Emergency Nurse Relief Act 2009- Update

*MedSurg32RN* · Jun 03, 2009, 10:48 PM

In nursing lingo,

When we teach nurses to do an assessment, the nurse is to ask the patient (not the family, co worker, or chart ) about there health status. If a student did go to the patient to do the evaluation and assessment they would fail.

Here is a nursing issue, an assessment of a potential shortage, US Nurses are the front line staff, why do we need agencies , lawyers, or foreigners defining what we need.

The nursing community supports the Nursing Education Act, so why is the Emergency Relief Act even in the picture, since it is supported by Lawyers, Agencies, and Foreign Nurses. Who has more of a front line , first hand grasp of the situation.

According to some, the lawyers, the agencies, and people who have never worked in the USA know better then the US nurses. I find this loop sided and not logical.

moon906 · Jun 05, 2009, 07:55 PM

I would imagine that all employers sponsoring foreign-nurses would ask for some kind of contract or commitment. I heard most hospitals ask a foreign-born nurse to work for two years in exchange for permanent visa sponsorship (aka green card). I have a friend who worked for two years at a hospital which sponsored him.

Originally Posted by NP Gilly

... There are employers that require contracts signed in exchange for immigrant visa sponsorship.

On the other side of that coin, if a foreign nurse who arrives on an immigrant visa is hired by an unfair employer who did not ask for a contract, the foreign nurse will naturally leave the employer to work somewhere else - that's just survival. Again, no matter what a nurse's country of origin is, we know what's unfair and we know what is considered good working conditions...

I'm glad that some people noticed $1,500.00 application or filing fee that a foreign-nurse has to pay if this bill is approved. $1,500 * 20,000 visas = 30, 000, 000.00. So, this 30 million will go toward improving US nursing programs and training more US nurses after all.

lindarn · Jun 08, 2009, 01:18 AM

[quote=moon906;3667939]I would imagine that all employers sponsoring foreign-nurses would ask for some kind of contract or commitment. I heard most hospitals ask a foreign-born nurse to work for two years in exchange for permanent visa sponsorship (aka green card). I have a friend who worked for two years at a hospital which sponsored him.

I'm glad that some people noticed $1,500.00 application or filing fee that a foreign-nurse has to pay if this bill is approved. $1,500 * 20,000 visas = 30, 000, 000.00. So, this 30 million will go toward improving US nursing programs and training more US nurses after all.[/QUOTE

Who won't have jobs because there will be 20,000 foreign nurses who will have been hired in place of American nurses because the hospitals just paid for these nurses to emigrate to this country and will want a return on their money.
JMHO and my NY $0.02.

Lindarn, Rn, BSN, CCRN
Spokane, Washington

*MedSurg32RN* · Jun 08, 2009, 07:05 AM

Linda,

It costs the hospitals more to recruit foreign nurses. Most don't have the resources for an airplane ticket or money to rent an apartment so their agency will help with those expenses. Do a google search on foreign recruitment and the web pages all state the same. Then the foreign nurses have an extended orientation, sometimes much longer than new grads. In Canada there are nurses who have been working for over a year as new grad and not passed the Canadian Boards.

So $1500 is small potatoes compared to the $30K which is what is the cost of bringing a foreign nurse, what would be fair is for every foreign nurse $30K goes to American education.

moon906 · Jun 08, 2009, 10:19 AM

I don't think 20,000 foreign-born RNs will be hired in place of American nurses. The stats say that there will be ONE MILLION open nursing position by 2020! I don't know the current stats, but I'm sure there are position that you just can't fill with American RNs.

Look at this bill http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill...bill=h111-2536
It talks a lot about how the fees from from foreign nurses will be spent etc.

Also, I'm not sure about the cost of recruiting, but I know NOT all 20,000 RNs will go through recruiting agencies. People like myself (US-educated Rns who are already in the States) will probably deal directly with the hospital, and there is no need for airfare etc. Thus, the idea of charging 30K from every one of 20,000 foreign-RNs is ridiculous.

**Silverdragon102** · Jun 08, 2009, 11:34 AM

If this is successful then allocation should go to the ones in the queue already and have been waiting.

*MedSurg32RN* · Jun 08, 2009, 04:52 PM

It seems like there are three different camps.

A.Foreign nurses waiting for retrogression to be over, have played by the rules waiting patiently.

B. American educated foreign nurses who want to be employed and have not gone through the normal immigration channels.

C. And then their are the American nurses, who through their organizations ( ANA, California Nurses Association, and other professional nursing organizations who oppose this bill.

If there is truly an emergency ( which I personally don't believe there is ) I would support the American trained foreign nurses practicing. If there is a need for controlled immigration of foreign nurses the "A" group should be allowed in to work and live.

Typical US government propose a bill without asking the groups ( the nurses ) what they want and need. I do feel their will be an immigration bill passed this year but issues such as illegal immigrants and reuniting families will be passed not nurses.

Hushdawg · Jun 10, 2009, 05:34 AM

I'm totally bowing out of this discussion... I feel like I'm trying to convince a hamster to stop running in his wheel.

moon906 · Jun 16, 2009, 09:16 AM

Originally Posted by Alexk49

It seems like there are three different camps.

A.Foreign nurses waiting for retrogression to be over, have played by the rules waiting patiently.

B. American educated foreign nurses who want to be employed and have not gone through the normal immigration channels.

It seems like some people think that US-trained foreign nurses are the ones who haven't played by the rules. That's so wrong!! As I said before, and I'm repeating myself again, we have been playing by the rules too!! It's just there are some steps in the application process that we are allowed to skip, such as
- TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language), Spoken English Test --- I think it's a common sense that these exams are waived for us since we managed to successfully complete nursing programs (taught in English!) in the States;
- CGFNS certificate - we took NCLEX-RN, and have US RN licenses, thus we do not need to take international licensure exam (i think that what CGFNS certificate is, I just know I do not need that)
- since we are in the States we do not need to schedule a consular interview which seems like has a long wait period in many countries, instead we wil have to apply for an adjustment of status here in the US.
- there is also a Premium Processing fee. My understanding is that if you pay this optional fee (about $1,000 I think) you can have your application processed a bit faster. I think this Premium processing fee applies to all applicants whether your are US-trained or non-US-trained.
There are might be other steps US-trained RNs can skip. So, without knowing the details plese do not jump to a wrong conclusion!!

I agree with Hashdawg, it seems like i'm talking to a 'dead' wall!

**Silverdragon102** · Jun 16, 2009, 01:04 PM

Originally Posted by moon906

It seems like some people think that US-trained foreign nurses are the ones who haven't played by the rules. That's so wrong!! As I said before, and I'm repeating myself again, we have been playing by the rules too!! It's just there are some steps in the application process that we are allowed to skip, such as
- TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language), Spoken English Test --- I think it's a common sense that these exams are waived for us since we managed to successfully complete nursing programs (taught in English!) in the States;
- CGFNS certificate - we took NCLEX-RN, and have US RN licenses, thus we do not need to take international licensure exam (i think that what CGFNS certificate is, I just know I do not need that)
- since we are in the States we do not need to schedule a consular interview which seems like has a long wait period in many countries, instead we wil have to apply for an adjustment of status here in the US.
- there is also a Premium Processing fee. My understanding is that if you pay this optional fee (about $1,000 I think) you can have your application processed a bit faster. I think this Premium processing fee applies to all applicants whether your are US-trained or non-US-trained.
There are might be other steps US-trained RNs can skip. So, without knowing the details plese do not jump to a wrong conclusion!!

I agree with Hashdawg, it seems like i'm talking to a 'dead' wall!

CGFNS exam is now only required by approx 4 states, most you can just do a course eval by CGFNS. Premium processing was available for everyone regardless on where they trained and is no longer available as schedule A is no longer available.

It is also thought that when you train in the US on a F1 visa that you will be returning back to your home country to work. It isn't always seen as a dual intent visa.

The only steps a US trained foreign individual misses is taking English exams. Otherwise the process is the same, find employer, get vsc, file I140 and join the queue. When visas are available you can AOS but so can someone who trained outside the US as long as they have passed NCLEX have vsc and visas are current