Survey: Should nurses from other countries be recruited to aid in the nursing shortag

Nurses General Nursing

Published

  1. Should nurses from other countries be recruited to aid in the nursing shortage?

    • 149
      Yes
    • 514
      No

663 members have participated

This month's survey Question:

Should nurses from other countries be recruited to aid in the nursing shortage?

Please take a minute to take answer our survey and please feel free to reply to this topic to post any comments that you may have on the topic.

I, also, do not feel the united states has a nursing shortage. If hospitals and other health care facilities would up the pay, benefits and staffing, there would be nurses coming out of everywhere. No I do not believe they should recruit from other countries. Lets do something original: TAKE CARE OF THE NURSES WE HAVE HERE!!!!!

You are raising a good point here. I was injured in 1993 and took a disability in 1994. Reentering the job force, I took a trust management position for a few years. I CANNOT believe the degeneration in staffing. In upstate NY in 1994 we showed favoritism of ratio of 8-10 to a nurse in the Masonic Home. Returning to PRN nursing, the long term facility ratios are 30-40 to one nurse. The expectations and stress is so horrendous, it is not unusual for me to take 12 hrs to accomplish an 8 hour shift with one meal break. I am exhausted. I look into the eyes of any regular nurses and they are stressed to the max. I see the "unhealthiest" people in this community to be nurses. What messages are being sent out? I really believe the top management are doing well with salaries and I KNOW the non-profits are only tax exempt organizations. Many long term facilties are being acquired by pharmaceutical companies, I have heard. Any more pressure and we will find robots providing patient care!

Lyu

0 Votes
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

no. for all the reasons above....

Really, we don't need to rob other countries of their precious resources, as we so often do (here in the USA). Nurses are precious resources in all countries, especially in poor and underserved ones.

Importing international labor in nursing, well, it's a bandaid fix at best-- when if we treated our native workers better, a fix like this not be necessary. It's short-sighted, just like hospitals paying big buck$ to recruit newbies instead of investing in the proven employees they already have. Poorly thought-out and against all common sense.

It's been said before: there is no shortage of qualified nurses in the USA, just ones who are willing to put up with the crap that suits, some obnoxious patients/families, insurance companies, and doctors dish out. Really, that is well-known, but it's much like the white elephant in the room that no one wants to admit he/she sees.

0 Votes
Specializes in ICU, MED SURG, ER, LTC, LEGAL NURSING.
i'm a canadian nurse, and hospitals in the southern us (meaning, anything not along the US-Canada border) recruit canadian nurses heavily. they pay us top dollar. i had the opportunity to talk to several recruiters at my school and they say it's bc canadian nursing students (at least, at the university i go to, McMaster) are better trained than students in the states. so maybe the problem isn't a nursing shortage.....maybe it's the actual programs in the schools.

i for one plan on working in the states for the first few years after i graduate. many hospitals offer graduating canadian students huuuge signing bonuses, great benefits, and great salaries. i could pay off my student loan just from the signing bonus. ($15,000 US). i know several students who have done this.

TRYING NOT TO SOUND JADED...BUT YOU ARE 19....OH MY, WHAT YOU HAVE TO LEARN. THE ONE AND ONLY TIME I TOOK A SIGN ON BONUS I DID NOT FINISH MY YEAR. AT THE END OF THE 6 MONTHS I WAS OUT OF THERE, AS THE REASON FOR THE SIGN ON BONUS BECAME VERY CLEAR, VERY SOON! IT WAS DANGEROUS FOR PATIENTS AND STAFF ALIKE. GOOD LUCK TO YOU SARAH.......HOPE FOR YOUR SAKE IT TURNS OUT LIKE "THE RECRUITERS" HAVE PICTURED IT....AS FAR AS CANADIAN NURSES BEING BETTER TRAINED......??WHO KNOWS....I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TOLD AND WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENS TO BE TRUE CAN BE TWO DIFFERENT PICTURES :rolleyes:

0 Votes

Is it not bad enough that many of the doctors cannot speak or write English? You want me to have to deal with nurses in the same boat?

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Once more we don't have a nursing shortage in the US, we have a shortage of WORKING nurses. Other countries are in no better shape with their nursing situations. I guess companies/hospitals will continue to do it though because they can, we have the financial muscle to attract the nurses.

I welcome our foreign nurses, I love working with them, they bring different ideas and experiences that I enjoy. I don't think we should restrict them coming into our country like some, just don't support recruiting efforts.

Could you split the hair a little more puhlease! That is like saying we don't have a gas shortage we have an oil shortage! Yes we do have a nursing shortage, even though there are more than one hundred thousand licensed nurses that are not currently working that creates a nursing shortage, if they are not working as nurses.

I don't understand why anyone wants to argue the issue of a shortage. If there are not enough nurses working there is a shortage. Many of the nurses that continue to have a license will never return for reasons such as having married a Doctor, or someone else with enough money to support them, it's like a hairdresser, even though you have no intention of returning to work it is prudent to keep your license updated and valid because one never knows what might happen.

My facility just did a recruitment to India. I spoke to my manager about this and she only had two postions for CCU but they were looking to fill only like 25 positions. This to me seems excessive. The money spent to recruit 25 nurses when wage increases could likely entice 25 nurses they are using as agency to come on staff.

I do feel that nurses should make more money. I do feel that wages and autonomy are the two biggest factors that would give nurses what they want and need to keep working in the medical field.

0 Votes

I am acutely aware of a nursing shortage in our area, at the same time the agencies are being cut back in their requests. The working conditions here which are 30-40 to one nurse in a long term facility are ridiculous. Nurses come in, burn out, and leave rapidly. I am so exhausted as a PRN nurse, with inadequate orientation to a facility (this costs money), not always supported in the overtime needed to complete the notes after giving up breaks and meals and running constantly, that I cannot share any enthusiasm for regular nursing in an instititution. There is not ONE local working nurse I have met that does not show signs of extreme stress. Committed nurses are not the issue. Greed somewhere at the top and inefficiencies in managerment are my observatiions. I find it ironical that in Casa Grande, AZ they are bringing over nurses from Scotland and England and overseas nursing agencies are recruiting RNs to those areas! What is happening in the medical arena is happening in corporate America everywhere. Greed. Working conditions everywhere have changed dramatically. Is it any different than giving all manufacturing to 3rd world countries and then having our taxes bail out their unstable US investments there after NAFTA passed? When will America wake up?

0 Votes

I don't understand why anyone wants to argue the issue of a shortage. If there are not enough nurses working there is a shortage.

Because the word 'shortage' implies a gross oversimplification. It implies a solution of 'crank out more new grads and the problem will be solved.' .

One could say we have a 'shortage' of ditchdiggers too...but I prefer to say the work is difficult, tiresome and doesn't pay.... thus not many aspire to a ditchdigging career ...much closer to the truth, IMO.

0 Votes
i'm a canadian nurse, and hospitals in the southern us (meaning, anything not along the US-Canada border) recruit canadian nurses heavily. they pay us top dollar. i had the opportunity to talk to several recruiters at my school and they say it's bc canadian nursing students (at least, at the university i go to, McMaster) are better trained than students in the states. so maybe the problem isn't a nursing shortage.....maybe it's the actual programs in the schools.

i for one plan on working in the states for the first few years after i graduate. many hospitals offer graduating canadian students huuuge signing bonuses, great benefits, and great salaries. i could pay off my student loan just from the signing bonus. ($15,000 US). i know several students who have done this.

Have to wonder if these hospitals are offering US trained nurses the same kinds of bonuses -:stone- I know we aren't offering anything THAT high!!!

0 Votes
Because the word 'shortage' implies a gross oversimplification. It implies a solution of 'crank out more new grads and the problem will be solved.' .

There is no oversimplification, more new grads are needed. Simply because nurses are leaving the field.

One could say we have a 'shortage' of ditchdiggers too...but I prefer to say the work is difficult, tiresome and doesn't pay.... thus not many aspire to a ditchdigging career ...much closer to the truth, IMO.

Pretty much machines dig ditches now because they make several different machines for that type of job...I do not think nurses will be replaced as easily as ditch diggers.

OK THE QUOTE TAKEN OUT OF CONTEXT IS THIS!

Could you split the hair a little more puhlease! That is like saying we don't have a gas shortage we have an oil shortage! Yes we do have a nursing shortage, even though there are more than one hundred thousand licensed nurses that are not currently working that creates a nursing shortage, if they are not working as nurses.

The qualifier was this!

I don't understand why anyone wants to argue the issue of a shortage. If there are not enough nurses working there is a shortage. Many of the nurses that continue to have a license will never return for reasons such as having married a Doctor, or someone else with enough money to support them, it's like a hairdresser, even though you have no intention of returning to work it is prudent to keep your license updated and valid because one never knows what might happen.

If they are not working as nurses we have a nursing shortage. It doesn't matter if they don't want to work in the medical field anymore or lost an arm or married a millionaire, if they are not working as nurses WE have a shortage of available working nurses PERIOD.

My facility just did a recruitment to India. I spoke to my manager about this and she only had two postions for CCU but they were looking to fill only like 25 positions. This to me seems excessive. The money spent to recruit 25 nurses when wage increases could likely entice 25 nurses they are using as agency to come on staff.
I finished by saying I think wages are a big problem.
0 Votes
Have to wonder if these hospitals are offering US trained nurses the same kinds of bonuses -:stone- I know we aren't offering anything THAT high!!!

My facility is offering $10,000 for a three year commitment to night shift. $3000 for day or evening for one year commitment. For RN's!

0 Votes
I also voted no. I have no issue with nurses coming to this country on their own volition. I have a problem though, with hospitals spending the cash to bring them here. If they focused on retention rather than recruitment, a difference might be seen.

Why NOT spend the cash to improve nurse-patient ratios & working conditions with local staff rather than recruit from overseas to fill the positions? If they're going to spend money after all, why not spend it to help the nurses & patients here.

Besides, the other countries need their nurses, too!

Exactly! Plus, having seen three cycles of 'nursing shortage' prompted recruitment of foreign nurses in my career, I know that this is not a solution. If it were a solution, why does it keep occurring every decade?

0 Votes
I, also, do not feel the united states has a nursing shortage. If hospitals and other health care facilities would up the pay, benefits and staffing, there would be nurses coming out of everywhere. No I do not believe they should recruit from other countries. Lets do something original: TAKE CARE OF THE NURSES WE HAVE HERE!!!!!
RIGHT ON!!!!!PAY US WHAT WER'E WORTH!!!
0 Votes
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