Frances Yvonne Sheppard snagged one of about 87,000 jobs added in the Washington region this year when she went to work over the summer in a Columbia call center full of nurses who give advice over the phone.

"It was no problem at all finding a job here," said Sheppard, who worked as a nurse in Arizona for 12 years before settling in Maryland. "I basically found out about the company through word of mouth, and I got the position."

Jobs were easier to come by than usual in the Washington area this year. The region's job growth for the 12 months ended November was at its strongest level since 2000, at 3 percent, outpacing the nation's 1.5 percent increase, according to the Labor Department.

For Sheppard, the job search started and ended with the one rsum she sent to American Healthways Inc., a Tennessee-based disease management firm that opened call centers in Columbia this year.

The Philadelphia native was working in Phoenix at the time, reeling from her husband's death the previous year and eager to wend her way back to the East Coast to be close to family.

But she had a job and was in no rush to get a new one. "I could afford to be picky," she said.

During her 23 years as a nurse, Sheppard worked in a New York City operating room, in the labor and delivery wing of a New Jersey hospital, and with kidney dialysis patients in hospitals and centers in Phoenix.

With that background, "I could've gone anywhere and gotten a job in a hospital," she said. "But I wasn't interested in hospitals anymore. I was interested in disease management."

On the Internet, she spotted the job opening at American Healthways, which has 172 nurses working the phones at its two call centers in Columbia and plans to add another 60 or so in the coming months.

About half the nurses, including Sheppard, are taking part in an experiment by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which is trying to figure out if nurses monitoring patients from privately run call centers can improve the health of patients and head off costly complications and hospital visits.

From her desk, Sheppard helps put out calls to 20,000 randomly selected Medicare beneficiaries in the District and Maryland who suffer from diabetes, congestive heart problems or both. She explains test results, suggests ways to reduce pain, reminds patients to fill a prescription or arranges rides to the doctor.

"There's a big need out there for nurses who have experience," Sheppard said. "Some nurses have said they have trouble finding jobs, but not in any of the areas I've lived or worked in."