A shortage of nurses, and common sense

Everyone is entitled to their opinion. The person in charge of the country has to look at home and has to set requirements. What is the Philippines going to do if more and more countries expect nursing experience of 1-2-3 years before allowing them to work in the country? I see many threads in the Philippine forum on people struggling to find work and even struggling to pass English exams. I am not saying looking at another country is impossible but you have to look at yourself and make sure you can sell yourself appropriately. That will mean gain working experience, especially in an area that may have shortages, learn the language both oral and written and be able to communicate clearly and concisely. When a country is producing more nurses than jobs and expecting the nurses to move away from the country it should make sure that there are adequate resources to train appropriately and offer work experience.

Moving country is hard, I know cos I have done it but you have to meet the country's requirements and if it means waiting several years then be prepared to wait but don't loose out on learning new skills, improving language skills and looking at promoting yourself

It's just another one of those articles that blames everybody else but doesn't want to look home, and I'm just tired of hearing again and again of worlds best health care providers, it's such a nonsense and it's very offensive. And actually quite a few filippinos struggle with english, since it's their second language and they don't use it in private life.
And before anybody is saying how do you know, I work with many filipinos, I like them very much, and some of them are excellent nurses and their english is great, but not all of them have the same skill levels, and why, because they are humans like everybody else!

5cats

So...the way to come the US is to insult the US? Doubt it!

We don't have a nursing shortage in the US - we have a recession and hospitals are not hiring anyone!!! What's so hard to understanding?

I don't get it. The American government has never encouraged students to study nursing to come to America. There is no current nursing shortage. Common sense tells me that Americans should be employed first. What bothers me who is telling students to study nursing so they can come to the USA, common sense tells me that they should be stopped. Thanks for posting.

Still is Nursing Shortage in parts of USA.

We had my wife Clinical Instructor from her Nursing School in Philippines spend the week with us. She came to USA in August with her Husband and child.

She is working in West Texas Hospital, and said 4 Philippines Nurses arrived there to work last month.

She said she is working around 20 hours per week overtime cuz they don't have enough staff.

How did these foreign nurses come to the USA with retrogression in place ?

Also on ABC news, there was a story how Americans hard hit with unemployment are moving to Texas. I wonder if this hospital offered to relocate American Nurses.

It's too bad that Korina Sanchez doesn't read the allnurses forum--if she did, she'd "get it!"

But obviously she hasn't been paying attention. If she had, she'd stop writing things like "Hopefully they will all come to their senses and start to realize that our Filipino nurses are world-class caregivers, more that capable of giving the best healthcare in the world!" Guess she's not familiar with the NLE pass rate these days, or the problems that plague the nursing education system in the Philippines. New Zealand, anyone??

And I gotta love this comment: "Even during this time of financial turmoil, most Americans still want the cushy, high-paying jobs that would allow them to get that loan for sports car, buy that plasma tv and get to travel to Acapulco during weekends."
Sports cars? Weekends in Acapulco?? More like Toyota Corollas and weekends on the unit!!

It's a real shame that someone with so little insight into the current situation in the US feels the need to spread her lack of knowledge to others.

The US president is "alarmed," and he should be. He is smart enough to realize that the prospect of importing foreign workers while US unemployment is increasing is alarming to the vast majority of Americans.

"Most of the employment problems of the US can be traced to the fact that most Americans do not want to do the dirty jobs that are easily filled by non-Americans. But at the same time, they curse those employed for taking away the jobs from them."

I am gonna have to agree with this statement 100%, Not only related to nursing but to many industries in USA.

I take offense to you calling nursing a dirty job. I feel it is an honor working with my patients. It is very difficult to become a nurse in the USA, it is very competitive to gain admission. Schools that do have a high NCLEX pass rate are closed. Nursing school in the US is very difficult and the standards are very high. I have many students who have a BA/BS from top US universities who struggle with nursing. Why would a person do this if it was a "dirty" job?

Nurses who work 20 hours of over time are not doing their patients are favors. Studies have shown that nurse who exceed 56 hours are make errors many of them life threatening. Nurses who work these hours empower hospitals to continue with poor working conditions with little regard to the patients or employees. In fact training for physicians now have very strict rules on the hours they can work. Nurses who work 20 hours of overtime are doing it for the money and not looking to advance the nursing profession.


And with retrogression in place how did 5 Philippine nurses beat retrogression?