Outsourcing nurses, NOOOOOO!!!!!

[cajjj]

I am a medical transcriptionist, currently trying to be admitted into a nursing school, which has really been a stressful ordeal. Also, as a medical transcriptionist I know the effects of outsourcing offshores (especially India) and how it has drastically changed this profession by driving down pay, and of course work lost.

As is common knowledge, nursing school applicants are turned away by the thousands each year across the country.

We have a nursing shortage predicted to becoming much worse in the future. The government has proportedly been looking at ways to solve the nursing shortage by outsourcing nurses from other countries on a larger scale. I say NOOOOOOO!! Nurses do not need to be putting their heads in the sand about this, I do foresee this as becoming a serious problem to US nurses in the future.

Please read this article, which was very disturbing to me:

http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/8067.asp

I assure you, this will NOT be a positive thing for US nurses. And at the rate our government seems to be throwing away US jobs with some career fields more effected, it seems it may well be nursing well on the way of becoming one of those careers more effected. I see this as a snowball if not stopped only tumbling down and along the way becoming bigger and bigger. And it WILL affect pay I have no doubt, much less the jobs being taken by offshore nurses coming in.

PLEASE: Nurses are so well known for joining together and pushing for legislation. There is an obvious DESPERATE need for legislation and government assistance for more nursing education, instructors, etc. This IS NOT RIGHT that thousands of potential qualified nursing school applicants are being turned away each year in the US, and the government looking towards offshoring in even more increasing numbers to fix the nursing shortage problem. As I previously stated, I have no doubt this becoming a bad situation for US nurses in the not so distant future, I can definitely see the handwriting on the wall with this one.

[CaLLaCoDe, BSN, RN]

Call me stupid but I just don't see the import of nurses as frightening. The majority of the staff at my hospital on the night crew are from countries other than the United States. The world is becomming more global economically. Just as nurses come over to our country to work we could possibly be outsourced to work in other countries. I think there exists a world wide nursing shortage. Possibly the Phillipines are not going to be suffering with shortages any time soon! LOL

However, I do believe we as citizens are being short changed regarding education for our wannabe nurses...THAT must change!

I don't think it's very easy to pass the NCLEX, learn English proficiently and get used to our culture so easily. It's one thing to be a computer consult in India (blamed for outsourcing of US jobs) and another to be away from your homeland struggling with the language and cultural barriers.

[rigmedic]

With all due respect, you are completely kidding yourself if you think that importing foreign nurses won't diminish your own standard of living. Globalization is simply a race to the bottom in terms of wages and benefits. The only people that benefit from it are the shareholders in multinational corporations and the desperately poor in other countries. For American workers, it is a horrible deal and the nursing organizations should be working NOW to stem the tide. This can be done by requiring stringent qualifications, etc.

Look at how other countries (such as Canada) handle immigration. You can't exactly just waltz into Canada and start working as an RN. We need to enact similar, very strict, rules or we will pay the consequences.

[suzanne4, RN]

With all due respect, you are completely kidding yourself if you think that importing foreign nurses won't diminish your own standard of living. Globalization is simply a race to the bottom in terms of wages and benefits. The only people that benefit from it are the shareholders in multinational corporations and the desperately poor in other countries. For American workers, it is a horrible deal and the nursing organizations should be working NOW to stem the tide. This can be done by requiring stringent qualifications, etc.

Look at how other countries (such as Canada) handle immigration. You can't exactly just waltz into Canada and start working as an RN. We need to enact similar, very strict, rules or we will pay the consequences.

You cannot just waltz into the US and begin to work as a nurse. The nurse must hold a BSN for most countries, and pass the NCLEX exam just a like any nurse that wishes to work in the US, Americans included. They must also obtain a Visa Screen Certificate and go thru a procedure that takes about 18 months to just get thru the immigration part once all of the other requirements are met. It is actually tougher to get a visa to work in the US as an RN than it is to do so in Canada.

And if you notice, we do not have the H1-B visa available for nurses, and it has not been available for them for more than three years. All that are coming here are coming under the green card or permanent resident. There are very few H1C visas available, and that is only for fifteen facilities out of the entire US. And I personally would never tell anyone to go that route, and most do not.

Suggest that you have a read on the International Forum here, in particular the Primer that is at the top of that forum to see in fact what the foreign nurse needs to go thru. It is not just walking into the US and starting to work.

Far from it. And they actually need to have a four year degree if trained out of the US in most other countries, the US only permits the two year degree if the nurse actually trained in the US. But that is no longer a guarantee that they will get a visa to remain in the US. Visas are not given out liberally, there are very strict restrictions in place for them.

[rigmedic]

That is good, and it should be even tougher! When we have American citizens beating down the doors to nursing schools, trying to get degrees, there is no reason to let foreigners have the few good jobs left in America. The nursing boards in the various states need to stand up NOW to block the increase in the number of H-1b visas. The things that are happening now to IT professionals could happen to nurses if we don't band together and snuff it out before it gets started.

[CaLLaCoDe, BSN, RN]

You cannot just waltz into the US and begin to work as a nurse. The nurse must hold a BSN for most countries, and pass the NCLEX exam just a like any nurse that wishes to work in the US, Americans included. They must also obtain a Visa Screen Certificate and go thru a procedure that takes about 18 months to just get thru the immigration part once all of the other requirements are met. It is actually tougher to get a visa to work in the US as an RN than it is to do so in Canada.

And if you notice, we do not have the H1-B visa available for nurses, and it has not been available for them for more than three years. All that are coming here are coming under the green card or permanent resident. There are very few H1C visas available, and that is only for fifteen facilities out of the entire US. And I personally would never tell anyone to go that route, and most do not.

Suggest that you have a read on the International Forum here, in particular the Primer that is at the top of that forum to see in fact what the foreign nurse needs to go thru. It is not just walking into the US and starting to work.

Far from it. And they actually need to have a four year degree if trained out of the US in most other countries, the US only permits the two year degree if the nurse actually trained in the US. But that is no longer a guarantee that they will get a visa to remain in the US. Visas are not given out liberally, there are very strict restrictions in place for them.

Well stated argument. I thought I was going to get my head chopped off by stating that the ability to become a foreign nurse in our country is a high hurdle and to think that we will be flooded with nurses from other lands is highly improbable indeed! TYVM!

How do we as nurses get the government to put more effort into supporting the drive to make being a school instructor more lucrative, build more schools, allow a non discriminatory policy (those with the highest grades get in), address this issue period?!