Immigration is once again a very hot topic in the news. It's nice to finally see an article that expands the discussion beyond the low wage job debate. In fact, today's NYTimes discusses the proposed US Senate immigration bill. This bill eliminates the cap on immigrant nurses, opening our doors wide open to much needed trained nurses. Will unlimited foreign nurse recruitment solve the US nurse shortage or create an international crisis by depleting developing countries of their much needed medical talent? It may do both.
Why can't we train enough nurses in the US? It's not for lack of qualified applicants. In fact, there are more qualified people seeking nursing education than there are places to educate them. "In 2005, American nursing schools rejected almost 150,000 applications from qualified people, according to the National League for Nursing, a nonprofit group that counts more than 1,100 nursing schools among its members." Read more here...
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Outsourcing Nursing Education?
Immigration is once again a very hot topic in the news. It's nice to finally see an article that expands the discussion beyond the low wage job debate. In fact, today's NYTimes discusses the proposed US Senate immigration bill. This bill eliminates the cap on immigrant nurses, opening our doors wide open to much needed trained nurses. Will unlimited foreign nurse recruitment solve the US nurse shortage or create an international crisis by depleting developing countries of their much needed medical talent? It may do both.
Why can't we train enough nurses in the US? It's not for lack of qualified applicants. In fact, there are more qualified people seeking nursing education than there are places to educate them. "In 2005, American nursing schools rejected almost 150,000 applications from qualified people, according to the National League for Nursing, a nonprofit group that counts more than 1,100 nursing schools among its members." Read more here...
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3 comments:
The nursing shortage is a popular topic of discussion. The answer might be an alternative academic setting, such as The College Network, which offers an alternative to tradional academic programs. They have set up a blog, www.tcnblog.com, to educate adult learners advancing their education.
What the public needs to understand is that nurses cannot be totally trained through internet classes. There is a clinical component involved and that cannot be accomplished through cyberspace or an alternative setting. Also, let us pout the role of a nurse into perspective. He/She is at the bedside 24/7....patients are more acutely ill than ever. What we need are highly trained, skilled, criticall thinking nurses that can provide quality care to those that are ill. How would you feel if you knew you physician went to an online school? Why does everyone feel that nurses can be trained via internet or alternatively? They are the ones with the patients 24/7, they are thre at the most vulnerable times with patients. Yes, there is a nursing shortage, but flooding the market with less educated workforce only limits the power of nursing. The public and congress need to think very seriously when making decisions. Importing nurses from other country is an ethical issue. We are powerful, therefore we can get what we need, while deplting their own countries of the same services??? Let's think carefully about these issues
Michelle, RN, MS, Doctoral student
It would be nice to see stats on how many RN's are leaving the profession on a yearly basis. Nurses are concidered professionals, unfortunately are not treated as such. I believe that the everyday stress on nurses in the hospital is breeding hostility, nurses do not get along very well, rarely are nurses provided the man power that it takes to do the job with true quality and safety, as is expected regardless of the acuity and skill level of nurses working in the ICUs
If we can take better care of our nurses then there would be retention, high employee moral, increased patient satisfaction, decreased length of stay and wow...nurses would not leave the profession to find a job with more realistic expectations. The old saying "You have to spend money to make money." Think about it, if we allowed time for nurses to actually take their breaks and lunches as promised there would be much less stress. I would like to see stats on how many nurses actually get their lunches and breaks. The problem with the way nurses are treated is creating the nurse deficit to continue to grow in masses. Nurses that I work with are talking about the issues with how we are treated and hoping to find a better job outside of nursing. Nurses need a break, stop building big beautiful doctors offices and having a package offer of brand new office and hospitals offer to pay the doctors malpractice insurance premiums to encourage the doctors to bring their patients to that particular hospital. Stop the new buildings and build on the future of when you might actually be a patient in the hospital you will receive professional nursing care by certified nurses in that particular area. Wow...I could go on and on.
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