[medi]

Is anyone else besides me noticing more and more foreign nurses staffing hospitals each year? Heck, I almost think we're licensing more foreign nurses than we're getting US grads from nursing programs anymore.

Does anyone besides me wonder if the AHA (who administers hospitals) is intentionally dragging their feet on making substantive improvements in working conditions for nurses so they discourage Americans from becoming nurses & can staff the positions with foreign workers who gladly work under rougher conditions and for lower pay?

[KrissR]

I would say you have a pretty good grasp of the situation. It is something that gone on in American business for years and years. When American workers protest low wages and poor conditions foreign labor is brought in to replace them. The new wrinkle in the situation is the degree to which work is being shipped out of the country. I guess there has always been a trickle of work going overseas but it seems to becomming a torrent.

[mercynurse]

...besides which the foreign nurses make SUBSTANTIALLY more money here so are open to coming. I worked for the Adventist health care system 15 years ago and even then, they brought foreign nurses to the US to work all over the country in their facilities.

[medi]

Does anybody live in a state that borders Mexico or Canada? Do you think NAFTA has hurt us even worse because of the easing of restrictions that allow Mexican & Canadian nurses to work here so easily? Got to wonder whether the AHA has congress on its payroll sometimes eh??

[mercynurse]

I live in TX and am actually surprised byt the number of Canadain nurses here..even more than Mexician! Also a LOT of Indian nurses in Dallas

[medi]

"Also a LOT of Indian nurses in Dallas"....

My husband recently had heart surgery & every one of his docs was Indian or Pakastani. Very competent folks too. But... back to nursing. Unless we can all organize, form colectives where we contract with hospitals rather than work FOR them... or have unions.. how can we change this trend so working conditions for nurses here improve and more young people will want to pursue nursing as a career- and stay in the career??

[Randy, RN]

....."Unless we can all organize, form colectives where we contract with hospitals rather than work FOR them... or have unions"........

I have been a nurse for 25 years. I have always seen hospitals as abusive, harsh employers, for the most part. When there still existed REAL non-profit (usually Catholic) hospitals they were about the only ones, I felt, (some of them) who cared more about the patients that the bottom line.

But who really expects a "business" (it was a "mission" with the Catholic Hospitals I knew of years ago) to care about anything other than the bottom line, really? That is why they are in business, not for service or love of fellow man. That is pretty naive to think otherwise, no matter what the hospital public relation slogans. Nor does the profit motive necessarily make them "evil" and not proficient at what they do.

But as to nurses, I just don't see nurses coming together, really. The unions I do see take dues, but don't do a ton for the nurses. Strikes seem to make strike companies rich, but (I might be wrong) I don't see them doing great things for nurses.

I too have notice many more foreign nurses in the hospitals and docs. They usually are really good and probably will be more and more over time. I also noticed that wages at our local hospital have not changed much over the years.
I am beginning to think that nursing is going to become one of those occupations folks will have to go into (like teaching) for the love it, not for the money. BOTH would be nice! haha...

Nurses have always been isolated and at each other's throats. Incident reports (where we document bad practice against EACH OTHER) are examples of how fractured we are. There is just no unity. Night shift hates day shift, vice versa. We point fingers quickly and will allow a nurse to fall away without any protest, just glad it is not us.

I do believe as society changes (times of war, death of large numbers of young people and our kids, as in the late 60's, 70's) people do re-evaluate what is important and that occupations such as nursing and social work gain members.

Well all that is pretty negative! LOL...but I love nursing, love nurses and still believe if I just go out with that attitude to care for patients to the best of my ability (sometimes just taking them warm blankets and coffee), that may be my real reward.

Nursing is great. Nurses are great and my heros, even after 25 years. They take their lives and their families lives in their hands everyday they go to work with AIDS, Hepatitis, etc. God send us more nurses. Nurses who do it for the love of people, not the love of money, because if they do it for the money, they will become bitter and quickly burn out. The big bucks are not going to be there, I fear.

BTW, I love this forum and website! If anything I said offends, don't take it too seriously...it is very late at night here and I am OLD.

[yazz]

does anyone use this website anymore. All I see is messages sent to the message board dating the latest 1 year ago. If I had known this website was a ghost site I wouldn't have joined up, anyway on the off chance anyone is listening (or reading) ove r hear in england there are absolute bundles of forien nurses and doctors. from the phillipines, africa india ireland (strictly speacking still the uk but who cares) Oh if anyone is reading and know's this site to be void please post a message telling me of another site.

[ICUnowOHN]

I'm here. I just found this site a couple of days ago. Look around, you'll see there are quite a few of us

[yazz]

thank god i'm not alone