Looking To Move To Laredo

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Jul 5, 2008

The working conditions in the Rio Grande Valley are generally rough, with large patient loads, language barriers if you do not speak Spanish, and the high risk of healthcare workers being slapped with lawsuits. The major benefits of working in this area revolve around the high pay rates and massive sign-on bonuses.

RN1989 · Jul 5, 2008

The reason that they have high pay and bonuses is because in general the working conditions are substandard to say the least. They have a high rate of turnover and from what I've heard from nurses who left that area, they mostly import naive nurses from the Philipines to work down there who can't get out of their contracts once they find out how bad things are both in the hospitals as well as the way of life and drug crime.

poohpappy · Jul 6, 2008

Hi there! I live and work in the Rio Grande Valley for 6 years already and before I moved here I have heard horrible stories about it. But I gave it a try and found out that most of the stories were not true. I got a good paying job and a big sign-on bonus. Finished my contract and signed up for another year. It is true that most people speak Spanish (because it's near the Mexican border)...but I do consider it a learning experience. Most of my co-workers are nurses from India, Philippines, Mexico and states like New York, New Jersey, etc. At one point in time we're "naive" because we were all new to the place. The people are nice, warm and friendly, so I never had a hard time blending in. I would rather work in the RGV than in Miami or Las Vegas.

As for RN 1989, I just find your comment very exaggerating about the working conditions in RGV and discriminating to a certain nationality. You sound like you are very racially biased.

RN1989 · Jul 6, 2008

As for RN 1989, I just find your comment very exaggerating about the working conditions in RGV and discriminating to a certain nationality. You sound like you are very racially biased.

My "racial bias" as you call it is a bias against the influx of imported nurses who are willing to work in unsafe conditions and refuse to become invested in making US healthcare better.

As you yourself have noted, the great majority of nurses that you work with are imported. Which tells me that the working conditions down there are bad enough that the majority of nurses in TX and this country are not desperate enough to work in those conditions.

These nurses come to this country for money and a great majority have no intention of becoming citizens and contributing to anything but their own pocket book. They are so afraid of deportation and the stigma associated with it that they will not step up and work to get conditions improved. And when they do, they are prosecuted such as the nurses in NY recently. It is easier for employers to keep foreign nurses quiet than it is a US citizen.

If we continue to allow imported nurses to come into this country, working conditions overall will never improve. Daily, nurses are threatened with termination and being replaced by foreign nurses who are so desperate to get into this country that they will work under any conditions and keep their mouth shut at the cost of patient's lives.

If you believe that this is a racial issue, that is your choice. But the truth is that nursing will never change while we import nurses from other countries so the hospitals will not be forced to make appropriate changes.

For once I agree with the American Nurses Association. They have finally seen the light and started lobbying Washington to stop importing nurses if we are going to fix healthcare and nursing.

So if this is what you call racial bias - I am proud to stand tall on this issue.