Immigration: More Foreign Nurses Needed?

No offense ghillbert, but I am already competing with hundreds of new grads from the US, I don't want to have to compete with the "small number of foreign nurses" too.

http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi...ll/23/3/78#R37
"On average, hospitals pay recruiting agencies $5,000–$10,000 per nurse.37 In return, nurses contract to work from two to three years in the hiring institution. In the Covenant Healthcare System example, Global Healthcare agreed to fully refund the recruiting fee to the hospital if a nurse recruit failed to continue working past three months. The hospital was partially repaid if nurses fell short of their three-year commitment."
That is not adjusted for inflation.

Once again, total ignorance prevails with knee-jerk reactions that are NOT based on fact.


Who are you talking about exactly? "Foreign" isn't a nationality. I am a foreign nurse working in the USA. My culture is probably >75% similar to the US. I do not "do as I am told", I ask a lot of questions, I am paid the same as any USC would be for the same position (if there was any qualified to do my job). You think I need empowerment? Puhleese.

It is tiring to constantly see "foreign nurses" assumed to be some slightly mute, submissive idiots.


This is rubbish as well. The "vast majority" of foreign nurses are brought to the US on immigrant visas. They are not revokable if you leave your job - you have an EAD and can work for any employer once you get here.


Where is your source for this information? What type of visa are you talking about? Where are those costs from? I am a foreign nurse - it cost me about $2000 to fulfil my state licensure requirements including CGFNS and NCLEX costs. It cost me $130AUD for the visa. That's it. That's for an E3. For a H1B, cost is around $9K total (including legal fees). For an immigrant visa, the cost is maybe 2-3000 to cover the medical, application fees, licensure etc. Lawyer fees may be more but certainly not up $20K+.

It costs far more to employ and train a new grad.

With regard to getting those silly foreign nurses over here for tuppence.. or what did someone suggest - $35Kpa? That is ridiculous. Any type of working visa requires labor certification - a process whereby the employer has to prove that they are paying the prevailing wage. In addition, they must post the job for USCs to apply.

There is NO requirement to hire a USC before anyone else, UNLESS THEY HAVE EQUIVALENT SKILLS. If I am an RN with 12 years super-specialized experience, my employer has a right to hire me with my skills and not a grad who could not do the job. Of course they have the right to hire the best person for the job.

I am not pro-foreign nurses before american nurses. Of course, any country must protect its citizens. But you're just not comparing apples to apples.

Hospitals cannot hire new grads if they don't have any experienced nurses to train them. Of course there is a saturation point for new grad positions. There are plenty of RNs who do not work in nursing because it's not financially attractive enough - maybe you all should be more concerned with nurse-patient ratios, getting more RNs back into the workforce to precept the new grads, and nurse pay rates than with the issue of a relatively small number of foreign nurses working in the US.

Obviously you cannot grasp the fact that you (if you're a new grad) are not competing with experienced foreign nurses who are able to come in on skilled worker visas. If they were inexperienced new grads, I'd agree with you wholeheartedly.


OK, so your old link lists a figure of $5-10K. From where did you get the figure of $30K that you posted? (BTW, this is not the cost of hiring a foreign nurse. It's the cost of a recruiting company.)