Government Recruiting Foreign RN's/MD's!

Jaybird310 · Dec 6, 2008

I actually don't see too much of a problem with this. They're going after people who've been working legally and want to be citizens. Our country has a need, they have a want. It seems (at least to some extent) like a win/win situation. It's just another means of Military recruitment. If out natural citizens can't fill it (I for one would be rejected by the military if I tried to join I'm borderline too old and have a bad knee, the draft wouldn't even take me if it happened again) join our military, pay your tax dollars to us, and work for our country, then you can be a part of our country. Hell better measures like this then the possibility of reinstating the draft.

RN1982 · Dec 6, 2008

I don't have any issues with it either.

Neveranurseagain, RN · Dec 6, 2008

What I find interesting in this article is that people from other countries want to live in the USA so bad they are willing to join the military to get a shot at citizenship! To me, it is the ultimate gesture that they are serious about helping our country. They are willing to enlist to help us in the war and they they aren't even citizens...something many of our youth will not do.

FireStarterRN, BSN, RN · Dec 6, 2008

Are we ever going to be able to extricate ourselves from that morass called Iraq?

jjjoy, LPN · Dec 7, 2008

Couldn't the military make nursing jobs more appealing to its own citizens? Eg better pay, better benefits, not overly-long overseas deployments? When the reason that an organization "can't find enough willing workers" is due to the fact that they don't pay a competitive wage or offer tolerable working conditions, then to me it seems to be avoiding the real issue by hiring folks who WILL accept the lower pay or intolerable work conditions because their only other option is to stay in/return to a country where wages and/or working conditions are worse than in the US. Of course, cost is the limiting factor in most cases. But at least admit that that it's an inability to offer competitive wages and working conditions is part of the reason that some jobs can't seem to attract enough willing US workers.

Effie, RN · Jan 6, 2009

the issue i have with it is that we (and by 'we' i mean usa, great britain, canada, australia) are stripping poorer countries of their medical professionals when there is already a severe shortage in those countries to begin with. i just read an article (which of course i can't find right now) that showed over 30% of medical professionals in the above 4 countries came from countries that have a severe shortage. i can't, in good conscience, be supportive of this practice. :twocents:

WalkieTalkie, RN · Jan 6, 2009

This is really not different than it has been in the past. My aunt did her residency at the VA in the 70s and they were doing this then too. Of course, some of them are not licensed to practice medicine in the US--yet. They would hire people who were in the process of getting licensed... scary at times, especially when I see what the VA does to some of the patients we get as transfers...

TiredMD · Jan 6, 2009

Are we ever going to be able to extricate ourselves from that morass called Iraq?

Yes, now that we've won, we will be out by 2011. It's in the SOFA.

caliotter3 · Jan 6, 2009

The son of our landlady in Europe got US citizenship quicker by joining the US military. The time that he did this was during the Viet Nam war. I have no problems with his actions and would support anyone who subjected themselves to the dangers of service during time of conflict and who subsequently wanted US citizenship. Better than entering the country illegally and then making demands on our society.