Vice President of Nursing Patrick Dantzler in a video sent to media from Community Health Systems.

Community Health System has received much needed help in the form of 117 travel nurses, who are onboarding now to help at the network’s three hospitals and multiple medical facilities. 

The incoming nurses arrive as Central Valley hospitals face a staffing shortage and are seeking out supplemental help to alleviate the staffing gap.

Patrick Dantzler, vice president of nursing at Community Regional Medical Center, said the nurses have come across the nation to help the health system – even as far as New York and Florida.

“This is also to help our community out to show that we will continue to provide safe and quality care,” Dantzler said. 

Dantzler said it’s crucial that the health system has staff to keep hospitals running.

“As the largest hospital system in the Central Valley, it’s essential we have enough staff, especially being a level one trauma center,” said Jon Stabbe, director of flex resources at Community Health Systems.

Cydni Strong, a registered nurse from Michigan, said that her care as a nurse hits close to home because she lost her best friend and her only uncle to Covid early on in the pandemic. For Sheila Zinentah, registered nurse from North Carolina, saving lives and bettering care is why she became a nurse.

“I love caring about people within the hospital walls, outside of the hospital walls,” Strong said. 

“I don’t want to see anybody go through what me and my family went through before,” she added.”