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| No. 30 | 
Aug 31, 2008, 06:43 PM
 Re: Attention: Philippines nurses - there is no nursing shortage in America
Sorry, but there is a retrogression in place and those that are considering working in the US are looking at about a five year wait for a chance at a green card to be able to work here.
And suspect that your parents trained about 20 years ago plus; and the training was significantly different than it is now.
It is not a point of someone wishing to work in the US, but they need to be able to get a legal visa to work here, and right now; it is just not going to happen.
There are no jobs available in the Philippines at present, so how can one even have experience as an RN? No work experience is going to make it quite difficult for one to get a job here. We are seeing contracts cancelled because the skill set was not up to where it should have been, and with five years and no work in the nursing field, then going to be quite difficult to get thru the immigration process.
Suggest that you take the time to do some reading here to see what is actually going on. There are also quite a few American nurses that have gone back to working at the bedside that were stay at home moms, as well as others picking up second and third jobs since the economy has gotten so bad in many areas. It costs over $10,000 for each and every foreign nurse that is brought to the US to work; with things the way that they are right now, very few employers are willing to start the process and wait the five years plus. Only those agencies that are hoping that the nurse signs with them and then backs out of their contract so that they can get paid the cancellation fee are doing anything.
There are close to a million students enrolled in nursing schools right now in the Philippines, and 15 to 18 students to patient, so the skills that one can possibly do are quite limited. Suggest that you speak to your parents about what things were like when they went to school and each patient had only one student nurse assigned to them at a time.
 | | Advertisement Sponsored Links | | | | No. 31 |
Aug 31, 2008, 06:55 PM
Re: Attention: Philippines nurses - there is no nursing shortage in America
Every conference I attend, warn us that Medicare plans to be level funded for the next 20 years despite due to baby boomers enrolling in Medicare.
Since most of the hospitals get the majority of their funding through Medicare and Medcaid, I predict that these nursing vacancies will not appear. Also it is not cost effective to import nurses...if there is a nursing shortage they will be educated in the US for the simple reason is cheaper and won't take away from the hospital's bottom line.
Many of the hospitals in my area that had to resort to importing foreign nurses in the 80's ansd 90's have been closed. I would not count on a US nursing shortage when planning your nursing career.
| | No. 32 |
Sep 01, 2008, 12:41 AM
Re: Attention: Philippines nurses - there is no nursing shortage in America
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>
In my own small humble way I may be contributing to the U.S. nursing shortage in the near future. Well, sort of. After working in a large medical center here in the San Francisco Bay Area for the last 27.5 years I have decided to hang the towel. Again, sort of.
I will be "retiring" from my regular RN job in less than 2 months time. I won't reveal the name of the medical center where I'm currently working but since this is a government-owned hospital I have been eligible for early retirement for the last two years. For those of you who may have read my previous posts before I may sound a like a broken record to you! (or a CD!)
I have decided to collect my hard earned retirement pension and enjoy life a little bit more. My wife and I will take a few weeks off, perhaps visit relatives in the Philippines or take a cruise. I want to see the Colorado Rocky Mountains, and hike up to the base of Half Dome in Yosemite National Park. Then I will continue to hang around the house for a few more weeks doing a lot of deferred household chores that I have meant to do for a long time.
I plan to go back to the medical center that has been my second home for almost 3 decades to work as a "per diem" RN sometime in the near future. This part-time job will supplement my retirement pension until I get my early retirement Federal Social Security pension at age 62yo.
I also plan to go back to work in a SNF as a part-time nursing supervisor. I tried this type of work 3 years ago on a temporary basis and I found that it was not as bad as I thought it would be. I actually liked the slower pace of work in a SNF as compared the the very, very fast pace and hectic work in an acute care hospital, especially in the medical center where I am currently working.
Having worked as a charge nurse and as well a staff nurse in a very busy acute care hospital, being a nursing supervisor in a Skilled Nursing Facility was a welcome change for me three years ago.
Yes, there is a nursing shortage in the U.S.A. I have asked a few friends about job openings in a few SNF's and there are many jobs for RN's out there. If you have years of U.S. nursing experience, many acute care hospitals will have a job waiting for you. Hundreds of thousands of RN's my generation will soon be retiring and we are not being replaced fast enough by U.S.-educated nurses to ease the nursing shortage.
Want to hear one proof of a U.S. nursing shortage?...In our unit alone we employ several "traveling" RN's from various parts of the U.S. working on a temporary basis. Our nursing department can't find enough experienced RN's to staff our hospital. Therefore we employ "traveling" nurses. These "traveling" RN's are expensive, they get good pay as well as a housing allowance of up to $3,000/month, in cash. I think they are worth the price of their salaries. They make work that much easier for the permanent nursing staff of the hospital. And all of these "traveling" RN's have years of valuable experience, they adapt easily, they are independent and are reliable.
We need more nurses in America!
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >
| | No. 33 |
Sep 01, 2008, 10:25 AM
Re: Attention: Philippines nurses - there is no nursing shortage in America
Congrads on your retirement Dale City, enjoy your time you have earned it.
I look over on the individual state boards on allnurses. I see many newly licensed RNs in your own state complaining that they can not get a nursing position. If there are many open positions why are they not finding these positions. I find similar posts in other states. I also here this form newly licensed nurses in my area.
Yes, in the next 20 years there will be many retired nurses, but I have also been reading that many programs are being developed to keep nurses active past age 65. Also there are many qualifed students turned away from nursing programs, the goal should be to have them trained and work as RNS. Most bills that have not been passed include funding for these programs.
Travel nurses are cost effective for hospitals. To be a travel nurse you ave to be experience, therefore the hospital does not have to pay thousands of dollar orienting the nurses. The hospital does not have to pay FICA or unemployment insurance, they don't have to provide health insurance, ( my hospital pays 12K alone in this benefit). I see the use of travel nurses as a cost effective way for hospitals to have nurses. I don't agree with this policy but that is the way hospital adminstrators see this.
To work in the VA, my understanding now you must be a US citizen.
My last point, everything I hear and read, states Medicare is going to be level funded the next 20 years. This is not rumor but fact. The plan is cut services to Medicare patients, I am assuming this cut will include nursing services.
| | No. 35 |
Sep 01, 2008, 11:32 AM
Re: Attention: Philippines nurses - there is no nursing shortgae in America Originally Posted by jonRNMD  most American nurses have the impression that immigrant nurses are depressing wages and are more willing to work for less pay because most of them do not know the fact that immigrant nurses being petitioned for immigrant visas are being paid market-rate wages. it would be a federal offense for a hospital to pay an immigrant nurse lower salaries compared to american nurses. both have to receive market-rate wages.
Very true -- facilities can't pay foreign nurses less. However, not only do most US nurses not know this, many refuse to believe it.
In addition, many believe that the availability of foreign nurses allow facilities to get away with overall lower wages and higher staffing ratios.
Does it? Maybe. Probably? I don't know. Personally, I suspect that facilities would find other ways of cutting back on licensed staff, rather than improve conditions to the point where non-working nurses would come back to the bedside. UAPs (unlicensed assistive personnel) are cheaper, easier (read cheaper) to replace, and can do many of the things licensed staff traditionally do, as long as the licensed staff does the assessments and charting. Which is really unfortunate for those of us with nursing licenses -- we spend nanoseconds with the patient, yet "get" to complete mountains of paperwork (or pages of computer forms).
However, I work in a hospital that would be in a dire condition if it wasn't for our foreign nurses (most from the Philippines). For the most part, I think we are very welcoming. Maybe not --maybe I'm very naive. But I haven't seen any prejudice first-hand. If anything, people seem to prefer working with the nurses from the Philippines because (at my hospital) they are perceived as hard working.
I'm not completely stupid; I'm sure some prejudice exists, but it hasn't yet occurred in front of me. You know, it is an unfortunate tradition in the USA for new immigrants to be mistreated by the immigrants of past generations. My Irish-born relatives learned that first-hand in the early 1900s, as did their Italian contemporaries. Fortunately for them, they looked anglo enough that much of that was overcome by a change in their last name.
Kind of ironic, isn't it?
| | No. 37 |
Sep 01, 2008, 12:26 PM
Re: Attention: Philippines nurses - there is no nursing shortage in America
Critter lover, could you state where you live? I did a search in the Bay area, I found one Federal Medical Center ( the VA) and only saw 4 nursing opportunities and they all required experience and US citizenship. I would like to point current newly licensed nurses to your area, it sounds like you need immediate help.
How is your hospital coping with retrogression, or have they found a loop hole to keep importing foreign nurses?
I do know that foreign nurses can't be paid lower wages but thank you for pointing that out. I think foreign nurses need to know the reality of the US nursing situation and not be given false hope. I just don't see the need for importing nurses when our graduate nurses are unemployed.
If and when retrogression is lifted the Phillipine nurse will not be the only nurse trying to get into the US. English nurses, Indian, Korean, and other countries all have nurses who have similar training and desire to move to the US.
| | No. 38 |
Sep 01, 2008, 01:37 PM
Re: Attention: Philippines nurses - there is no nursing shortage in America Originally Posted by Alexk49 Critter lover, could you state where you live? I did a search in the Bay area, I found one Federal Medical Center ( the VA) and only saw 4 nursing opportunities and they all required experience and US citizenship. I would like to point current newly licensed nurses to your area, it sounds like you need immediate help.
How is your hospital coping with retrogression, or have they found a loop hole to keep importing foreign nurses?
I do know that foreign nurses can't be paid lower wages but thank you for pointing that out. I think foreign nurses need to know the reality of the US nursing situation and not be given false hope. I just don't see the need for importing nurses when our graduate nurses are unemployed.
If and when retrogression is lifted the Phillipine nurse will not be the only nurse trying to get into the US. English nurses, Indian, Korean, and other countries all have nurses who have similar training and desire to move to the US. PM sent, let me know if I can help! | | No. 39 |
Sep 01, 2008, 02:54 PM
Re: Attention: Philippines nurses - there is no nursing shortage in America Originally Posted by suzanne4 Sorry, but there is a retrogression in place and those that are considering working in the US are looking at about a five year wait for a chance at a green card to be able to work here.
And suspect that your parents trained about 20 years ago plus; and the training was significantly different than it is now.
It is not a point of someone wishing to work in the US, but they need to be able to get a legal visa to work here, and right now; it is just not going to happen.
There are no jobs available in the Philippines at present, so how can one even have experience as an RN? No work experience is going to make it quite difficult for one to get a job here. We are seeing contracts cancelled because the skill set was not up to where it should have been, and with five years and no work in the nursing field, then going to be quite difficult to get thru the immigration process.
Suggest that you take the time to do some reading here to see what is actually going on. There are also quite a few American nurses that have gone back to working at the bedside that were stay at home moms, as well as others picking up second and third jobs since the economy has gotten so bad in many areas. It costs over $10,000 for each and every foreign nurse that is brought to the US to work; with things the way that they are right now, very few employers are willing to start the process and wait the five years plus. Only those agencies that are hoping that the nurse signs with them and then backs out of their contract so that they can get paid the cancellation fee are doing anything.
There are close to a million students enrolled in nursing schools right now in the Philippines, and 15 to 18 students to patient, so the skills that one can possibly do are quite limited. Suggest that you speak to your parents about what things were like when they went to school and each patient had only one student nurse assigned to them at a time.
In my previous post, i didn't mean to convey that it was easy to come to America to be a nurse. In fact i didn't state anything about the topic of immigration. I understand for a fact that it is quite difficult to come to migrate to the US no matter where you are. Currently my parents are sending 5 relatives to nursing school in the Philippines and are trying to help another get a working visa. The process in getting at least a working visa is very difficult, and will currently will take many years, but to say that it's not going to happen is just a statement of discouragement than fact; its happening everyday.
Sorry if my first post was unclear, but it wasn't referring to immigration at all, but to the original topic of the shortage of nurses. Again, i cannot speak for all of America and it is not likely that anyone could, but I know for fact that in the Los Angeles area, there is not doubt a plethora of openings. I would obviously think there would be more opportunities for nurses in areas that are more populated.
To the original inquiry, I'm sure you already know that immigration is a difficult process but if you for sure know that nursing is what you want to do with your life, then don't let anyone convince you that you can't do it.
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