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

grneiis · Jun 03, 2004, 08:12 AM

[quote=brian]This month's survey Question:

Should nurses from other countries be recruited to aid in the nursing shortage?
Brian: I am interested in how this survey comes out. When will it be completed? I am doing my thesis on brain drain and international nurse recrutiment. Also, no I do not think nurses should be recruited to aid in the US nursing shortage. International nurse recruitment is a symptom of our present shortage, not the answer. We need to work on why there is a shortage, i.e. wages, working conditions, etc. Although I am all for individual freedom, taking nurses from other countries is not the answer. It only drains human resouces from developing countries who are already compromised. Furthermore, those countries deserve some type of compensation for their loss .-grneiis

grneiis · Jun 03, 2004, 10:54 AM

[quote=brian]This month's survey Question:

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

There is projected to be 400,000 (Reilly, 2003) vacant nursing positions in the US over the next 10 years. Yes, we probably do have a shortage as the nursing population is aging and the average age of today's nurse is around 45 years old. Also, who will teach the new nurses-there is a shortage of professors. International nurse recruitment is not the answer to our problems-grneiis

cwernc · Jun 03, 2004, 11:43 AM

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Originally Posted by brian

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.

all

Foreign nurses are not the issue, Our lack of working nurses is. There are nurses brought over fronm the Phillapines that are here for a year, all expenses paid, prior to them starting jobs. They are supported by the hospitals they will work for. Why is no one acting on inactive nurses? Why is no one looking at disabled nurses. I am disabled and work full time from a chair.

grneiis · Jun 03, 2004, 12:00 PM

Originally Posted by cwernc

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Foreign nurses are not the issue, Our lack of working nurses is. There are nurses brought over fronm the Phillapines that are here for a year, all expenses paid, prior to them starting jobs. They are supported by the hospitals they will work for. Why is no one acting on inactive nurses? Why is no one looking at disabled nurses. I am disabled and work full time from a chair.

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I believe the issue is the fact that foreign nurses are not the answer, international nurse recruitment is a symptom of a much greater problem and the problem is a lack of nurses to fill the needs and future needs of this country. We are already lacking nursing educators (professors) and with an aging nurse population -this is a futher concern. Who will teach our youth? Think about this, it was discovered that many foreign nurses working in the United States were earning lower wages than their American peers (Reilly). Alarming as this could ultimately lead to lower wages for United States nurses. Not good. In addition, & I am sure you would agree, brain drain is ethically wrong. It further compromises other countries, esp. developing ones (principle of distributive justice). Why does anyone need to look at disabled nurses or those nurse who are not currently working? If they want to work, they can. However, perhaps something is holding them back...poor working conditions? Poor wages? Again, international nurse recruitment is not the answer-we need to look at WHY the nurses are not working and what we can do to reverse that.
-grneiis

cwernc · Jun 03, 2004, 12:43 PM

OK, now I am angry. I am a disabled nurse and it took me 18 months to find a job. Those nurses with visible disabilities, canes, scooters etc are not even considered. It is not the fact that they don't want to work, go to the site DisabledNursesandHeathcareProfessionals.yahoo.com and read the stories, read the experiences in trying to get a job, before you judge us.

This is a perfect example of what we run up agaainst, if you want to work, go to work. Well, the truth is if you want to work get a recruiter to see you , not the disability.

kwilkinson30 · Jun 03, 2004, 02:15 PM

I too agree there is not as much a nursing shortage as a lack of willingness by the hospitals to pay for and support our local nurses. I have nothing against traveling nurses or international nurses (I actually enjoy working with them) but I do feel that if the hospitals paid the nurses on staff even 70% of the amount they have to pay the travelers and their agencies that more nurses would remain loyal to the facility.

grneiis · Jun 03, 2004, 02:15 PM

Originally Posted by cwernc

OK, now I am angry. I am a disabled nurse and it took me 18 months to find a job. Those nurses with visible disabilities, canes, scooters etc are not even considered. It is not the fact that they don't want to work, go to the site DisabledNursesandHeathcareProfessionals.yahoo.com and read the stories, read the experiences in trying to get a job, before you judge us.

This is a perfect example of what we run up agaainst, if you want to work, go to work. Well, the truth is if you want to work get a recruiter to see you , not the disability.

I dont mean to anger you, what about the ADA? And I am not judging you. Anger will not accomplish anything.

grneiis · Jun 03, 2004, 02:20 PM

Originally Posted by kwilkinson30

I too agree there is not as much a nursing shortage as a lack of willingness by the hospitals to pay for and support our local nurses. I have nothing against traveling nurses or international nurses (I actually enjoy working with them) but I do feel that if the hospitals paid the nurses on staff even 70% of the amount they have to pay the travelers and their agencies that more nurses would remain loyal to the facility.

Agree, it is hard to work next to someone who is 1. has no loyalities to the facility 2. making much more $$ than yourself. Distrubing.

Sheri257 · Jun 03, 2004, 02:54 PM

Originally Posted by mfdteacher

I am well aware that not all nurses work in hospitals, but I'd bet that is where the majority of nursing positions are.

According to the U.S. Health Department, about 60 percent of nursing jobs are in hospitals. Just FYI.

*suzanne4* · Jun 03, 2004, 05:47 PM

Originally Posted by fergus51

I have known several nurses who passed english tests. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean they can actually function in healthcare with their level of fluency.

If you are talking about just the TOEFL exam, which is all that the US used to require to work in the US on a temporary work ppermit such as H1-B, that is very correct. TOEFL alone doesn't prove that you have fuctional English skills at all. I know of students that have passed that test and coan't speak a word of English.
Now they are required to have the TSE (TEst of Spoken English) as well as the TWE (Test of Written English). The scores necessary to pass TSE are equivalent to those of a native speaker. But remember that these tests only look at "regular" English, not "medical" English. That is why I set up my program. My students actually do dictation of medical terms, such as "Call a Code"-"Please page anesthesia stat"-"Call Dr. Jones at his office now"- along with various others. They are quite aware of the cultural differences of working in the US, vs. their home country. They also learn about the American diet, as they will no longer be eating rice at every meal, and how to do patient teaching about same. They can actually tell you the differences between Atkins and South Beach diets.