[nursinghumor]

Korea Signs Deal to Send 10,000 Nurses to US:"Officials from South Korea and the U.S. held a signing ceremony Thursday to celebrate a deal that will take 10,000 nurses from Korea to the United States over the next five years.
To ease the shortage of nurses in the U.S., New York’s St. John’s Riverside Hospital, which operates a nursing school and supplies nurses to 100 hospitals, has arranged for Korean nurses who wish to do so, to begin one and a half year internships that could lead to full-time employment."
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nati...7521611990.htm

If our own colleges can't graduate enough nurses, and we can't convince enough people to go into nursing, suppose we'll need to get nurses from somewhere, huh?

Andrew Lopez, RN
A to Z Nursing Resources
http://www.nursinga2z.com

[Aaron C.]

as long as they speak fluent ENGLISH then it's fine.

[kimmiejs]

As long as they live up to the standards set by the ANA and that there there will be no pressure to lower licensure standards in order for these nurses or any others to receive a nursing license in the USA, I do not see what the problem is. From what I have read approximately 75% of all hospital vacancies are for nurses. By the year 2020 the U.S. will experience a 20% shortage in the number of nurses needed in our nation's health care system. This translates into a shortage of more than 400,000 RNs.
That is something to think about.

[nursinghumor]

It's more than something to think about, it's a critical issue that needs to get dealt with.

Most of us know and have seen what shortstaffing, too long shifts and burned-out nurses do to our quality of life and the quality of care we can give to our patients.

Many complain now that our working conditions endanger patient care. What are we going to be saying when 20% of our workforce retires with no hope of replacements. When the babyboomers hit the hospitals, nursing homes and start filling up hospital beds, who's going to be there to care for them? To care for us?

I can see why some are pressuring the licensure boards to lower standards. It's a very dangerous situation.

Andrew Lopez, RN
A to Z Nursing Resources
http://www.nursinga2z.com

[wilyum4u2]

I am not quite buying this nursing shortage thingy,,, i really think that it is all hype by the Hospital and nursing facilities to make the public think that there is one.. How can there be one if every solitary nursing school in the country has a waiting list to get in? Seems strange to me.. but my second thought is that they can pay cheaper wages to the Koreans than American nurses. Just like they did with the Phillipino nurses until they got wise. Now they are using Koreans hmmmmmmmmmm. How come we do not have investigations into these dealings, what advocates from the business owned hospital corporations are supporting the politicians throughout the country? We need to stand up and get this dilema resolved and investigated. Subserviance to this matter is not an option, especially your hard earned education , working hours , continued education, and behaviors from patients that we endure make us good nurses and good nurses to come,, please can the powers that be out there hear us?

[nursinghumor]

Judging by the number of nurses I talk to who can't wait to get out of bedside nursing, a shortage isn't hard to fathom at all. Add to that the fact that most nurses today are baby boomers, and you can picture how many will be leaving the field how soon.

The waiting lists are due to a shortage of nursing faculty (average age 53), not enough slots to keep up with/replace nurses leaving the field.

The situation is going to get a lot worse in the years to come.

Andrew Lopez, RN
A to Z Nursing Resources
http://www.nursinga2z.com

[jenalberta]

Hi, I am a new member here. I feel very strongly that the criteria to enter into nursing must be changed. The current criteria is too focused on academic performance. In Canada, namely Alberta, the current cut off for acceptance into nursing is in the 90% range. Just because someone is great academically, does not translate into him/her becoming a good nurse. I have met some very smart nursing students who were cold, rigid, and had a personality not condusive to nursing. I certainly wouldn't want them performing bedside care on me, however, they would be fabulous in a lab or research, making great contributions to advancement in health care. And, on the other hand, I have met declined prospective students who didn't "cut the grade", but who would have made caring, humorous, genuinely kind nurses. Just my thoughts,

Jen

[nursinghumor]

The strict educational requirements are the only reassurance we have that the nurses that meet them will be qualified to provide safe patient care.

I'd be strongly against, lowering the educational standards. With the growing shortage of nurses, the temptation is going to be there. I believe it would be a major mistake and lead to unqualified nurses and unsafe patient conditions.

Andrew Lopez, RN
Nursing Associations, Jokes, Scrubs & More
http://www.4nursing.com

[Ricu]

Originally Posted by nursinghumor

Korea Signs Deal to Send 10,000 Nurses to US:"Officials from South Korea and the U.S. held a signing ceremony Thursday to celebrate a deal that will take 10,000 nurses from Korea to the United States over the next five years.
To ease the shortage of nurses in the U.S., New York’s St. John’s Riverside Hospital, which operates a nursing school and supplies nurses to 100 hospitals, has arranged for Korean nurses who wish to do so, to begin one and a half year internships that could lead to full-time employment."
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nati...7521611990.htm

If our own colleges can't graduate enough nurses, and we can't convince enough people to go into nursing, suppose we'll need to get nurses from somewhere, huh?

Andrew Lopez, RN
A to Z Nursing Resources
http://www.nursinga2z.com

Short term gain for long term loss...

I'm afraid that this will not fix the problem at all and will in fact, make other problems worse. Let me share a personal experience. Back in the 1980s, I was living in New Jersey where the hospital that I was working at made a decision based purely on its own labor economics and contracted a number people from the Philippines and Mexico to fill various hard to fill positions among them, nursing. The nurses had Baccelaureate degrees, were highly skilled and spoke excellent English while the rest were unskilled and largely illiterate. I have no detailed knowledge of the contract specifics like PTO, insurance, tuition reimbursement, etc. but I know they were all paid below the standard payrate in exchange for various other endowment programs, ESL classes, naturalization and housing assistance and so on. Regardless, just immigrating and becoming naturalized citizens made them eligible for federal endowments. What eventually happened was the new immigrants who were living in subsidized group homes, facilitated the move of their relatives, many of whom remained in the US, illegally. Consequently over twenty years later, this town, my home town, still suffers with a large illegal alien population with all of the associated problems like high crime rates, homelessness, community service dependency and much more. Meanwhile, the original contractors moved on, the hospital decided that it's experiment was a failure, and stopped importing from the third world when it still had staff retention problems. Reflecting on this personal experience, I would say with confidence, that the "New Deal" proposed by Saint John's Riverside is a set up promising disasterous outcomes. The risk is great for a reoccurrance of what happened in New Jersey. I believe it's the "grass is greener" concept for the Koreans just like it was for the Filipinos and Mexicans in New Jersey. From their national perspective, I imagine that coming here is very appealing. Let them live here without public and/or private assistance, earning nurses wages, paying our cost of living and they will find that gloss will soon be gone. I am convinced that they will only be happy for as long as the "assistance" continues. Let's stop trying to fix the problem like it's a local issue when it's national and requires national attention. Because healthcare is regulated at the federal level, any meaningful change will start there. A step in the right direction might be if schools operated by places like New York's Saint John's Riverside Hospital would design programs for and offer job incentives and financial assistance to underemployed US citizens who could likely make the transition more rapidly. Additionally, these people are already citizens, are well aware of our national issues and are already living with them. This school is in a position to fix problems that already exist while avoiding the creation of new ones. It will promote healthcare at least regionally, bring people to the workforce and ease the social burden of supporting underemployed or unemployed citizens that are stuck in the system. Many of whom are dislocated workers who are college educated. No, I am not prejudiced against immigrants. I am prejudiced against bad decisions.

Been there, done that, got the tee shirt and hated it.

[Ann RN]

Originally Posted by nursinghumor

The strict educational requirements are the only reassurance we have that the nurses that meet them will be qualified to provide safe patient care.

I'd be strongly against, lowering the educational standards. With the growing shortage of nurses, the temptation is going to be there. I believe it would be a major mistake and lead to unqualified nurses and unsafe patient conditions.

Andrew Lopez, RN
Nursing Associations, Jokes, Scrubs & More
http://www.4nursing.com

I am insulted by this post. I graduated from a 3 year diploma program that had "strict educational requirements". in addition it had more on-hands clinical than any BSN program I have ever seen. We did OR rotations. Our ICU rotation was 6 weeks. Our instructors were always in our units with us. I do not consider this to be "lowering the educational standards". You do not need a BSN to be a good bedside nurse.