new owner of GRMC.
The purpose of the meeting was to give Guam’s nursing community a platform to share ideas and solutions to challenges with nurse recruitment, retention, and developing opportunities for continuing education. The attendees included executive administration and nursing leaders from GRMC, Guam Memorial Hospital (GMH), Naval Hospital, the Guam Nursing Association, Department of Public Health and Social Services (DPHSS), University of Guam, Guam Community College, and other nursing stakeholders. People were able to attend in person in limited numbers and online via Zoom.
Dr. Mudge was joined by his colleague from the ASG, pediatrician Dr. Lynn Eckhert, Senior Advisor with Health practice and expert on global medical education and Caroline Hewitt, DNS, NP and Assistant Dean for Clinical and Experiential Education and Clinical Professor at Northeastern University, Boston. Chief among the discussion was how to retain local nursing graduates and provide them with opportunities for advancing their education goals on Guam through universities like Northeastern, which provides one of the largest distance learning systems in the country, especially for nurses.
“The discourse and free flowing exchange of ideas allowed attendees to identify ways to expand nursing expertise and promotion through education opportunities,” said Alan Funtanilla, GRMC president/CEO. “This nursing leadership meeting is the first collaboration between GRMC and our new owner BCG to further the excellence of healthcare in Guam by supporting our nursing community. We look forward to more productive meetings within the healthcare community to improve and advance Guam’s healthcare needs.”