Of course the popular media and thinking may disagree but...
I actually heard that from a Hospital CEO and it took me a while to realize he was right, but the complete thought is not finished.
There is no nursing shortage! There is only a shortage of nurses that are willing to put up with the crap,BS, sometimes lousy pay, and eternal vindictive oversight from lousy management.
Check out some ANA or goverment statistics about how many NON-practicing RN's there are today. Thousands! Ask yourself why they are not practicing.
Ever seen management use a nurse as a scapegoat instaed of facing problems?
Forget the pay for a minute what about scheduling? I've negotiated contracts for staff and/or travel where I've offered to work EVERY weekend if only I could get consecutive work days or offered to work complete coverage by working opposite another employee and both of us agreeing to work mandatory overtime so we could work 7/7.
Responses I've had include:
MGR:but day shift likes their schedule
ME: but we work nights
MGR: but days likes the two on two off etc,and thats the way the schedule always works
ME: but we work nights, it doesn't matter, as long as a nurse follows
MGR: of course it matters, then nights would have a different schedule than days.
ME: (in my puny brain) How do I explain this to a brick?
or lately I've heard:
You'll work the schedule we tell you when we tell you and you don't tell us what you want. Your schedule is flexible for our needs.
The places I work seem to be understaffed by their own causing and frankly, sometimes it is just the money.
The shortage is a figment of big hospital corporations and special interests to drive more people into the profession and to justify the importation of more nurses from other countries.
Yes there is a demand for nurses, which makes many nurses able to exact some accomodation from their job, some pay raises and some say in how the workplace runs. A demand for staff means nurses get treated better and have opportunity.
If there was a real shortage, employers would be looking how to encourage nurses to stay in the profession or return to it.
If there was a real shortage - some places just could not run or more places would work with you.
I like my work, and I am paid as well as I can negotiate. I just think the hype of a shortage is overblown.
Just think of the opposite - how would your employer really act if they could pick and choose and REALLY not care if they made you happy.
I guess you know that it is very variable: the pay, the kinds of work, the pt load.
A friend just sent me an article about Japanese hospitals seeking foreign nurses. Do you know anyone who is trying for that?
I've a friend who's in japan. He's in the IT. He told me that there are a lot of requirements to be a nurse in Japan. I will inform you once he provides me the list of requirements. One of those requirements needed is for you to be able to speak and write fluent nipongo. That will take will take you at least 3 months. I get anxious about the thought of learning another language. "Arigato kudasai" "aishite imasu" aside from those phrases, that's all the nipongo i know.
I don't think I could magically elevate the Philippine economy.
The only thing I can do as a nurse and as a citizen here is to be very conscientious about the care I give to my patients. On my day off and if I have time to spare at work, I spend much time trying to study my patient's cases especially if it's my first time to come across that problem. That is my simple way of elevating the nursing practice here in the Philippines. I believe a lot of filipino nurses do that.
Thinking like this is why no change will ever come. Putting yourself inside a box with limits on what you can do is why you and others like you will never make a big difference.
Yes, America is considered a superpower. The people who made it such did not limit themselves to thinking they could not do anything. They believed that anything is possible. Hundreds of thousands of people died to make the U.S. what it is today. There is a lot that you and others like you could do in your country but you are so desperate to run away from the problems that you will never know what you can achieve.
You can pat yourself on the back all you want but I will continue to fight against allowing foreign nurses into this country.
One of my LPN's is in school for her RN degree. She has stated how much redundancy and slower paced it is compared to when she got her LPN degree due to the fact that more then half of her classmates have English as a second language.
Please don't think I'm picking on you, but you've just hit on my pet peeve: no one goes to school "to get her RN degree". There is no RN degree. Likewise, there is no LPN degree.
One may have an Associate of Science in Nursing. One may have an Associate of Applied Science in Nursing. One may have an Associate Degree in Nursing, a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, etc. But one cannot graduate with any degree stating they are now a Registered Nurse.
A person who has successfully completed an LPN program does not earn a license at the end of that program, merely a document stating that they completed the requirements for graduation from the program.
One must pass the NCLEX-RN to be licensed and registered as an RN. A degree in nursing is not a license to practice, as unfortunately many people holding such degrees but having never passed the NCLEX can attest.
Picky? I guess some think so, but I guess I'm tired of hearing how someone will be graduating from school "with her RN".
I accept, there is no nursing shortage back there and anywhere in the world because some just don't like to be nurses anymore. They're fed up, tired, etc... however I am not yet, but maybe someday I will be too or maybe never will. Who knows.
Am young, full of spirit and proud to say globally competitive. I have much to learn and yearn for more. I am motivated to work anywhere and everywhere in the best and worst of conditions and no one can stop that. Bring me to the more devastated parts of the world and I can work and survive as a nurse. So, World here I come. :redbeathe:bow:
I am a nurse.
Sounds like you have plenty of opportunity in you home land, you country men are lucky to have you. What type of Nursing do you practice?
I am exhausted after I work. I try to maintain a work/life balance. What is your trick after working long hours to remain so motivated to study more at night.
I work in the Caribbean and am a nurse for four years now.
It is amazing how my perception of nursing has changed since 2001.
I was the enthusiastic youth who applied to a nursing school who did well at nursing school. Got into the job market and i have learnt all of life's lessons there. You can never be the best nurse there is. A patient or their relative will find a flaw even when your follow protocol and ethics. You can never be the best employee, the institution says that they do not owe you anything. You try to advance yourself then they tell you there is a Nursing shortage so you cannot get leave with pay or even be granted study leave. Hey, i am multi talented - i think i have more to give. I have thought of leaving the profession so many times. I understand why some leave and go to other areas of interest. The job is naturally stressful as it is .... Someone should give us some slack. Then again they have some non nonsensical doctors doing a whole bunch crap. And they always blame the nurse...
I work in the Caribbean and am a nurse for four years now.
It is amazing how my perception of nursing has changed since 2001.
I was the enthusiastic youth who applied to a nursing school who did well at nursing school. Got into the job market and i have learnt all of life's lessons there. You can never be the best nurse there is. A patient or their relative will find a flaw even when your follow protocol and ethics. You can never be the best employee, the institution says that they do not owe you anything. You try to advance yourself then they tell you there is a Nursing shortage so you cannot get leave with pay or even be granted study leave. Hey, i am multi talented - i think i have more to give. I have thought of leaving the profession so many times. I understand why some leave and go to other areas of interest. The job is naturally stressful as it is .... Someone should give us some slack. Then again they have some non nonsensical doctors doing a whole bunch crap. And they always blame the nurse...
And all that plus the chronic, institutionalized understaffing... does it matter what kind of education one has? Diploma, ADN, BSN, MSN, etc.... Just seems as though one has to be human to feed the revolving door into and out of the profession.
Even if we had all the nursing educators we needed, that still doesn't change the crappy working conditions that are chasing nurses from the field.
According to the Department of Labor, the current national nursing shortage exceeds 126,000. This number is misleading because it does not take into account those who have RN licenses and are unemployed, a number that could easily fill this entire shortage gap if they all got hired.
On February 11, 2009, a new Nurse Relief Act was introduced in the House - HR 1001. This would introduce a new non-immigrant W visa category for nurses with an annual cap of 50,000. These visas will be available to applicants overseas with increased numbers from India, China, etc. This is reverse globalization at work. Instead of "our jobs going overseas", "overseas is coming to our jobs" in a way and on a scale that we've never seen before.
Many new grads are already considering other careers such as law school now that the myth of the "nursing shortage" has been exposed.
I've a friend who's in japan. He's in the IT. He told me that there are a lot of requirements to be a nurse in Japan. I will inform you once he provides me the list of requirements. One of those requirements needed is for you to be able to speak and write fluent nipongo. That will take will take you at least 3 months. I get anxious about the thought of learning another language. "Arigato kudasai" "aishite imasu" aside from those phrases, that's all the nipongo i know.
3 months is not adequate to learn "fluent" 日本語。 I studied for 4 years and I am not close to fluent. For starters, tｈｅｒｅ is no way to learn 4000 or more Kanji in that time. Not to mention medical terminology and the different polite/business grammar and vocabulary that you would use with patients (different than textbook Japanese).
I checked into this while in Japan, and there are some visas for LVN-level work under the guidance of Japanese RNs. They are temporary visas. But nothing really promising. Also the US RN license does not appear to correspond legally to the license and scope of practice of the Japanese nurse. After all, Japan is one of the most protectionist countries in the world with regard to work visas, imports, etc. I was disappointed but not surprised at all. I would be willing to resume study of the language and expand into medical Japanese if this avenue were open to me, but it's not open at this time.
On February 11, 2009, a new Nurse Relief Act was introduced in the House - HR 1001. This would introduce a new non-immigrant W visa category for nurses with an annual cap of 50,000. These visas will be available to applicants overseas with increased numbers from India, China, etc. This is reverse globalization at work. Instead of "our jobs going overseas", "overseas is coming to our jobs" in a way and on a scale that we've never seen before.
The same AZ representatives have introduced the same legislation twice before (the last two sessions of Congress), and it died in committee both times. I don't know what these AZ guys have against US nurses :), but I don't see any reason to think it will be any more successful this time around -- if anything, the national attitude toward immigration and employment is worse now than it was then.
I agree with you almost wholeheartedly... but these bills don't die entirely by themselves. It takes resistance!
Imagine the damage this bill would do to American RNs (particularly on the West Coast) and the payout it would bestow upon the hospital admin folks and other ultra-rich elites who have intimate connections with the politicians that propose these bills.
This Bill is aligned with Meg Whitman's clumsy agenda to insource foreign guest workers. This is a band-aid solution to all of the problems faced by our healthcare system. The real solutions would address our problems with the rapacious insurance industry (a far more realistic scapegoat by any measure than nurses).
Many bills have passed after being re-introduced several times. It only takes the right attachment to some larger bill and the right series of backroom handshakes for a bill like this to pass.
I agree!! There is no shortage of Nurses. I work in California and know many new grads that are 8-10 months out and still no job. There IS, However, a shortage of nurses willing to work for lousy pay and Per-diem only, etc.
This is just(another) ploy, at least in California, to flood the market, which they have done, so as to lower wages and to justify bringing over Asian nurses, who are willing to work for 16-18 Dollars/hour..
At my hospital, at least 50% of the Nurses are from the Pacific rim, and many BARELY speak english, and even fewer can communicate on a medical level. This number increases every hiring cycle. They finally had to institute an "English Only on the floor" rule..pretty sad
And what does the CNA(California Nursing assn) do about it?..not a thing..nothing..nada. As long as their membership keeps rising, they are happy.
Same goes for RT's, too. That used to be a decent job as well..no more. The market is FLOODED with foreign born Techs'..
Congress keeps talking about how to improve the job situation..how about ending H-1B Visas?
FWIW. Do yout think it's way off base?
:redbeathe:bow: 
oneproudigorot, MSN, RN
64 Posts
I've a friend who's in japan. He's in the IT. He told me that there are a lot of requirements to be a nurse in Japan. I will inform you once he provides me the list of requirements. One of those requirements needed is for you to be able to speak and write fluent nipongo. That will take will take you at least 3 months. I get anxious about the thought of learning another language. "Arigato kudasai" "aishite imasu" aside from those phrases, that's all the nipongo i know.