Wrong. It was available over three decades ago, when nurses were often choosing the U.S. over places like Kenya. You wouldn’t have an entire generation of Malayalee offspring who were born here, if that opportunity had only been available this decade.

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The problem in California, is that the Nurses union pushed thru’ a mandated ratio that was totally unnecessary and was not well thought out. When the Governor wanted to postpone the implementation, he was shouted out as being against health care providers. The solution is to have nurse’s aides and other people with lesser training to take over duties that don’t need a nurse, but unfortunately the union rules will not allow it. The other problem is there are not a lot of hospitals that allow nurses to train and get certified. I know of one Iranian-American who after a lot of difficulty got certified by California for a foreign nurses certification program (where foreign nurses can come and study for the qualification exam), but can’t get an authorization from a hospital to facilitate the practical training required. That is because the unions don’t really want to expand the labor pool and the hospitals are afraid to cross the nurse’s union. I am all for better conditions and wages for the nurses, but it should be done in a rational manner without jeopardizing the health care system. Anyway the discussion will be out of scope for this forum so I will not get into any more detail.

This whole argument of depleting the Indian healthcare system is ridiculous. There are a total of 25,000 foreign nurses entering the country each year; about 45% from the Philippines, 25% from India, and the balance from everywhere else. India produces 30,000 nursing graduates each year and that number will be going up substantially in the next several years. Indian nurses have historically been an exported service, migrating to the Gulf countries and the UK for generations. Since the U.S. opportunity became available earlier this decade, nurses chose the U.S. over the Gulf and UK and continue to do so.

I agree that it will be great if the US Gov’t invests in nursing schools and faculty but that will have no impact on the emergency situation that hospitals are facing on a daily basis today. That will only begin to have an impact 3-4 years from now, and not a meaningful one. In California, one of the States with the largest shortages, a study by the Board of Nursing estimated that the state would still have a 40% shortfall even if every nursing school and college doubled its enrollment.

Foreign recruitment cannot be the answer to solve the problem in healthcare today. But it absolutely HAS to be a part of a broader recruitment and retention strategy for hospitals coping with the dire circumstances today.

I agree. Why doesn’t the American government invest in building more nursing schools and training more nursing educators here in the States, rather than relying on health care workers from developing countries.

Bringing nurses here from developing countries may not put a ‘dent’ in their health systems but i believe it will impact many public health interventions that rely heavily on health care workers to provide care to communities suffering from global health problems. I just don’t think it’s fair to utilize nurses and other health care workers who can are needed to help alleviate health disparities in the developing world.

When America did this in the past (bringing doctors here from abroad) it only solved part of the problem — however, the American health care system is one of the most expensive and least efficient systems in the world and bringing doctors here from abroad didn’t help to build a better health care system. Bringing nurses here from abroad will not solve the problem that we are facing with our health system — maybe the government should think about fixing healthcare here first rather than selfishly using resources from other countries.

I agree. Why doesn’t the American government invest in building more nursing schools and training more nursing educators here in the States, rather than relying on health care workers from developing countries.

Bringing nurses here from developing countries may not put a ‘dent’ in their health systems but i believe it will impact many public health interventions that rely heavily on health care workers to provide care to communities suffering from global health problems. I just don’t think it’s fair to utilize nurses and other health care workers who can are needed to help alleviate health disparities in the developing world.

When America did this in the past (bringing doctors here from abroad) it only solved part of the problem — however, the American health care system is one of the most expensive and least efficient systems in the world and bringing doctors here from abroad didn’t help to build a better health care system. Bringing nurses here from abroad will not solve the problem that we are facing with our health system — maybe the government should think about fixing healthcare here first rather than selfishly using resources from other countries.