Who's to blame for having oversupply of nurses here???...

[pablo75]

1. Ourselves

2. Relatives

3. Government

4. Schools

5. Media (T.V., Advertisements on Broadsheets)

I choose myself, why??? for believing on news on T.V.that there is a huge shortage of nurses and easily get carried by the vast amount of advertisements saying I'll have a great opportunity coming to U.S.. Assuming that graduating only as a BSN and passing the NLE and NCLEX is enough. I am also blaming myself for listening to C.I.s and lecturers and those in review centers with their sweet words which just gives us false hope. You... what is your story... do you blame yourself?

This is the reality i am facing now... If only... lot's of it...

[suzanne4, RN]

The issue is that there are less than 10,000 visas per year for those from the Philippines desiring green cards with employer petitioning and that includes dependents in that number. Total for the entire US is limited to 140,000. And with over 900,000 in school there now, and almost every other country requiring the local license as well as experience, there are going to be many that will never work in the field. And that is where the problem is to start off with.

[nieruth]

I suggest the NLE passing would increase to 90%

[high hopes]

I think 90% is too much. Even the top notchers can't get that score. 80% will be ok though. But I would like to suggest more on closing down of schools which performed poorly during examinations(NLE exam that is)and students who are consistently having poor grades be eliminated from the nursing course. Elimination should be done every semester. Schools should hire only experienced clinical instructors and not the fresh graduates because they don't have enough skills/knowledge to teach their students. In that way I believe, the Philippines will/can produce more qualified and competent nurses.

[miss_cy]

well i believe that regardless of your race, as long as you are qualified to work as an R.N. in a certain country. no one can trample you on the ground.

alot of hearsays can get you off the real track.(like spreading how rewarding the nursing career is in the states, without informing the "struggle" process on how a foreign nurse can get a visa and qualify to work in the u.s. or to some other country) so be real, accept the fact that the PI's economy right now is not good and tendency is, if a filipino has a chance of getting a job abroad, he'll most likely grab it.

everybody has the freedom to choose a career.

[suzanne4, RN]

The US has a pass rate of about 88% for those that are first-time takers and trained in the US. And when schools do not have adequate numbers that pass, then they get put on probation or actually closed down.

This is something that needs to be done with the programs there that have not even had one passing student for the NLE. And get things back to what they once were, not what it has become.

[AiSeeYooMailAreEn]

"GLOBALIZATION" is a term that large US companies started using to help their employees understand that they were being undercut and losing their jobs to cheaper foreign labor. It is a scapegoat word for foreigners that depend on America for employing them. Just my 2 cents.

[Ginger's Mom, MSN, RN]

Globalization is when jobs are exported not when people are imported.

After reading the results of the NLE, I am very scare that a nurse who went to a school that has a very low pass rate will practice nursing. These nurses are not well prepared.

The boards (NCLEX) in the US are a final check to see that the student has basic understanding. A nurse who has to study hours and take review courses, is basically teaching themselves nursing which defeats the purpose of nursing school. Any bright person could study the NCLEX review book and pass the test.

Most employers I have worked for state they want a nurse who graduated from a NLN approved program. This means students in the US have to pay high tutition to have qualified instructors. It also means that a high rate of students passing or the school is no longer a NLN approved school. Why not ask your school for NLN approval, they approve foreign programs.

So, in the US, the nursing students often have to wait for a program in an open spot for admission to nursing school.The student needs to pass the exam the first time, failing the NCLEX is seen a big failure. Also the student has to pay a hefty tutiton bill, what I saw post here for a semester is what many pay for one course. Then when US students pass they often don't get a position in a hospital. Now you think it is ok to ask them to compete for positions in their homeland. Some employers only care about cheap labor, and foreign grads fit this bill. That is why US policy is to limit immigration.

So, who is to blame, I would say the Phillipine government allowing these schools for allowing these schools to open up. And the nursing students not checking to see that their school has high standards, when I applied to nursing school I check my school had a 100% pass rate.

In the US, my daughter was applying to medical school. It is extremely difficult. She graduated top in her class, high gpa 3.9, and had a masters degree in clinical research. At one point she was considering going overseas to medical school. She was told, even if she went to the best over seas school she would always be considered second rate. My point is it is similar in nursing, coming from the best school you will always be behind a US nurse. For the current grads the out look coming to the US is slim to none, especially if you have zero nursing experience. No one would hire a US nurse who passed the boards 5 years ago and never practiced, now add English as a second lanuage and foreign training in my opinion it means very unlikely to work in the USA except for an employer who wants cheap labor and doesn't care about the quality of care.

[Daly City RN]

No one would hire a US nurse who passed the boards 5 years ago and never practiced, now add English as a second lanuage and foreign training in my opinion it means very unlikely to work in the USA except for an employer who wants cheap labor and doesn't care about the quality of care.

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Several years ago U.S. hospitals were able to hire cheap foreign nurses, even nurses from Europe, and these nurses were paid only half the salary of locally hired nurses. I remember a nurse from Germany who came to the U.S. on a temporary basis to accompany her boyfriend while he studied here in California. She was recruited by an agency that paid her only about $20/hour. Even our certified nursing assistants were earning more per hour in salary than this registered nurse from Europe. Had she came to the U.S. first, then applied in person in any U.S. hospital she would have been paid the prevailing local rate for U.S. nurses which was more than $40/hour at that time.

Currently RNs in most acute care hospitals in San Francisco, California pay between $45-60/hour plus PM shift, Night shift and weekend differentials. Legal holiday rates are "time-and a-half" to "double-time-and-a-half". Therefore a 12-hour night shift RN who works on a legal holiday can earn almost, or to a little over $1,000 on one legal holiday shift. But a foreign recruited RN under contract could only be paid the regular low salary rate.

At this time no foreign nurses are being given work visas by U.S. immigration due to retrogression. Therefore U.S. hospitals can't hire cheap foreign nurses until retrogression is lifted. Any RN with a U.S. license who applies for a nursing job in person in a U.S. hospital will be paid the high prevailing local wage for registered nurses.

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[suzanne4, RN]

Working visas have not been available in about four years since the green cards started to be expedited. And there are no hospitals in the Bay Area that any longer can use the working visa, they are all unionized and the unions do not permit the temporary workers, same as most other regions now as well.

The green card is the only option and that requires that one get paid the saem.

That nurse that you were speaking about would have been getting the same pay, the issue is that it went to the agency that signed here.

But again, another point that is quite true, if an American that does not have expereince for five years is having issues trying to find a job, why in the world is a hospital going to take a foreign nurse and pay about $10,000 to get them and their training was completely different as well as the way that we practice in the US.

[Rep]

My point is it is similar in nursing, coming from the best school you will always be behind a US nurse.

What do you mean by that? That we foreign nurses are second rate to US trained nurses. I am a foreign trained nurse that means I am Tonto and the US trained nurse is the Lone Ranger.

Regardless a nurse is foreign or US trained, there is no difference at all. We are all nurses here. No one is above the other. Saying that we are behind US nurses is pure ignorance.

[lawrence01]

Closing this thread since it has gone off-track and the original purpose of the thread has been adequately met.

This is a nursing forum and not an economic forum and globalization is a two-way street where countries participating in it would have to give some to be able to take some.