foreign nurses

Nurses General Nursing

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with the great nursing shortage, i wonder why it is still difficult for foreign nurses to gain acess into the us. i thnik this should be looked into, since the no of nurses being produced in the country has dropped.

I never heard of any foreign nurses gaining access to this country.In fact, I have worked with alot of nurses from foreign countries who have not obtained a permanent residency but are getting their work permits renewed over and over. I know one nurse in particular who has been here for 10 years on a work permit because she is a nurse.

Hi,

I know a lot of RN's here in Austria who wanted to go to the states. But....., it is very difficult to take the necessary exams! First of all you can't take them in every town, I had to go to Frankfurt in Germany(altough there is a big consulate here in Vienna). Second, these exams take place two time a year. Third, altough our nursing-education is really profound, it is quite different as the ones in the US. The test is very, very difficult to make. I don't think this test would be eausy for an US-RN!

Friends of me, who also did the test said the same thing.

Then finally even if the test ist positiv, the interview in the consulate is not very stimulating! On contrary! They advice you not to go to the states, because the living is so "different" from Europe.

So there are a lot of reasons, why RN's from Europe won't or can't come to the states.

Take care!

Specializes in med/surg, cardiac/telemetry, hospice.
Originally posted by omawunnmi:

with the great nursing shortage, i wonder why it is still difficult for foreign nurses to gain acess into the us. i thnik this should be looked into, since the no of nurses being produced in the country has dropped.

I'm not sure I agree with the term "great nursing shortage." There are still a great number of nurses in this country who are not being utilized. For instance, in my area most of the hospitals refuse to hire a nurse without at least 2 years acute care experience...figure that one out. How do you obtain acute care experience without being hired in an acute care setting?? My local hospital is "threatening" to recruit overseas while there are now 140 new RNs that graduated within the past two years from an ADN program *in the same town* just clawing to get in. I don't see the logic. It would cost far less to hire and train local nurses for two or three months than it would it to recruit, import, house, and train foreign nurses. There is another hospital not far away that has it's own very good RN diploma program and won't hire it's own graduates!!

As far as a shortage of foreign nurses, I haven't seen any in my area. I had occassion to spend a great deal of time at two large city hospitals lately (personal not professional reasons), and I would estimate that at least one out of every 8-10 nurses there were foreign. Before I get flamed, let me say that I have no problems with foreigners or foreign nurses AT ALL. I think it only benefits to have their skill and knowledge in this country, however, I must take issue with the recruitment of foreign nurses being the only solution to a nursing "shortage."

Regards,

Angela

i agree if ALL the US nurses are employed then welcome outside countries...Our hospital recruited nurses from Puerto Rico...set them up in housing, arranged testing etc.that made the nurses in the hospital thrilled seeing as for them you can't get lunch or hardly a bathroom break...

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