Foreign recruitment of nurses-thoughts?

Nurses General Nursing

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I posted this in another section inadvertantly. How do you feel about foreign recruitment of nurses to deal with the nursing shortage. As stated in other post, forgive me if this topic has been discussed before - I am new here and not savvy with my search abilities yet. Thanks.

Originally posted by pfleige

Hello Nurses:

I would like to announce the addition of "Free Spanish one Phrase a Week With Audio-Voice Message"

Sincerely,

Pilar

spanish4nurses.com

Good Idea, but do we have this for Italian too? My poor grandparents didn't have the priviliage of having things written in italian etc...............they had to learn to speak english, afterall, why shouldn't they learn it if they were living in America. Don't want to start something here, but it does hit a nerve with me when one takes one nationality and caters to that language. I'm all for keeping our heritage alive along with each native tongue and my ancesters talked in italian in their homes., but they made sure that their children learned to speak in English.

jude

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jt: oh, I see, perhaps not on this thread then.

With the state of healthcare where it is today, I feel it is really

important for all nurses to be united and not be divided by

pettiness or an ..us versus them scenario. If nurses want working conditions to change...we must individually and collectively get involved in the political process...in the workplace, the community, state and national level. More nurses should belong to professional organizations...how effective is ANA when others see that they only represent a small proportion of all nurses?

Glad to see nurses here are letting their legislative reps know what they want....

Last, it is common sense and common courtesy to learn the official language of the country you are living in.

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hello i never knew a foreign nurse could be educated in the states for free even though im foreign its unfair for the americans. but honestly i havent heard a single add or postage even in the net(?) that offers overseas students or traning to be a nurse would be offered free nursing education in america

( CRAPPPPPPPPPPPP)

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Likewise apols_uk. I have been offered assistance to meet visa requirements and to take the NCLEX, but never any sort of tuition assistance.

Just as an aside, a lot of the US recruiting companies provide a free week in Hawaii/Guam to take the exam, as it has to be on US soil. When you pass you are obliged to work for the particular company for a contract of - say - 12 or 18 months. For a while now I have been very tempted to take up their offer, as all I would pay would be (from memory) $300 US. And hey, no matter how good a nurse I am, I am capable of failing ANY exam if I want to badly enough!

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Exactly, there is no free lunch in this world!!!

Goes to show a little bit of information can be very dangerous in the wrong hands( or minds).

BTW. OzNurse...NCLEX costs $200usd to write and BONs charge anywhere from 50 dollars and up...so if you have to pay $300 USD, the only thing you get for free is pretty much the flight and hotel. Is it worth it to commit for 12-18 months?

If you are planning a vacation to the US, you can schedule it then.

By 2004, NCLEX will be available in non-US sites.

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My point being, the commitment only exists if I PASS the exam. If I FAIL, I go home, and have had a week in Hawaii for free!! And the week includes meals as well.

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Specializes in Hemodialysis, Home Health.

There was a recent special on "60 Minutes" (I believe it was 60 Minutes..didn't see it, my sister told me about it in utter dismay..)about recruiting and bringing over nurses from Africa. These nurses are exceptionally well trained with more difficult requirements than our toughest schools. One of the top nurses they interviewed was nearly in tears over the "dilemma"..... She found herself between a rock and a hard place, so to speak. The situation, as she described it was this:

"We don't have enough nurses right here in our own country. The disease and death here in Africa is unrelenting and we need every available nurse to care for our own people. We are dying by the thousands each day and don't have the resources in manpower to care for our own. Now America comes with wonderful offers to take what few nurses we have to the US. They offer us free flights, free housing and other accomodations and a payscale which is beyond our wildest imagination here in Africa. Most of the nurses have many mouths to feed at home and with the mere pittance of pay they receive here can barely afford to feed themselves, much less their children. Their own children are sick with malnourishment and dying. People all around us are dying every day..that is why we become nurses.. to try to make a difference and help our people....Now I must choose... do I go to America and make this wonderful money to send home to my family and keep my family alive... or do I stay here where I am so desparately needed to help save the lives of our own people, care for those starving babies all around us and their sick mothers? I don't know how to choose. I would feel guilty going to America and taking from what few nurses we do have in our own country. It would make the task of those left behind so much more difficult, and I would see the children dying in the streets, in their tiny villages day after day at night when I try to sleep...and hate myself for not staying to help them. Why does America come to us with this? Why make us choose? This is a horrible choice to place before us. Why offer us something they know many of us will not be able to refuse because they have their own children to feed and be concerned about. And by going, we also know we would be comitting genocide of our own people. Many will take the offer to save their family. But with heavy hearts. They know that by leaving, they are reducing the number of our own resources.. the few nurses we have to care for so many sick and dying of our own flesh and blood. We need help here in Africa.. we need nurses to come here.. not take the few good nurses we have away. This is a terrrible thing....."

:o :o :o

This truly IS a terrible thing ! Our moneymongering corporations taking from what little help they have to save their own people to "fix" the problem here...(the corporations' own pockets, of course.) As posted above, I have no problems integrating foreign nurses..we are all one family. But to do so with total disregard of the needs of their own country, knowing full well they can't afford to lose even one nurse, and knowing the carrott dangled before them is honeyglazed .... this is simply WRONG! Again, the $$ spent on such a project could be spent here on our own nurses or future nurses to make nursing a more inviting field. A profession where nurses will WANT to stay instead of leaving by the droves. Keep the nurses we HAVE and spend that money reducing the hours worked (still know too many who work 16 hour days) by reducing the patient/nurse ratio as they recently have in Tucson, Az. That money would buy back our own nurses willing to work if they had fewer patients and more help...so WE can sleep well at night, too, instead of wondering what was left undone.. or regretting not having had the time to spend with those who needed that little extra time or that little extra something we could not give them.

And help pay for our potential students who WANT to go to school and cannot afford to do so, as stated above. Politics and money.. politics and money... this is so very wrong !!! This "bandaid" is laced with poison, potentially killing thousands of needyand desparate human beings dependant on their own few nurses... who now may leave to come here with a heavy burden........How dare we !

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Specializes in Hemodialysis, Home Health.

P.S.

JT.... thank you for the wonderfully informative posts and links ! This is exactly what's needed rather than the ineffective moaning and groaning amongst ourselves. The pen is mightier than the tongue. Now everyone (including myself) has the exact info needed and links to use to reach those in decisionmaking capacities... we have no excuses left. THANK YOU ! It's up to us, and only us !!! I have bookmarked this page with your posts and will use these links you were good enough to provide. I have just now completed my degree and am now officially a graduate nurse. I have every intention of joing and supporting my state nurse's assoc. as well as the ANA. These people are our workhorses...while we are busy providing care and have little time to do much else, these folks are the ones who do it for us ! All we have to do is let THEM know what we want and need, then support their efforts. If we don't, we have no one to blame but ourselves !!! Thank you again. I shall be emailing my congressman today, thanks to you.

And global RN...more power to you ! :kiss

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Recruiting means bringing nurses from third world countries who will put up with the horrid working conditions that the USA nurses are having a difficult time dealing with. What SHORTAGE? We have plenty of nurses....and..if they would improve the working conditons..by putting MORE nurses on a shift..those nurses NOT working would reenter the hospitals. Of coure that would cut down on how much revenue the hospitals would then collect..sooooooo they continue to scream "shortage"...when we know they don't WANT MORE NURSES PER SHIFT!

It's just an excuse they give the nurse will "pt. overload"..

Who wants to work under the conditions we find in our hospitals? Imported nurses...which will mean..YOU JOB SOMEDAY!

We will continue to report to work...until one day..we will all be replaced by foreign nurses that won't complain about our present nursing workplace conditions.

Nurses..wake up...see how the hospitals are trying to solve the so called shortage! They are not improving conditions to get our own nurses back in the hospitals! they are IMPORTING. How safe is your job????

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Specializes in Hemodialysis, Home Health.

True... so as JT has stated and REstated, it's time to get off our butts and get MOVING !!! As in making your voices heard.. not just on the BB which get us nowhere other than our concerns being validated by the rest of us in the same circumstances.. just goes round and round and round... but does not ACCOMPLISH a darn thing nor bring about change.

Time to pick up the phone, pick up a pen, log onto your "people in power", whatever it takes. JUST DO IT and keep on doing it until they are absolutely SICK of hearing from us and move in our direction if only to get us off their backs ! It is TIME, boys and girls! It is TIME to do more than just bemoan our fate. Time to CHANGE it. Action, not words is what is needed. Time to ACT. Now or never before it's too late. SPEAK NOW OR FOREVER HOLD YOUR PEACE !

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quote jnette

Time to pick up the phone, pick up a pen, log onto your "people in power", whatever it takes. JUST DO IT and keep on doing it until they are absolutely SICK of hearing from us and move in our direction if only to get us off their backs ! It is TIME, boys and girls! It is TIME to do more than just bemoan our fate. Time to CHANGE it. Action, not words is what is needed. Time to ACT. Now or never before it's too late. SPEAK NOW OR FOREVER HOLD YOUR PEACE ! > .

========================================

jnette: well stated. Congratulations on your graduation!!

We need motivated nurses like you, with a can-do attitude, who ACT to realize a preferred future for nurses, nursing and all our patients!!!

__________________

:kiss

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Specializes in Hemodialysis, Home Health.

Thanx Global !

It's that "70's Thing".... still seem to hover in that era a lot.:imbar

But yes, I AM an activist by nature... give me a cause I believe in and "see Jane run !" :D But it takes more than one or two or three. We're ALL B******* and moaning, right? So that means we ALL must DO something to bring about change. JT couldn't have made it any easier for us ! Let's put up or shut up! ;)

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