Stop Foreign Nurses

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Foreign Nurses coming to work in our Health Care facilities are the most serious threat to our professional security. They threaten our earning potential as well as are pushing us out of the Long Term Care environment. Kindred Healthcare is one of the biggest offenders. What are your views on this most serious matter now facing our profession.

Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.
The OP just sounds racist.

:yeahthat:

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thanks, Karen, for trying to provide info.....though i dont think too many are reading it......the responses even after your postings for the most part remain very.....hmmmm one sided........this is a complex issue.....there are many lic. nurses in this country, it has been said there are more than enough to fill vacancies......but they choose not to, d/t the working conditions......so.. persons are imported who WILL put up with them, there by lessening our power to correct the issue.....do you really want YOUR loved ones taken care of by a nurse on their 19th hour of work in one day?

I didnt think so, one way this is gotten away with is by nurses working a job and thru agency...they work 8 at their reg. job and then 16 thru agency........

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Specializes in ICU/Critical Care.

I don't think all foreign nurses are brought over here because they were recruited by agencies. And I agree, that it is NOT a way to solve the nursing shortage but something has to be done. It doesn't seem any hospitals are interested in making the working conditions in this country better so that licensed domestic nurses are willing to come back.

I really think hospitals like making the work conditions poor because they know they can work us to death and get away with it because we all need our jobs. And lets face it, they've been getting away with it for far too long.

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

It is hard for a foreign nurse to get approved and licensed to work in the US. Changes a few years ago meant that foreign nurses had to be paid the same as the US nurse and have the same protection. Not all foreign nurses will go to the US via an agency. If you check out the International forum you will see that there are lots of things the nurse has to go through before moving. Plus with retrogression ongoing since Oct 2006 you are seeing less nurses moving at the moment. Requirement by the government for a foreign nurse is Pass in English if English is not their first language, Pass with NCLEX or CGFNS exam although CGFNS exam is not required by many states now, their training is evaluated and has to meet the same requirements as the US training. Not all nurses want to move for the money although if paid more it does help, I wanted to move countries to gain experience of a different lifestyle plus a different way of nursing and expand my knowledge. The same can be said of US nurses I have asking about working in other countries. Some hospitals do use H1B but I expect things to change due to recent things highlighted about the abuse H1b has been given with not all applicants meeting the requirements of H1b including nurses although main H1b uses I believe is IT.

We all know on the reasons many nurses leave the profession and I am not sure things will change if you don't bring in foreign nurses but PLEASE do not blame them for the problems in the workplace

Just my opinion and :twocents:

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Foreign nurses are not the cause of all the issues in nursing but they do perpetuate the problem.

I have seen a distinct difference in the way that foreign nurses from Aus/Eng/Can and other highly developed countries conduct themselves. Nurses from countries that rival the US are not willing to play the game with the employers that the more desperate nurses from underdeveloped countries play.

Nurses always want to play nice and call for fairness to all, then throw out the racial card when this issue is brought up. That's the easy way out -not taking responsibility for what is occurring in healthcare today and looking at the facts.

I have been told by a Filipino nurse on this very forum that she is only interested in the big bucks so that she can go home a wealthy woman. She did not have any interest in making healthcare in the US better and in fact told the US nurses that THEY needed to fix things here because she didn't like the bad things about US healthcare. She cited the poor conditions in her own country as her impetus for coming to the US to get rich.

We have enough nurses in this country that just want to make money and instead of standing up for what is right, choose the apathetic route and decline to take accountability for their part in our lousy system. They gripe and moan but when push comes to shove they back down and chicken out. We don't need to import nurses like this, there's enough already here.

So I ask all our US nurses who believe that those of us with business acumen who understand the true costs of importing nurses are racist - How do you think this country became so "wonderful" that everyone wants to come here?

Why do you not ask, no insist, that these foreign nurses stay home so that they can work toward making their country as great as the US?

The US has fought long and hard, people have had their jobs and their lives terminated because they stood up and fought to make this a great place to live. There is no reason why other country's citizens should not do the same.

Many US nurses ancestors, even those in the early 20th century had not been afraid to gather in the streets even with threat of termination - these nurses who enjoy calling everyone racist would not have the freedom to do so.

One of you posters mentioned how lazy US nurses are and that is why the foreign nurses come here. Do you not find it lazy and taking the easy way out that Filipino nurses do not stay in their own country and fight to make their country great instead of running away?

Nursing will continue to get worse people so get ready. You have your head in the sand and call everyone racist who sees the big picture. Those of you who complain and yet wait for someone else to magically change things for the better, those of you who get threatened with replacement by a foreign nurse so that you back down....you are just as much to blame for the very problems that you complain of.

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*sniff sniff*...i think i smell a troll.

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*sniff sniff*...i think i smell a troll.

did you read any of Karen's posts? i would think not.......the only time anyone called me a troll their post was edited and they were warned not to do it again.....by the mods, not i......this is a very important subject.....supply and demand....if you artificially inc supply....wages will stagnate or go down....

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Actually, when I read the first post last night I thought the same thing, someone trolling to incite things.

But after further reading it seemed the O.P. was upset and having difficulty articulating himself fully to explain the situation.

I'm with morte - this is an important subject. Even if the original poster's intent was to stir trouble, I believe this subject is important enough that people need to hear the truth.

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I appreciate the posts of most nurses here.

But RN1989 i think your post is a bit too harsh. I am a Filipino and I think that its unfair that you generalize Filipino nurses as being "lazy" by running away from the problems here in our country and your giving the notion that we just want to cash in and make money. There are some Filipinos, just like any other nationality, that wants to work in the US, or maybe UAE, Canada, Australia etc. Each individual has their own reason as to why they want to work there. But there are also many Filipinos who are content with working in our own country. True, there may be some who have a different and selfish reason of working abroad but this doesnt apply to all Filipino nurses. So please do not generalize, you have only heard 1 comment like that from "1 filipina" in this forum.

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We do need to quit outsourcing jobs outside the United States. Not just nursing, but lots of other jobs as well. That is the only way things will change. As many have said, there is no shortage of nurses, only a shortage of people willing to put up with garbage from greedy employers. Outsourcing lets the employer lower standards as a worker from a desperate country such as the Phillippines (sp?) sees the standard as so much better than what he or she can get in his/her home country and therefore sees no reason for the system to change. It is not about racism. It is about perpetuation of shoddy working conditions so the employer can line his/her pockets.

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take a look at the world today. there are all sorts of highly controversial issues in the news that affect us everyday. i need not name these issues, we all know what they are. but one has to do with foreigners (mexicans) in the U.S. illegally, speaking spanish, etc. we all can take a side and i'm sure we all have a stand on this issue in some form or the other.

after reading the OP, my troll-ometer went off like it was someone trying to flame the forum with a controversial issue. another one i viewed recently was someone making a derogatory mark that CRNAs aren't a true profession, only MD wannabes, etc. that was a true troll.

my apologies to the OP if this is not a troll but this is my story and i'm sticking to it.

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..."over reliance on foreign educated nurses by the health care industry serves only to postpone efforts to address the needs of nursing students and the u.s. nursing workforce."

i think the key word here is over reliance. the immigration of foreign nurses to the us is just one piece to the puzzle in solving the nursing shoratge. nurses have been immigrating to the us for may decades and some of them how now become professors of nursing helping to create the new generation of our profession.

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