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Specializes in ACNP-BC, Adult Critical Care, Cardiology.
I haven't seen any websites in the UK with job postings for the US-but there are some agencies advertising in the Nursing press over here-personally wouldn't go with an agency.There are jobsites in the US with nursing vacancies for a variety of Healthcare companies in many states.I didn't say that hospitals couldn't recruit staff from the US nursing pool in all States. If you visit hospital/health service provider websites there are jobs that have been listed for may months (it gives you the posting date)-maybe they are just continuously advertising for some posts that are at the lower end of the career ladder that they consatntly need nurses for, but someof the posts are NPs,CNS and other advanced level positions.

It is the US dept of labor that lists nursing as a Schedule A shortage occupation.

Hospitals do post nursing job openings in their websites. Personally, I don't know how these postings are updated. For instance, the hospital I work for does not have a hiring freeze. We have been interviewing for an ICU NP and have narrowed down our candidates and made a job offer to the one we felt is the best candidate. The person hasn't started yet as we are waiting for credentialing papers to go through. And yet, the opening is still posted on the website. A nurse practitioner friend of mine filled out an online job application for a different position at our hospital. It's been weeks and my friend has not even been called for an interview yet this person's qualifications is a good fit for the posted position.

That's not to say that on-line job postings are useless. I have to admit that the last 3 positions I held (2 different hospitals), I got the interview by applying to an online job posting from a hospital website. However, realize that at the time, I was already US-based and did not require visa processing to be legally employed. If you feel that you will get positive results from filling out online applications, be my guest. No one is stopping you from doing that.

I don't think it's fair to look at ICU where there are set patient to nurse ratios, but if nurses on the wards are being sent home because there are low numbers of patients then maybe there are too many healthcare providers in the area which seems like bad business sense. Why are there too few patients on the floors? BTW -this would never happen here in UK-our hospital is always at 90-98% capacity, but then that is the NHS. Again you are talking just about your metro area,whereas I know from postings on here that sometimes RN to patient ratios are 1:8 on floors.?

The only reason I mentioned ICU staffing at my hospital is to prove that we never really had serious staffing problems in our ICU's as floor nurses were always applying when a new ICU job is posted. There are also experienced ICU nurses who moved from a different area who were able to fill vacant positions.

Why are there too few patients on the floors??

Because less people are seeking care in hospitals. US healthcare is different than the UK's as you know. Many Americans are dependent on employer-sponsored health care coverage. As more workers lose jobs, so do their health care coverage. Unfortunately, many do not qualify for government-funded health care such as state-run Medicaid programs for a number of reasons. Some workers who are employed forego elective surgeries and conditions they feel "can wait" because they don't want to lose time away from work. It's a seriously bad situation. Maybe I am just living in a state badly affected by the economic crisis in the US but sadly, this is what we are seeing in my area.

Now you are reading what is not there and putting words in my mouth.

I never suggested that all Filipino nurses had no experience,what I was trying to say was that there is a huge difference in the attitude,culture and reasons for nurses from different countries that are wanting to come to the US and that you can't bunch everyone together. I don't think that anyone could deny that there have been huge numbers of Filipino nurses go to the US in the last ?20 years, and on this forum it's too easy for people to assume everyone is in the same boat.?

Now you know what it feels like when someone accuses you of saying something that you never said. Where in my post did I bunch foreign nurses together? But you know what I hate the most? when people act like the foreign nurse's country of origin matters. The fact that you made a separate designation for ALL Filipino nurses while you set yourself apart as a "special" case just doesn't go well with me personally. A foreign nurse is a foreign nurse when it comes to the need for a visa to work in the US period. It shouldn't matter where the nurse came from as long as they meet all the qualifications for the position being filled. You seem to have some good experience to back you up. However, there could be others with the same or better qualifications than you and it doesn't matter where they came from.

Again you are talking about your unit only and you do admit that you do not honestly know if even back then they could have done more to recruit from the US. ?

I gave that account because you asked for "personal" experiences of former foreign nurses who are now US-based. To be honest I see more and more college-bound Americans considering nursing as a career. And not only that, other professionals are considering changing careers to nursing. Why on earth do we have a proliferation of second degree accelerated nursing programs across the US? and just check out the waiting list for applicants in these programs.

So there is no difference now really,except that the economy has changed and maybe some Healthcare businesses who have had it good for so long are going to have to clip there wings and reduce staffing levels to a more realistic level. If they are sending nurses home due to lack of patients I wonder how they are managing to balance the accounts?

Bingo! and you ask how these hospitals are balancing the accounts...they have to resort to cost-cutting measures I mentioned or else they don't balance the accounts and go belly-up. Two hospitals closed in Metro Detroit this year. A number of others have merged or have been bought over by larger corporations. A premiere hospital corporation that has a reputation for being one of the best in the area is now struggling financially and have announced clinical staff cuts and lay-offs. Their physicians were forced to take a pay cut. Something has to be said when a situation arises when even physicians feel they are being shafted.

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Specializes in CTICU.
I feel that the issue is more of control by the hospitals. As long as they can recruit foreign nurses, they can say to American nurses, "if you don't want to take 10 patients, or more, for $20 an hour, there are ship loads of foreign nurses who will jump at the chance to do so. It makes us unimportant to them when we can be replaced by foreign nurses and makes us feel that they can control us. That is the issue- control. JMHO and my NY $0.02.

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN

Spokane, Washington

That's just not the case. In order to employ foreign workers, they usually have to complete a labor certification ensuring that they are paid a comparable rate to US workers.

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