Survey: Should nurses from other countries be recruited to aid in the nursing shortag

Nurses General Nursing

Published

  1. Should nurses from other countries be recruited to aid in the nursing shortage?

    • 149
      Yes
    • 514
      No

663 members have participated

This month's survey Question:

Should nurses from other countries be recruited to aid in the nursing shortage?

Please take a minute to take answer our survey and please feel free to reply to this topic to post any comments that you may have on the topic.

I see a contradiction here. Everybody is always complaining that they are overworked and need more help ...

Yet, 80 percent of the people here say don't hire foreign nurses which, obviously, would help ...

Then you hear the standard: "If you improved working conditions people would return to the job ..." line.

But, wouldn't hiring foreign nurses also improve working conditions, i.e. ratios?

:p

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:idea:

I see a contradiction here. Everybody is always complaining that they are overworked and need more help ...

Yet, 80 percent of the people here say don't hire foreign nurses which, obviously, would help ...

Then you hear the standard: "If you improved working conditions people would return to the job ..." line.

But, wouldn't hiring foreign nurses also improve working conditions, i.e. ratios?

:p

You know I really am torn on this issue as well. I did vote no on the survey, and here are my reasons. I think english is my main concern. I know that these nurses are intelligent and can often speak more than one language but they are difficult to understand and in this profession if your Pt can not understand you they are not recieving proper care, if they are too polite or embarrassed or whatever to have a nurse keep repeating themselves they will eventually go without care for lack of understanding, I know I can not understand them most of the time but I am not hesitant to have them repeat themselves.

I did a change of shift introduction last week with a new nurse from India and the Pt just kept saying what, huh? what? when she spoke to him. With elderly people being predisposed by War, education, and upbringing to be predjudice it is awful when they feel they won't even recieve good care or can not understand their nurse.

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What type of visa was that nurse on? If it was a green card and her own, then her English skills must be the same as a native speaker. And many Indian nurses have that problem. If she got a visa to work due to a husband then she is not required to have the English testing. I am sure that this is going to change. If she got in under one of the last H1-B visas, then she was only required to pass TOEFL. The new laws go into effect next month.

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I am an American nurse, and I loved it when I was working in the US. Did it for over 25 years and during the time that I was going to school. But now I prefer living over on this side of the world. I definitely didn't leave healthcare, just approaching it differently. And making a difference in someone's life. Isn't that the most important thing?

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The new laws go into effect next month.

As always, thanks suzanne. I did not know that the new requirements hadn't gone into effect yet. That certainly explains all of these posts where people have been complaining about English proficiency.

Hopefully, the new laws will help address that problem. Question: Do you know if the marriage exemption that you previously mentioned would also apply under these new laws?

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As always, thanks suzanne. I did not know that the new requirements hadn't gone into effect yet. That certainly explains all of these posts where people have been complaining about English proficiency.

Hopefully, the new laws will help address that problem. Question: Do you know if the marriage exemption that you previously mentioned would also apply under these new laws?

Really tho rerading & writing english are still very separate from a clear understandable voice

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Specializes in Medical.
Here in the Philippines, the government is not spending any single cent for our nursing education!

With the number of ex-pat Fillipina nurses working in Australia and elsewhere, supply within your country must be diminishing. Do the Phillipine public know that there is a nursing drain from the Phillipines?

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I have known several nurses who passed english tests. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean they can actually function in healthcare with their level of fluency.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Trauma, Ortho, Neuro, Cardiac.
With the number of ex-pat Fillipina nurses working in Australia and elsewhere, supply within your country must be diminishing. Do the Phillipine public know that there is a nursing drain from the Phillipines?

There was a big discussion about that here a few months back. Basically there were several thoughts I got out of that discussion. One is yes, it's a drain on their nursing and health in their country. Two, that even though they have the nurses, their hospitals can't afford to or won't hire them, thus a surplus. Three that they are much like a nurse factory, providing English language BSN-trained nurses for nursing shortages throughout the world in order to send them out to make good money and send some of that money home. The amount of money the Filipino nurses send home to help their families is significant.

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I have known several nurses who passed english tests. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean they can actually function in healthcare with their level of fluency.

Really tho rerading & writing english are still very separate from a clear understandable voice

Ok then, another question for suzanne4:

What do these new requirements involve, and does it address any of the above mentioned concerns?

My husband works for the state of California, and they pay extra if you learn Spanish. However, you have to take an oral exam, and actually speak with proficiency. I wonder if that would solve the problem here, and if it should be or, is already, required?

:coollook:

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This month's survey Question:

Should nurses from other countries be recruited to aid in the nursing shortage?

Brian: I am interested in how this survey comes out. When will it be completed? I am doing my thesis on brain drain and international nurse recrutiment. Also, no I do not think nurses should be recruited to aid in the US nursing shortage. International nurse recruitment is a symptom of our present shortage, not the answer. We need to work on why there is a shortage, i.e. wages, working conditions, etc. Although I am all for individual freedom, taking nurses from other countries is not the answer. It only drains human resouces from developing countries who are already compromised. Furthermore, those countries deserve some type of compensation for their loss .-grneiis

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This month's survey Question:

Should nurses from other countries be recruited to aid in the nursing shortage?

There is projected to be 400,000 (Reilly, 2003) vacant nursing positions in the US over the next 10 years. Yes, we probably do have a shortage as the nursing population is aging and the average age of today's nurse is around 45 years old. Also, who will teach the new nurses-there is a shortage of professors. International nurse recruitment is not the answer to our problems-grneiis

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