Door closes on direly needed foreign nurses

[nursinghumor]

Sunday, January 2, 2005: Door closes on direly needed foreign nurses:"Until recently, U.S. hospitals saw Filipino nurses like Stephen Frani, who immigrated in October 2003 to work at St. Vincent Infirmary Medical Center in Little Rock, as a promising way to counter the nationwide nursing shortage. On Saturday, the gates closed. On Jan. 1, the U.S. State Department stopped granting fasttrack work permits to immigrants from the Philippines, India and China. Those countries had filled their employment-related visa quotas for the first time in many years, after the State Department began processing labor-certification applications more rapidly."
http://www.nwanews.com/story.php?pap...storyid=103706

All those people that were complaining about there being too many foreign nurses around will be pleased to see this. Hope they're also pleased about all the mandatory overtime and burnout they'll be experiencing as well.

We need all the nurses we can get.

Andrew Lopez, RN
http://www.nursinga2z.com

[JuliaS]

The only problem that I have (as well as my co-workers) with foreign nurses is that the hospital that we work for bring these nurses in, give them huge sign-on bonuses, pay for all of their moving expenses, as well as their expenses for a year. At the same time, have a hiring freeze for the new grads here, no sign-on bonuses and a pay freeze. That is the only problem I have. I would like to see the hospitals treat the nurses they already have the same way they treat the ones they bring in from foreign countries. I have precepted many of the foreign nurses while they are waiting for their licensure. I like all of them. I just wish that we were all treated equally.

[yeoj]

Hi, this is my first letter to anyone who's got a better idea about my concern. I Recently passed the CA BON RN exam and it's been almost a month since I got interviewed but until now I still haven't received any positive feedback. My question is, is this really the normal process for a foregin Nurse who hasn't got any employment history here in the US to undergo a long time of waiting from the employers response, though I already got 12+ years exp as a Nurse in my country (PHIL)..or should I say..I need to have a connection first before I could get myself on the right track but the problem is I don't have any...I've been toasted in my past interviews which I think I handled it well but still the waiting goes on. I don't really believe in applying thru the internet bec. most/all of the recruiters don't have time to look for an application in their website.I'm not choosy when it comes to work, I can work anywhere the hospital would offer me but..still the waiting goes on...Thank you for reading my letter and I hope to hear your expert opinion on my case.Thank you guys!

[rogue]

yeoj,

Did you follow up with a phone call? Sometimes you need to be more assertive with recruiters. DON'T BE AFRAID TO CALL THEM!!! Remind them (nicely but firmly) that would like to know the status of your application and that still you're very interested in job with their hospital (but NOT desperate). The recruiting process can take a long time because decision-makers want to see a certain number of candidates and THEN make their decision. Scheduling all those interviews isn't easy! I know this because I used to be a recruiter (in IT). I am now a nurse (new grad) and will be starting my first nursing job in August.

I hope that helps. Good luck!!!