Increasing trend-hire agency foreign RN"S from Singapore for $20.00/hr

[TMSAZRN]

Just wanted to put this out there. I was very disapointed when it was explained to me by a fellow RN in this situation.. This is not a win win situation. Only the hospitals win. A collegue from singapore just arrived to the US to work as an RN in the hospital I work in along with 40 other nurses. He describes how hard it is to meet the cost of living and get started and feels he got a bad deal when researching what other RN's are making. (He has extensive ICU experience.)

I see some problems... These are highly trained very experienced RN's who deserve the prevailing wages as their peers. Yes this fills the nursing shortage but also decreases the advancement of RN wages in a state already known for low wage earning nurses when compared to California RN's Some are reqired to fullfill a 2 year commitment. If they breech they are required to pay their agency thousands of dollars. Give me your feed back.

[topscot]

is this not the same for all foreign nurses comin to the us

[TMSAZRN]

Foreign nurses go through rigerous testing i.e spoken english test, (forgive me I don't know the test name)- the test that evaluates your understanding of english language. Accent reduction classes--speaking better english that american born citizen's. I have worked with several foreign nurses and find their nursing knowledge very enhanced and more advanced than most new grads. I am very impressed.

[letina]

As far as I know, foreign nurses coming to the US are supposed to be paid exactly the same as their US counterparts. Maybe Suzanne, Mod from the International Forum can clear this up

[suzanne4, RN]

The agency is usually taking $5 per hour from their rate of pay to cover their "expenses" and you do not want to know what my repsonse to that is. I can't print it here. So when signing with an agency, they are essentially giving them about $16,000 over a two contract for doing their paperwork, and that stinks. Immigration costs are only about $4000 for everything.

My suggestion to you:

Tell your friends to contact the Cosulate for Singapore here in the US and explian the situation, as well as contact the US Embassy in Singapore. I am sure that they would botl ove to hear about this. This is the only way that we are going to put a stop to this.............reminds me of the old days fot eh slave traders, and I do not like it one bit.

Check out the few posts that I have on the International Froum concerning Bad Contracts and Bad Agencies.

And please do not post the name of the agency here ,but send it to me in a pm, and I can also give you something else to do, but I can't print it here.