Re: Relief for retrogression hope??? Originally Posted by prasamsa 
Suzanne, Just wondering, are you for international nurses or against them?
I have not seen any positive posts from you yet. I firmly believe that retrogression is gonna be lifted soon. There is no way US healthcare system can sustain without foreign nurses. (like any other sectors- IT, lans scaping, farming) I am sorry but it's the glass is half full or half empty scenario and you definitely always see it half-empty! Prasamsa
I don't know where you're getting your information from, but, at the present time there is no significant nursing shortage in the US. Much of the publicity about the "shortage" is coming from people and organizations who stand to benefit from such a perception (like all the international placement agencies that want foreign nurses to sign up and pay lots of fees in hopes of coming to the US). The US government's own labor figures show that there are presently more than enough licensed US RNs to fill every vacancy in the country -- it's just that many of them are choosing not to work as RNs because of the low salaries and poor working conditions offered by many hospitals/employers. Many of those RNs are already returning to the workplace because of the recent downturn in the US economy.
There are
areas of the US that have legitimate shortages; but those tend to be the parts of the country that are less popular and desirable for people to live -- places that foreign nurses don't want to live, either (I notice the majority of the posts here from people wanting to immigrate to the US seem to involve moving to CA or NY). In many areas of the country, the more "popular" and desirable areas to live, the market for nurses is completely saturated; new graduates from US schools can't find jobs in those areas at all, and even experienced RNs have difficulty finding jobs. Don't take my word for it -- look at all the threads on this site on that very topic! In my state, according to the state agency that tracks nursing workforce issues, there is officially
no nursing shortage and we haven't had a shortage in many years. Plenty of other states are in the same good condition.
The US healthcare system doesn't "need" foreign nurses
at all. Also, the US turns out plenty of BSN-prepared nurses all by itself -- are you not aware of all the BSN programs in the US? (However, even if we
weren't turning out plenty of "home-grown" BSN nurses, it's highly debatable whether BSN-prepared nurses are really "better" nurses than ADN or diploma graduates.)
I don't see how anyone can expect that retrogression will be lifted soon. That is simply wishful thinking; the numbers just don't compute. And it's not just the US; the immigration situation in much of the world has changed significantly in recent years. Canada and the EU have also put greater restrictions on nurses immigrating, I understand. Personally, I hope the US will
never go back to the days of allowing large numbers of foreign nurses to be brought in by employers, as it just enables (some) employers to keep US nursing salaries low and working conditions poor.
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