Survey: Should the U.S. recruit nurses from other countries?

Nurses General Nursing

Published

The results from allnurses.com survey were:

Survey: Should the U.S. recruit nurses from other countries?

Out of 2630 participants:

No 56.20 %

Yes 43.80 %

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Thanks

Specializes in Med/Surg, ICU, Cardiac ICU.

There sure is a shortage if the nurses won't work in the hospitals, where, when I last checked, most of the most critically ill patients are. Sorry for the bit of sarcasm there but it IS a shortage. My budget allows for my day nurses to have only 4 patients apiece, my nights no more than 6 apiece. And I don't have any incentive for me to keep staffing at less than that. But my nurses now have to take at least 6 apiece on days (surgical floor) and up to 9 apiece at night because I CANNOT find nurses to hire for the postions I have open. And I am a manager that gets out and takes patients.

Whew, I'll get off my soapbox. Just a bit frustrated I guess.

Clarice,

You hit the nail on the head. There is a shortage of nurses WILLING TO WORK FOR THE PAY AND CONDITIONS of hospital nursing today. There are too many other options available for smart young men and women today for them to accept the limitations put on them by today's hospitals. This is not to say that the nurse managers aren't doing the most they can with what they have available to them. But, more money needs to come down the pipeline for nurses salaries and to pay for staff to support them. For example, the over 40 nurses might just stay on a few extra years if they didn't have to lift patients. Why are RN's still lifting patients? This could easily be done by young strong lifting teams hired specifically for that purpose that are crosstrained to do other non-nursing tasks. Personally, if I was hired with the understanding that I didn't have to lift anything over, say, 20 lbs, I would be much more inclined to return to hospital nursing. But as it is, its just too risky.

But, getting back to the original subject; if more nurses were willing to work in hospitals (see above), there would be no need to brings in large groups of nurses with foreign training. Unfortunately I don't think that's going to happen any time soon. In the meantime, we do need nurses willing to work there. There are many, many very good (equivalent) nursing programs outside the States but also some not so good ones. If we must have foreign trained nurses we must insist on those only from quality programs with the ability to understand and be understood in both written and spoken English.

Hiring foreign nurses is not the answer. They just bring them into the same mess and nothing changes for you and only temporarily for them. I've nothing against these nurses. I just hate the hopelessness and helplessness I see in every nurse's face.

Why do the companies do so much advertising and offer so many perks to recruiting foreign nurses rather than putting that money into use to increase nursing salaries, improving working conditions, bedside patient care, and staffing? Which would retain the experienced nurse and provide incentives for younger people to enter nursing.

Guess what! They can get part or all of these expenses in tax write offs. Increasing nursing salaries to not provide this perk for companies. Tax write-offs is a business perk. Advertisement is a tax write-off perk. Healthcare is only a business these days. The bottom line is what counts. Empty positions and tax write offs are important to their profits.

You don't see this because it is kept well hidden by the company. They are so "poor" that you can't get paid a descent salary yet they can pay mega bucks for consultants (tax write off: you scratch my back, I'll scratch your back business) to tell them that fancy hotel like bathrooms that the visitors see are so important to future revenue and somehow they just keep on building and building, and providing all kinds of perks to physicians etc. They are all tax write-offs perks.

Just think of the junk things companies think up to "show appreciation" to employees. Ice cream socials and company picnics, which by the way only a few employees are able to partake of, are all write-off perks.

The stupidest thing I once received was a box of 1000 business cards with my name, hospital name, logo, and hospital phone number on them. A memo was distributed the previous week to all bulletin boards about not making or receiving personal calls at work. !!I was supposed to feel appreciated by receiving this!!

They pay for agency nurses rather than hire nurses. Part of this is a tax/cost benefit to the company, also. You wonder how costly agency nurses can be cheaper in the long run? Just think!

The agencies know this and that is why there are so many nursing agencies.

Thank you.

I do think hiring nurses from different countries is our answer. Why not recruit nurses right here in our own back yard. I am not sure how to do this exactly but I am sure if we put our heads together we as NURSES could come up with the answer together!:rolleyes:

Specializes in Informatics, Education, and Oncology.

"Should the U.S. recruit nurses from other countries?"

No. There is no need to recruit nurses from other countries when we have well trained and experienced nurses right here in the USA. If healthcare organizations would improve salaries, benefits and the quality of the work environment i.e. appropriate nurse patient ratios, flex time, etc. there would be no nursing shortage.

Law of supply and demand. There is a large supply of nursing skills available from foreign countries. Whether we like it or not, hospitals will tap this supply to stay competitive in the business world. This has been the trend over the years.

But I've noticed the innovative move of some nurses during the 90's. We now have nurses in politics, information technology, etc. I believe that these new breed of nursing professionals will bring forth a positive impact in the security of the nursing profession. Do I mean better salary? Check out my opening statement for this posting. Hope that helps answer the question.

I am quite surprised by the comments made by some of the U.S. nurses in this discussion.Rather than one or two of you making racist comments about foreign nurses,(comments about "grass huts" etc),you should be proud that foreign nurses want to work in your country. As a UK registered nurse (with a U.S.A RN licence too) looking for employment in the USA,i find this attitude rather disconcerting. There are good nurses and bad nurses in every hospital in the world,no matter what country they are from!

And ,yes,you guys are poorly paid with poor conditions,but try working in the UK.We have just the same recruiting problems as the USA ,if not worse!

Also it may be worthwhile realising that other countries in the world actually offer BETTER nurse training than currently offered in the USA.

American nurses pride yourselves in the fact that we want to work in your country!

Here endeth my sermon ;)

Specializes in Mental health, organization and leadership.

Hmmm... As you may have read in my previous post I have been wondering about working in the states as a nurse. After I have read this- I can`t say that I feel very welcome! I will graduate from Uppsala university, one of Europes oldest and well known for high-quality reserarch and education. In Sweden we are greatful if nurses with another cultural background, are willing to work here. It`s simple: Any nurse who wants to work in Sweden, and does not have a Swedish licence, must get a permit to work here before they can start. This is given by the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare. It´s an individual process for every application, with exeption for nurses from other EC countries or countries with special general deals (Norway etc). This is a well working system, so I don`t quite see the problem here with this qualitytalk? There is a simple solution to the problem. Besides- I don`t think that it`s THAT fantastic to be able to work in the US that I would settle with less salary or benefits than an american nurse. To give nursing more respect is NOT a national concern but an INTERNATIONAL! We all need to help eachother to rise the salaries and conditions for nurses. Then it`s not a matter of from were you come from, but more about your skills! I bet that there are bad incompetent nurses from Sweden, UK, Burundi AND USA, as well as most of us are competent, dedicated and worth a lot more money...;)

Specializes in Mental health, organization and leadership.

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I differentiate between nurses from English speaking countries (Phyll) who choose to come here to live and those from third world countries who do not speak understandable English, do not understand instructions, and whose cultural background interferes with communicating effectively. I worked with one nurse who could not comprehend why a C-spine collar was needed for a patient whose neck had not been cleared. She couldn't understand why the patient needed to be in a collar when they hadn't yet had their x-rays! We need to start recruiting with U.S. nurses.

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So- I assume this was it! I`m not from an englishspeaking country- happens to be from Sweden- so I can`t work in the US?! If my boyfriend wants to his postdoc at Stanford, I wont be able to come with him because I DON`T COME FROM AN ENGLISHSPEAKING COUNTRY??!! Well- I don`t think USA is an option anymore- maybe he will do it at Oxford instead. Oh no- I forgot- UK is an englishspeaking country too! Strange that they are trying to recruite us to come and work there aldready one year before graduation??!! I agree with the member from UK who reminded us that there ARE high quality universities outslide the borders of the US too, even if some people here seems to have a hard time understanding that...

:( No way should we be bringing in nurses from another country.
Originally posted by imaRN

phyll,These PRN nurses are not on hosp. committees,don't help to orient. new nurses and are not in charge ever, in short they come in: work, and go home, they have no "investment " in making our unit better. They also do not work holidays or weekends,

Well I for one feel like I just got slapped in the face!

I have to disagree a bit with this negatism towards PRNs, though I can understand you being upset that they are making that much more. I work as a PRN, I commit to 2 9-hour night

shifts a week and one w/e shift every other week. I also do care about my unit, attend meetings, do chg., etc. as do many of the prn's at my hospital. I am just sick of being stuck w/the eow

thing so I chose prn, plus I don't need bene's. We do holidays too. It is required. Having pierdiem workers is a great way to fill shifts. Especially when they usually don't get paid OT.

To the foreign nurses reading all of this in dismay, I must say that I think I am speaking for many of us when I say it is not about you personally. I am sure many of you are great nurses. It is the system Nursing as a profession is in dire need of improvement. The thought of our employers having swarms of foreigners coming over merely b/c retention is poor (b/c of poor work environments) is upsetting.:o We need to keep in ming that one good thing about nursing is that we can work almost anywhere, and for those wanting the experience of another country it is a great opportunity. I just don't want our employers manipulating us all by a quick bandaid fix to a bigger problem. They need to have safe staffing, decent pay, etc. and first retain present nurses, no matter where they are from.

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