There's another 'hidden' item in the Senate immigration bill..RNs

[sinkingfeeling]

With a shortage of RNs in America, the bill will remove immigration caps on RNs. This, in turn, will reduce wages and raid developing countries of their nurses.

Same type of stuff that's been done already to high-tech workers. Claiming a shortage of IT skills and then getting tens of thousands of H-1B visa workers into the USA. (See this article for the GOP drive to double the yearly number: http://ia.rediff.com/money/2006/may/23visa.htm?q=tp&file=.htm).

If your an American programmer, you know how helpful this has been. If not, just ask the 100,000's of ex-IBM employees.

Now it's the nurses who will suffer:

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/052406A.shtml

<snip> The article reports on a provision in the Senate immigration bill that removes the cap on the number of nurses who can enter the country each year. The problem, as described in the article, is that the country faces a large and growing shortage of nurses. In a market economy, a shortage means that wages should rise. This will cause more students to enter nursing schools (presumably creating more incentive to establish nursing schools), and will induce many part-time or retired nurses to work more hours as nurses. It may also curtail the demand somewhat, as some tasks that are performed by nurses can presumably be performed by less-skilled workers.

But, that is not the way things work in the world of the conservative nanny state. The people who set economic policy in this country donít want to pay nurses higher wages. They have a different solution - bring more nurses from developing countries into the United States. These nurses will be very happy to work for the current wages received by nurses in the United States, which are far higher than what nurses in places like the Philippines or India earn. (Never mind the impact that this drain of nurses has on developing countries.)

[FreakinDJ]

1. Raising current levels is a raid on middle class jobs

Most people don’t realize the current bill seeks to increase immigration levels of existing visa programs, add several more classifications of “work visas” IN ADDITION TO creating a path to legalization for 11 million undocumented workers.

Oh well say good bye to the American middle class

[Warpy]

2. There was no real shortage of programmers

but there is a huge shortage of RNs.

The worst part of this isn't holding wages down. Hospitals do that on their own, along with understaffing by attrition and cutting ancillary staff and shoving the additional workload onto the backs of already overworked RNS. The problem is raiding the world of its RNs to satisfy our own needs.

The problems leading to the RN shortage are a lack of RN educators due to depressed wages (they can make more in hospitals), the lack of people willing to go into the work when they can pursue much easier courses of study and make more money in other fields, and the job, itself, working conditions so bad that a slim majority of RNs are out of the practice within 5 years.

Until all these problems are addressed, there will continue to be a shortage of nurses in this country, a shortage that will spread as developing countries improve their own economies to the point that few will want the rigorous study and heavy physical labor of nursing with so few rewards.

[FreakinDJ]

4. Not true - current levels of enrolment have been increasing

Yes shortages did exist in person willing to enter the nursing field. Tough course study of a 4 yr degree and low wages of the past attributed to this.

Recent increases in wages have brought on increased levels of enrolment but the problem now is increases in tuition cost. Similar to importing PhDs, and engineers America needs to invest in education rather then exploit cheap labor

[Warpy]

5. I disagree

because enrollment has not increased enough to compensate for increased demand.

The US has been importing nurses at least for the 25 years I've been a nurse.

Things are not getting better, they are getting worse and will continue to do so until the points I outlined are addressed.

[FreakinDJ]

10. Last I checked

You have to realize we offer legal immigration information on one of our websites. A good portion of visitors are Nursing students from the Philippines seeking information on Jobs and visa programs to the United States - so we track this from time to time.

The problem you are describing is 2 fold.

1. Corporate profiters currently are attempting to force patient/nurse ratios down.

2. Wages are only now starting to reflect true market value of experience and education

A 20 year experienced Emergency Room RN in California earning 75K is reasonable for that level of education and experience. But the same job filled by a foreign educated H1B nurse would pay 20% less, (VA hospitals)

So yes I hear you when you describe deplorable working conditions and a staffing shortage to which H1Bs could definitely help alleviate. The problem of "Health-care" overall is a much bigger problem. These visa programs well not entice them to increase the nurse/patient ratio. If you wanted to do that I could put you in touch with 50 qualified H1B applicants immediately

[Dunvegan]

3. More "Corporate Welfare" for HMO's...and more back-stabbing...

...and destruction of the American worker.

[lonestarnot]

6. Slave labor wages. Suppressed wages, oppressed citizenship.

[Virginian]

7. By importing workers, they are discouraging Americans from

going into those fields which will cause more of a shortage in the future.

In the past, hospitals, in pursuit of profits, reduced the number of nurses and orderlies causing the remaining nurses to have heaver workloads and requiring them to also do some of the tasks that were previously done by orderlies. If there really is a nursing shortage, this could possibly be the reason, nurses are seeking better conditions by becoming private nurses and helping with home health care.

When my great-aunt had a hip replacement, her sister stayed with her all day and hired a private nurse to sit with her in the hospital overnight because the hospital nurses were just too busy to take care of her.

Has there been a shortage of nursing students? Have any nursing schools shut their doors? Have any new nursing schools opened or expanded lately?

Hire American or soon there won't be any Americans to hire.

[madrchsod]

8. this has been happening for at least 15 years

i know it`s a dam hard job at times but at the average wage of 20 per hour it`s not bad money. yet after my stays in the hospitals in the last few years i can see why the burn out rate in the rn field is high. it is a dam hard job both physically and mentally another job that i could never do and give them all my respect for doing it

[leesa]

14. Isn't that the point? It's an extremely hard job that most say they could

not do, yet somehow $20 per hour is adequate compensation?!? Nurses are professionals and should be paid as such. We are not line workers in a factory. We are degreed, licensed and required to take continuing education in order to keep our licenses and more than likely the care decisions made during your hospital stay were originating from nursing...it's our eyes, ears and mouths that get the doctors to respond.

[madrchsod]

15. i didn`t mean 20 dollars was adequate

i meant on average. the last i saw was in the 25-30 range in some hospitals and depending on regions...i have had almost a full years worth of operations and rehab in the last five years and i`ve never had a rn that was not professional and compassionate..

[liberalnurse]

9. This is a battle where I think

we can no longer keep our heads above the toilet bowl water.....I feel a flush coming.....The best bet for RN's will be to become Nurse Practitioners....Get your Masters!

If more nurses were to of joined their state Nursing Association....the power would be there to block this shit. We could demand a higher wage which is definitely due!

[debbierlus]

11. What about standards of care?

I am a RN with a BSN. I am from Massachusetts, and the state set rigorous standards for RN qualifications. What type of qualification and training will be permitted?

[etherealtruth]

13. We in Metro Detroit have relied upon "foreign" RN's

...for some time (note foreign in this case means Canadian). They must be licensed to practice nursing in Michigan (must pass the same state boards as any RN in Michigan). As you are aware there are varying levels of nursing education ranging from (albeit, now rare here)diploma Rn's, ADN's, BSN's ...). Most of the "foreign" nurses I've encountered (purely anecdotal)have held baccalaureate degrees.

The issue that need to be addressed in this field is increasing the number of seats in nursing schools and offering "nursing" classes to non-traditional students in the evenings and weekends.

[crikkett]

12. union-busting, plain as the nose on my face n/t

[ny_liberal]

16. How is this different than construction, farm, etc. workers

we currently support?

They have the same effect.