NHS 'relies too heavily on foreign nurses'

NHS 'relies too heavily on foreign nurses':"Nurses' leaders warned last night that the expansion of the NHS was "built on sand", relying too much on the recruitment of overseas and temporary staff who may quit at short notice.
The Royal College of Nursing said its annual survey of the NHS labour market had found that the nursing and midwifery workforce in England had grown by 16% to 292,000 over the past four years, exceeding government targets.
But this was largely achieved by recruiting foreign nurses - notably from the Philippines, India and South Africa - and increasing the use of casual staff."
http://www.nursinghumor.com/7991

Sounds like Great Britain is in the same boat we are as far as the Nursing Shortage. I'd have to agree that as those nurses get some experience there, like travel nurses, they'll take off soon as someone offers them a higher bid in salary.

Andrew Lopez, RN
http://www.nursingmail.com

In an experienced nurses' perspective, what do you think would be the solution in alleviating the issue on nursing shortage? I mean, if outsourcing is not a long term solution, what is?

Am from the Philippines and is currently taking nursing as a 2nd course. Although, it was a career move for me primarily because of my great interest. Surprisingly, thousands are doing the same thing for a different objective though. Am leaving for New Jersey by December and hopefully I could finish my BSN there.

Am not sure if you guys see it but outsourcing nurses has already created a vacuum not just with in the nursing industry here...but with doctors & dentist now taking up nursing.

How should this worldwide issue be addressed then?

Maybe by funding nursing programs properly so they can stop turning away prospective students. In the U.S, up to 1/2 of all eligible students are being turned away each year, because funding to schools of nursing, college nursing programs have been progressively cut in the late 90s and early 2000's.

Hospitals did not plan for the crush of baby boomers that was coming and will be here in just a few short years. Now they're screaming for more nurses when 5 years ago, they were aggressively laying them off.

Andrew Lopez, RN
http://www.4nursing.com

Wow.... so its the cost of education vs qualified nursing students vis-a-vis nursing salary.

I wonder if there had been any move to lobby these issues in the government.

It's not the cost of education. It's the cost to educate. There are no educators to teach the students. At the University of Oklahoma the last nursing class was less than 50% of the total number of qualified applicants because there was no one to teach the classes.

There are a number of things that need to be done. Government subsidies to boost incentives for nurses/students/nurse educators, better working invironments, higher pay, etc.

Nursing can be a nasty profession at times. The work is hard, you never stop, it's mentally, physically, and emotionally tasking. There are legal issues, such as liability. There are health risks: needlestick injuries, contamination, contagious illness, etc. The hours can be long, and the help is usually short.

Nurses working the floor get pulled in many directions from the family, their bosses, the doctors, nurses aides, etc. They don't have adequate time to care for their patients.

Who wants a low paying job, where you never have time to take a break, are legally liable for every minute thing you do, have someone's life in your hands, are at risk for illness or disease, spend lots of time around blood, feces, vomit, and any other nastiness related to people needing hospitalization, have to listen to families who don't know what they are talking about telling you what is best for their family member, have to listen to a doctor tell you that you don't know what is best for the patient because you are JUST A NURSE, even though he/she has yet to even see the patient, etc. etc. etc.

Of course, not ALL jobs are like that. However, working the floor of a hospital is probably one of the least desireable nursing jobs. That is why many nurses retire early, specialize, find a career in nursing outside of that setting, or find a new career altogether.

There are a great number of nurses not practicing today for one of those reasons. I don't know what % of nurses have inactive licenses but I'd bet that if those who qualified to come back to work did so, there would be no shortage. They don't want to.

Add in being on call, working nights, weekends, holidays, 12/16 hour shifts, and mandatory overtime....SOUNDS GOOD TO ME!

Whew, what were we thinking

WOW! Very well said. All those for the love of work. I didn't realize that it would be that tedious.... Gosh I was only concerned with the caring aspect to patients...which I feel is the most noble profession on earth.

Can't nurse practitioners teach part time there? I mean... It could be an alternative. Although it would be like adding more burden to your heavy load.