Importing nurses from the Phillipines

Nurses Activism

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My hospital is working on getting nurses from the Phillipines to fill some of our needs. We have been in the paper process for almost a year and now it looks like we actually will be getting some of these nurses in the next few months. Has anyone else gone this route? What were your challenges and surprizes. What did you discover you worried about needlessly?

I do wonder how the imported nurse will affect attempts to unionize.

Why, BBnurse? Are "foreign" nurses prohibited from joining unions in the US? Seems to me that if the unions were actually offering something worthwhile, there would be no reason why the O/S trained nurses would not want to join them.

Sunnygirl----- I was given that stats by a nurse educator. I'll be happy to contact her to give where she got the stats from. I am not sure where's your location, but just visit one of the hospital here in CA and just look around you.

I was given that stats by a nurse educator. I'll be happy to contact her to give where she got the stats from. I am not sure where's your location, but just visit one of the hospital here in CA and just look around you.

I would also like to see the source for that bit of information. There is a lot more to the US than CA hospitals. I have worked in Las Vegas, Oklahoma, and Washington. I have never worked with a Filipina nurse. Just my observation.

bob

Originally posted by 2ndCareerRN

I would also like to see the source for that bit of information. There is a lot more to the US than CA hospitals. I have worked in Las Vegas, Oklahoma, and Washington. I have never worked with a Filipina nurse. Just my observation.

bob

thanks bob..i was also wondering when we became the United State of Calilfornia...am waiting with baited breath for the source of that statistic...

Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

Please keep your posts on topic without bashing others.

I've posted before about working at the UN--in a West Philadelphia, PA hospital in 1977-1999. Middle shift had Seamus from Ireland and Lita from Phillipines as RN's. Night shift worked with Mrs T from Thailand as night shift Supervisor, Anna C from India and Anna T--IV therapist RN extraordinare who found er invented veins in patients. These fine folks heavily invested in this novice LPN nurse and led me to become the professional RN I am today. Our night shift ancillary staff was from around the world.

Yes, they spoke English but I had to understand their accent/broggue. As charge nurse on nights, I had the aides help interpret Mrs T for about three months as she spoke rapidly. Came to understand her as a brillant woman who kept our hospitals night shift together and the hospital afloat. Initially reserved, they opened up and became more assertive after a few months. I'm sure I'd be the same way if I went to India, Phillipines or even England to practice nursing. They were great practitioners and patient centered advocates.

Agree that potluck dinners brought us together. Treasure Seamus's Quiche recipe and learned the secret to Ponsit and Greens. Unless workplace conditions are improved, even foreign educated nurses will only stay the length of their contract.

Here are some interesting articles on the subject:

National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) Position Statement: Foreign (International) Nurse Immigration

http://www.ncsbn.org/public/news/res/G1Immig1.pdf

From ANA: Immigration and the Nursing Workforce

http://nursingworld.org/gova/federal/legis/107/immigr.htm

Uniform Core Licensure Requirements

A Supporting Paper, July 1999

http://www.ncsbn.org/public/regulation/nursing_practice_licensing.htm

International council tackles universal issues

Nursing shortages, poverty, standards of care bedevil health-care systems worldwide

http://health.workopolis.com/servlet/Content/rprinter/20010627/issues

World Health Organization: Trade in health services

http://www.who.int/bulletin/pdf/2002/bul-2-E-2002/80(2)158-163.pdf

Nursing shortage imperils patients

http://www.usatoday.com/news/healthscience/health/2001-06-27-nursing-shortage.htm

An Opinion: The Future of Nursing

http://www.nurspeak.com/tools/articles/future.htm

i am glad that this issue is in focus. yes i agree whatever race ,color or creed, a nurse is still a nurse. we filipinos accept constructive critisism but not destructuctive almost a racist

reply. i am currently working in a multi culture hospital here in central london working with irish, spanish, south african

canadian,australian and american nurses but we never clash on whos the braniest or whos country's nursing education gives the best. were all the dream team because at the end of the day its the patients that we look after and discharging them with good results is what makes us a good or even an excellent nurse whatever your nationality is. i admit its a bit of a shock for me when i first came to england specially their accents coz im quite used to the american way of speaking and up to now they question me about it. my friend a.k.a. nurse betty is a nurse from arizona and i was asigned to be her mentor shes very shocked about the practice in here but after a while shes one of my best staff nurse. you see all it takes is time, even a flower cannot blossom overnight. kudos to all my co nurses. thanks for those

inspiring response. and to all my co-filipino or foreign nurses remeber that a flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful. be proud of what you are and try to be the best of what you are without stepping on somebody,s or anybody,s shoe.

cheers

apols_uk

jed hows california? its foggy here in london but anyway take care

In our city, we have many Phillipine nurses who were recruited in the '80s - '90s. Their nursing schools are based on US nursing schools, they graduate with BSNs, theyre taught in English & use US nursing textbooks - their training is very similar to our own & thats why US hospitals seek them out. It used to be that the country produced more RNs than it needed & they were encouraged to emigrate to other countries but the well is drying up & the Phillipines is also facing its own shortage - especially of experienced nurses. Continued recruitment from countries that need their own nurses is a reprehensible thing to do. Recently in the news, a Phillipine official was quoted asking other countries to slow down their RN recruitment in his country because they just couldnt keep up on more. But in the past 20 yrs, I have never had a problem working with Filipinas. Contrary to popular belief, they do not act as the MDs handmaiden & they do think for themselves. They are smart & dedicated. They do question orders & speak up for themselves in the workplace. They may seem meek & timid because of the way their culture teaches them to present themselves, but they are far from meek & timid. Foreign nurses have to be treated as any other RN at their facility, have to be paid the same as any other newly hired at her facility with the same education & experience would be, & if that facilitys RNs are unionized, the foreign recruit becomes part of the RN union too. Many Phillipine nurses here are active in the profession & are also pro-active in the workplace.

The New York State Nurses Assoc, one of the most successful & largest RN labor unions, has several Philipine RNs on the Board of Directors and as assembly delegates elected by the membership to direct the course of the union, the associations president elect is a Filipina and former president of the Phillipine Nurses Association of NY, well respected & loved by all. Its a misconception when people who do not have much interaction with nurses from the Phillipines consider them to be "china dolls" & subservient. They may be hesitant at first, being in a new country & trying to adapt to that, but the majority I have worked with are no doormats by any means. If we could see past our own prejudices, we would see so much more.

listen, If there was ever anyone outhere who knows philippinos its me.

I spent two years as a mormon missionary in the philippines. I speak tagalog( the national language) and ilokano ( a native dililect very fluently. fluent enough to be a linquist for the military intel. I am also a Critical Care nurse. Trust me I have some insight on this matter that most don't.

I will tell you right now and bet my life on it. This is not going to work like you think it will. words can not even explain.

however if anyone ever needs a fluent Tagalog speaker who also knows the intracacies of critical care or any care for that matter. I can be bought. I am on my way to CRNA school but I do have about six months to give. If the price is right.

matt.

Specializes in Oncology/Haemetology/HIV.
Originally posted by jed

Sunnygirl----- I was given that stats by a nurse educator. I'll be happy to contact her to give where she got the stats from. I am not sure where's your location, but just visit one of the hospital here in CA and just look around you.

Sorry, Jed some of us lowly travelors from that great foreign enclave of North Georgia have seen maybe one or two filapino nurses in the the last 10 years. Just call us deprived.

I guess I'll have to take my passport with me - North of the Mason-Dixon line and West of the Mississippi. Remember you can leave the south without it, but they won't let you back in without proof of Southern citizenship.

I welcome all well-educated, well spoken qualified nurses to the US as I hope that they welcome me in my travels. I have been welcomed on missions - despite my great lack of knowledge of local customs, language and culture. I do have a problem with the US "stealing" nurses from underprivileged areas and not correcting the problems that have created the US nursing crisis to begin with. I also have a problem with the massive amounts of money that foreign recruitment and such takes, when the money could be used for other more worthy gains.

When will corporate america start fixing the problem, rather than just throwing more money at it?

No foreign-trainned nurses are not prohibited from unionizing. As a matter of fact the Philippino nurses are behind a union push at a major Los Angeles hospital as I type this. Vote will be in December.

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