Thread: Update on US visas for Nurses – Possible new W Visa

I wonder how real this nursing shortage is. This program sounds like another 3rd world labor importation program.


http://www.workpermit.com/news/2009-08- ... nurses.htm

Update on US visas for Nurses – Possible new W Visa

01 August 2009
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There is currently a huge shortage of nurses in the US; About 116,000 unfilled registered nurse vacancies at U.S. hospitals and nearly 100,000 nurse vacancies at Nursing homes.

On February 11, 2009, a new Nurse Relief Act was introduced in the House - HR 1001. This would introduce a new non-immigrant W visa category for nurses with an annual cap of 50,000. Currently it is difficult for nurses to gain entry to the US:

* Preference is given to nurses under the third preference employment based immigrant category. Nurses and physiotherapists come under Schedule A and do not require labor certification. However, at the present time visas are unavailable under this category. We will have to wait until October to see if any more visas become available.
* The H-3 non-immigrant visa allows temporary entry for the purposes of training in the US. You are expected to leave at the end of the training period.
* In a limited number of cases where you are employing very senior level nurses the H-1B non-immigrant visa may be possible. However, this is difficult.
* Similarly, in a limited number of cases it may be possible for nurses to gain entry under the J-1 exchange visitor scheme.

The Findings and Purpose of the Bill:

1. There are more vacant nursing positions in the United States than there are qualified registered nurses and nursing school candidates to fill those positions.
2. According to the Department of Labor, the current national nursing shortage exceeds 126,000.
3. States in the West and Southwest have a disproportionate number of nursing vacancies because of rapid population growth, which exacerbates a widening gap in the number of facilities and staff compared to patients that need care.
4. Foreign countries such as the Philippines, India, and China have an oversupply of nurses.
5. Major hospital systems in the United States spend hundreds of millions of dollars every year recruiting foreign nurses under our current immigration system.
6. Current law, with certain limited exceptions, requires health care providers to sponsor desired nurses for permanent resident status while the nurses remain outside of the United States, which can take as much as 3 years or more.
7. This cost is passed on to consumers and adds to the rising cost of health care.
8. Health care providers cannot efficiently and effectively recruit qualified foreign nurses through the existing immigration process.
9. Our health care system requires an immediate modification of Federal laws relating to recruitment of qualified foreign nurses in order to operate at an efficient and effective level.

US President Barack Obama wants to train more nurses locally to deal with the shortage of nurses. However, it takes years to train nurses. Even if more nurses are trained in the US it is unlikely that this will provide all the nurses needed in the US. The only way forward is to allow in nurses from Countries such as India, china and the Philippines. On 6 March 2009 Obama made the following comments

"The notion that we would have to import nurses makes absolutely no sense," Obama told a gathering of health experts and lawmakers at a White House meeting on health care reforms.

"For people who get fired up about the immigration debate and yet don't notice that we could be training nurses right here in the United States," he said responding to Congresswoman Lois Capps from California.

"We have a huge shortage of nurses today. Estimates are that the US will be lacking over 500,000 nurses in the next seven years," said Capps.

"That's something that we've got to fix. That should be a no-brainer. That should be a bipartisan no-brainer, to make sure that we've got the best possible nursing staffs in the country," Obama said.

I wonder why it's never mentioned that the cost of the necessary education to become a nurse (or any other profession for that matter) is so much more expensive here in the USA than it is in the countries we recruit from. I believe that has a great bearing in this discussion.

I have a nursing degree and there is a shortage, especially in certain areas. But I have lived through the 80's shortage when they imported nurses from Ireland, Phillipines, Jamaica and Great Britain. Their education and knowledge of our advanced surgical techniques (for example, I took a report from a foreign nurse on a patient who was off the floor having an arteriogram) and she said she didn't know what he went for. I could not understand those from Jamaica either on the phone or in person. One answered the phone and I overheard her say "I don't know who Dr. ABG is" (it was a doctor on the phone trying to order an arterial blood gas on his patient to determine his oxygenation. Our hospital when to Ireland (spent a fortune) to recruit nurses, only 3 came, two left shortly after they arrived and the third brought a family with only their clothes and the hospital had to rent an apartment and furnish it for them. She left after a couple of years.

Most of the nurses from the Phillipines were pretty good and stayed, but I imagine that there is now a shortage there.

I don't know where they think they can acquire nurses from other countries, but it is a stretch to think they can function here. It just is not cost effective or safe.

I remember when Hilary care was proposed, and she said no nurse is worth $10 an hour. That's what this is about, to flood the market and lower wages. But it is just not that easy - if nurses are going to have to take a major salary hit then they will work somewhere else that is easier than a 24 hr/365 day including holidays.

The nursing shortage you hear about in main stream media is an outright LIE!!! There are thousands of new graduate US nurses at all levels (LPN, RN, BSN) unable to get work. Just go read nursing forums like allnurses.com and look on indeed.com forums. I just graduated as a family nurse practitioner in south Florida and I can't get a job, been applying since I graduated in May--6 months!! All my classmates are jobless. Seasoned nurses at my professional meetings are looking for jobs. Our last meeting just this week was like an AA meeting, people got up and said, "hi I'm looking for a job if you know of one please let me know."

I went on the first job interview I got (in 6 months) and the employer tried to offer me $40k/yr salary with no benefits!! I have 7 years of education to get my degree and the average starting wage is $80k with benefits. Employers are taking advantage of the many unemployed nurses hoping we'll be desperate enough or they just hire foreigners. The insurance companies are still reimbursing the same rates but the employers are trying to beat the nurse down in this economy to make more profit for themselves. Because there are so few jobs, even in nursing.

Hospitals (and otherss) are not hiring new grads because they have to invest a couple weeks training into us and they don't want to make that investment. What they do instead is get the visa nurses from who knows where with the equlivalent of a trade school diploma, have them work for $10/hr with no benefits, etc. It's the same concept as what companies are doing with illegal immigrants, cheap labor they can abuse.

The nursing shortage is made up. Please go check those message boards and other nursing forums if you think I'm full of it.

And if anyone needs a family nurse practitioner in south Florida email me

I find #3 interesting. If they got the illegal aliens out of the West and Southwest, not to mention the rest of our nation, maybe the so-called "shortage" of nurses would cease to exist?

3. States in the West and Southwest have a disproportionate number of nursing vacancies because of rapid population growth, which exacerbates a widening gap in the number of facilities and staff compared to patients that need care.

Originally Posted by bchapp

The nursing shortage you hear about in main stream media is an outright LIE!!!

I suspected as much.

There must also be a doctor shortage too. I just spent 5 days in the hospital not one nurse or technician was American. All hardly spoke English. Not even the doctors and specialists were American. One from China, one from Vietnam, One Muslim complete with head gear. I didn't see anyone there that spoke good English. Why is it out medical system had been taken over by foreigners?

From what I saw, everyone except doctors worked 12 hour shifts, they get paid very little and probably get few if any benefits. Many of them didn't work for the hospital rather were there as contract labor. Little wonder they drag people here from outside the USA. The medical community saves on labor costs, saves on paying any benefits because they ae not employees and are able to require longer working hours by taking advantage of foreigners. I understand, it is all about the money.

Originally Posted by Ratbstard

Originally Posted by bchapp

The nursing shortage you hear about in main stream media is an outright LIE!!!

I suspected as much.

OF COURSE!!!!LIES, LIES AND MORE LIES!!!