Hearing on EB Workers and Nurses

Those who wants to post updates may do so on this thread.

Also, those who wants to read their written opening testimony may do so by clicking their name. Thanks.

Personally, in my humble opinion, I think Ms. Jana Stonesteet, Ph.D., RN has a very good grasp of what is happening and as well as offers realistic solutions - both short-term and long-term.

One thing I have noticed is that all three do recognize and accept the fact that there really is an over-all shortage. So, I hope this should resolve the issue of if there really is or not a shortage, over-all.

US is made up of 50 States and territories. One or two States or so, or one or two areas or so within a State should not represent what is happening in the whole of the US or should not speak on behalf of the others. A State or a local area with no shortage should simply not petition or could not petition a foreign nurse, simple as that. Proving that a facility don't have any American nurses to fill-in the vacancies has always been built-in to be able to start a petitioning process as well as giving the prevailing wage. The notion of foreign-educated nurses brought in as immigrants lowers wages is a myth. If it were a working visa, their might be good grounds for that notion but majority are brought in as permanent immigrants and so are assured to have the same benefits as a US Citizen.

Another common thing among the 3 is recognition that the best long-term solution is domestic education. I think no one will argue with that. Just that this takes time as mentioned by Ms. Stonestreet.

Improving working conditions also takes time and mandatory overtimes and other complaints mentioned are also indirect results of staff shortages. These things should be addressed on a State level - not Federal and that is what nursing unions, associations or orgs are for.

What they differ on is what to do on the short-term basis.

But this is health care.... if this were IT, Financials or something else then delaying things will not affect a person's health but only the productivity or the bottom-line of a company. Not sure patients now and the immediate future can afford to wait and it is not like there is an open policy that everyone can go in at will as some people unfortunately thinks.

Just my two cents.

Hospital leader urges Congress to enact nurse visa bill

June 12, 2008

A health system executive today called on a House immigration panel to help the nation's hospitals "address our immediate need for nurses" by passing H.R. 5924, AHA-backed legislation that would ease the nurse visa backlog. "Dramatically increasing our domestic training and retention will take time and our patients need nurses right now," Jana Stonestreet, San Antonio-based Baptist Health System's chief nursing executive, told the House Judiciary Committee's immigration subcommittee. "I hope you will help us meet our patients' and communities' needs by working for passage of H.R. 5924," she said. Introduced by Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL), a subcommittee member, as the Emergency Nurse Supply Relief Act, the bill would set aside 20,000 employment-based visas in each of the next three years for foreign-educated registered nurses and physical therapists. The U.S. has a waiting list for employment-based visas for foreign-educated nurses, and its nurse education programs turned away more than 150,000 qualified applicants last year due to lack of faculty and clinical space.

http://www.ahanews.com/ahanews_app/jsp/display.jsp?dcrpath=AHANEWS/AHANewsNowArticle/data/ann_080612_visa&domain=AHANEWS

american hospital association (aha) and american society for healthcare

human resources administration (ashhra) supports emergency nurse relief act (h.r. 5924).

*click to read full article:

http://www.aha.org/aha/letter/2008/080516-let-aha-ashhra-house.pdf

lets hope and pray that they will come up a solution to increase visa and life retrogression to expedite the procecing of the PD.

lets hope and pray that they will come up a solution to increase visa and life retrogression to expedite the procecing of the PD.

A draft of the Bill (H.R. 5924) has already been posted months ago and we have discussed this already on another thread. See: https://allnurses.com/forums/f75/relief-retrogression-hope-300512.html

This is the same bill we were talking about that gives a 20,000 visa quota per year for 3 years and that I-140 processing shall be processed within 30 days w/o a need for premium processing. A $1500 grant fee per visa number also goes to a grant program for training more American nurses.

They have just started tackling it now since they needed to prioritize other issues that was understandably more impt. to them. It is on the very first stage of the whole process.

To differentiate this thread with the previous one I think it would be to the benefit of everyone that we limit this thread to only updating ourselves on what is happening to the bill and maybe a few constructive comments on the written testimonies, thus far.

Anything beyond those would be preferably be avoided. Thanks.

The way I read the testimony was that there is a need to pay US nurse educators a wage comparable to hospitals. I also thought the testimony was Not to support importing nurses but supporting US nurses. The same money that could be used to import nurses could be used to boost current nurses salaries including nurse educators.

Based on this testimony I don't see anything changing soon, sorry.

The AHA is not often thought as nurse friendly, they always try to stop Nurse patient:ratios. I would not read into the endorsement.

The way I read the testimony was that there is a need to pay US nurse educators a wage comparable to hospitals. I also thought the testimony was Not to support importing nurses but supporting US nurses. The same money that could be used to import nurses could be used to boost current nurses salaries including nurse educators.

Based on this testimony I don't see anything changing soon, sorry.

The AHA is not often thought as nurse friendly, they always try to stop Nurse patient:ratios. I would not read into the endorsement.

I undertand the testomony differently. Out of the 3 witnesses, 2 are from the American Labour Nurses Unions and one is from from the Baptist Health Systems. All agreed there is critical nursing shortages in US and domestic nursing development, nurse retention programmes and attracting bacK US RNs are valid solutions. One witnessed 15% of new nurses being licensed in the U.S. each year are foreign graduates and any interruption of their availability has an immediate and very detrimental effect on the healthcare industry making an already difficult situation worse. 80 nurses recruited by them from overseas 2.5 years ago are unable to make available for their patients due to current unavilibiy of visas.

As usual, two witnesses from the nursing unions opposed immigration. The other one see limited immigration as a tactic to address the critical shortage of their nursing staff.

The Bill 5924 calls for doemstic nursing development programme, while allowing 20000 Nurses/year to join the health facility for three years to address the critical shortage. It allows eligible alien nurse to work in their own "candiate country" to reduce nurse drain.

I do not see House S/committee reject the bill based on above testimonies alone. They may find valid points to mark the bill for further debate..

ANA is not a labor union but a professional organization. In fact two large states, CA and MA are not part of the ANA any more.

Just a little update.

Rep. Conyers (D-MI), Rep. Gutierrez and Rep. Lofgren emphasized that the need for nurses will only increase as the baby boom generation gets older. Jana Stonestreet, Chief Nursing Executive of Baptist Health System testified in favor of the Emergency Nursing Supply Relief Act (H.R.5924) which would provide additional visas for nurses. In response to questioning by Rep. Lofgren, Cheryl Peterson, Senior Policy Fellow of the American Nurses Association (ANA), stated that although the ANA would not oppose H.R.5924, it did not believe immigration will solve the 10-year nursing shortage. Both Rep. Lofgren and Rep. Jackson-Lee (D-TX) expressed their party’s desire to find solutions for both immigration reform and the nursing shortage.

A slightly more detailed info in pdf format.

http://www.hccaintl.com/News/Retrogression_update_16_Jun_08.pdf

I have seen no political support for this bill. I am basing this on my observations reading and participating in the US voting process. Immigration is a hot topic and Senator MCcain has lost many votes over his pro immigration views. He now has toned down his views.

Many bills get proposed and the majority of the bills are never passed. If this bill was a patient , I would put the bill on life support and put the bill on the danager list.

Based on many qualified US students awaiting placement in a RN program and unemployment rising, the polls would be committing suicide by allowing foreign workers while Americans are unemployed.

Answers to this issue, are improved educational access, flexible benefits for employed nurses and increased pay for US RNs to retain current workforce.