Global demand for nurses falling, says PNA

mhwa · Jul 8, 2008

:monkeydance:http://www.gmanews.tv/video/25431/demand-for-registered-nurses-wanes-in-us-uk

demand for registered nurses wanes in us, uk

rainstar · Jul 8, 2008

Funny. We were just talking about the same topic in another nursing forum. You know what they told me when I said that nursing isn't in demand anymore? They said "Of course nursing is still in demand! There are still other countries, and the retrogression in the US is only for a short while!"

But the reality is so harsh. My older sister became an RN three years before me, she came from one of the best schools in the Philippines and she was one of the top notchers in the licensure exam. Passed CGFNS, IELTS and NCLEX. Has two years experience in being an ICU nurse. Yet she has so much difficulty in finding a job. And with the retrogression we don't even know when she will be able to come here. (I'm lucky because I have an immigrant visa). What more for these thousands of new graduates who have no experience and came from sub standard nursing schools?

I guess what we can do is tell those we know about the reality of nursing in the country. When someone we know plans to take up nursing we can explain that it's not easy as it seems, becoming an RN doesn't automatically mean a job abroad and plenty of money. We can tell them that its difficult now to find jobs locally and abroad, and if their goal is to help their family, well that might take a long time.

:)

dave787 · Jul 8, 2008

there will always a solution for that retrogression in comig months things will be changing and lets be positive. im sure some countries will open and close thats the flow.

Daly City RN · Jul 8, 2008

I am glad that this news was posted and should be read by nurses. It is a proof what the people have been saying here are all true. I hope nursing enrollees decline and parents or relatives insisting their child or others to take up nursing should be alarmed. I feel hatred to these people. Why don't they just let the child be what he wants to be when he grows up? Global demand will continue to fall as the years go by. Although, I am one of those so called "stagnant" nurses. Soon, there will be hundred thousands of stagnant nurses either waiting for retrogression to lift up or do necessary steps to cope up with the nursing situation in the country. My question for my fellow colleagues, what would you do?

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I don't believe that there is a decrease in the demand for nurses in recruiting countries. I can only speak for the United States but I think this is true for Western Europe as well: The nursing shortage will continue in these highly industrialized countries and may even become worse with the aging of their populations.

I think what has been happening is that the host countries are now giving priorities and prefer to hire their own local residents who are becoming licensed nurses, or who are long-time nurses. Why hire foreign-grad nurses when there are many of their own citizen nurses are also graduating from their own schools of nursing?

With all due respect to the Filipinos here, the Philippines is not an "English speaking" country. True, many Filipinos speak English, but the vast majority of the Filipino population only posses rudimentary knowledge of the English language. I should know, I was born there. Embarrassingly the Philippine press had reported that many in the latest generation of Filipino teachers speak grammatically incorrect English. Has anyone noticed that many Filipino nurses who post messages here write so in grammatically incorrect English? (Admittedly, I may be one of them!)

Passing the IELTS and other English language tests doesn't mean anyone speaks the English language correctly. My advice to these young Filipino nurses who dream of higher-paying U.S. nursing jobs is to sharpen their command of the English language while they wait years at home for their U.S. visas.

I hope readers don't get mad at me, I'm just telling the truth. Most often truth hurts and people don't like to hear the truth when it doesn't meet their expectations. There are 950,000 Filipino student nurses currently enrolled in Philippine schools of nursing adding to the problem of hundreds of thousands of unemployed licensed Filipino nurses, the coveted U.S. nursing job is going to be tough to find.

For Filipino nurses the competition for overseas nursing jobs has been and will continue to be very intense. Folks, that is the truth.

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suzanne4, RN · Jul 8, 2008

there will always a solution for that retrogression in comig months things will be changing and lets be positive. im sure some countries will open and close thats the flow.

Sorry, but still do not agree with you. Please take the time to do some reading to see what is actually going on in other countries. Even if the US has the 20,000 visas for each of three years, that is not going to make a dent in those that are already waiting.

And the other factor that you are forgetting about it that there are other countries in the world that do a better job of training their nurses and they all have three to four years of actual work experience before they apply to the US in most cases. So if you were the employer, who would you select? And they speak English and have the English exams waived for immigration as well.

And there has not been issues with their training such as we see over and over again, and this time documented by the PNA, and not just stated by me.

Glad to see that somethings are now being talked about over there.

And the US economy is in a recession in case that you have not heard, and hospitals are not wishing to spend $10,000 plus to bring over a foreign nurse who has no experience in the US and it is not known if their skills are up to those from other countries. And the other thing that you have not taken into account that there are quite a fewn American RNs going back into bedside nursing now, or are picking up additional hours at work as they have become the sole breadwinner in their family. Bringing over a new nurse, and they do not count in the unit numbers for months and we have seen a significant decline in the number of facilities that are even wishing to hire at this time.

When the demand outweighs supply, then you have a retrogression, or what ever name that they are using at that time.

So please, do not hide your head in the sand, thinking that things are going get better anytime soon, you are looking at years and years. And without significant actual paid work experience as an RN, it is only going to get much worse.

namurit · Jul 9, 2008

Old news that the media has touched on just now. Finally. *yawn* It should be in the news everyday, so more people would avoid being like me-- a non-quitter all for nursing but jobless in the end nonetheless.

spongebob6286, BSN, RN · Jul 9, 2008

i was able to watch that news when PNA made that announcement! imagine only 13,000 RN are currently employed out of 63,000 who passed since 2006!! its too late already when they realized the oversupply! :banghead::angryfire:angryfire:argue::argue:

Daly City RN · Jul 9, 2008

Old news that the media has touched on just now. Finally. *yawn* It should be in the news everyday, so more people would avoid being like me-- a non-quitter all for nursing but jobless in the end nonetheless.

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I have the week off from my regular RN job in a medical center here in the San Francisco Bay Area and having lots of time watching t.v. Like a true Filipino at heart I watch the two Filipino channels on cable, well yesterday and today (07/09/08) the news about the fall in demand for Filipino nurses in the U.S. and Europe is big news once again. This is not good news for Philippine-based nurses hoping to come to the U.S. to work as registered nurses.

I'm supposed to be on a mini-vacation but I got 2 calls from the hospital to work extra shifts and I decided to work last night. This is one proof that we still don't have enough RN's here in the U.S.

My wife approved the o.t. (she's the commander-in-chief!) and we can use the extra $$$ as we are flying down south tomorrow for some R&R.

And get some cold Margaritas! See ya next week Suzanne!

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Hoss · Jul 12, 2008

Shortage of teachers means shortage of nurses

By Alex Johnson

Reporter

MSNBC

updated 8:42 a.m. ET July 11, 2008

Alex Johnson

Reporter

* Profile

The nation's shortage of nurses continues to worsen, and the trend shows no signs of reversing-not because too few young people want to become nurses, but because there aren't enough nursing teachers to train them, medical researchers and administrators say.

Medical administrators have warned for years that the crunch was coming. As the shortage reaches crisis levels-estimated at a quarter-million by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, on its way to half a million by 2025-the impact on mortality is stark.

The Joint Commission, a national hospital accrediting agency, calculated that the shortage of nurses contributes to a quarter of the country's nearly 100,000 preventable hospital deaths each year.

Story continues below ↓

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25626353/

suzanne4, RN · Jul 12, 2008

And the Philippines also needs to have appropriate staff teaching, not new grads as clinical instructors if they ever want to make things better.

There are still many more countries out there that follow having instructors with significant work experience that teach newbies, not one new one teaching more new ones.

This would be a way to get started in turning things around.

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But this article does not address all of the nurses that are returning to the bedside in the US because the economy has gotten so bad, there are significant increase all across the country with this.

Does not matter what the shortage is in the US, there is still a limit as to the number of green cards issued per year and that is not going to change.

Ginger's Mom, MSN, RN · Jul 12, 2008

Thank you for posting the MSNBC link. There is a demand for experienced nurses, is seems the hospitals do not want to have costly newly licensed nurse programs. Hosptials rather depend on OT from seasoned nurses instead of inexperienced nurses. Also from management's view point they would rather have overtime then hire someone for a position that they may have to eliminate later on.

Also the shortage of Nursing Facility, most colleges and univerisites require a MSN and 5 years of experience. I don't see many MSN and experience international nurses posting on this board looking to come to the USA.

I have a dream, I would like to win the lottery, travel around the world, and in my spare time do some volunteer work. But to achieve this dream I don't waste all my time and energy buy lottery tickets that I will never win.

I live with the cirmcumstances life has given me. Do I give up my dream? Of course not, but I live a responsible life with cards life and given me.