Obama for reducing dependence on foreign nurses
March 6th, 2009 - 9:11 pm ICT by IANS ( 5 comments )By Arun Kumar
Washington, March 6 (IANS) President Barack Obama has proposed an increase in the nursing education budget in a bid to end America’s dependence on foreign nurses, a large majority of whom come from India, China and the Philippines.
“The notion that we would have to import nurses makes absolutely no sense,” he said at a White House Forum on Health Care Thursday when a lawmaker pointed out that America’s huge shortage of nurses may mount to over 500,000 in the next seven years.
“And there are a lot of people who would love to be in that helping profession, and yet we just aren’t providing the resources to get them trained, that’s something that we’ve got to fix,” he said in response to the question from Democrat Lois Capps, who is one of the three nurses in the US Congress.
“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.
Pointing out that US has a huge shortage of nurses and the “greatest bottleneck for educating more nurses comes from the lack of nursing school faculty,” Capps wanted to know how the US can further advance nursing education and faculty training.
Obama agreed, “Nurses provide extraordinary care. …And they don’t get paid very well. Their working conditions aren’t as good as they should be. And when it comes to nurse faculty, they get paid even worse than active nurses.
“So what happens is, is that it is very difficult for a nurse practitioner to go into teaching, because they’re losing money,” he noted.
To overcome the huge shortage of nurses a bill was introduced in the US Congress last week to provide for the new category of visas for registered nurses with an annual limit of 50,000. The proposed “Nursing Relief Act of 2009″ would make it much faster and easier to bring trained nurses from Asian countries.
According to the Department of Labour, the current national nursing shortage exceeds 126,000.
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Tags: arun kumar, barack obama, department of labour, education budget, extraordinary care, faculty training, india china, lawmaker, lois capps, national nursing, no brainer, nurse practitioner, nursing education, nursing shortage, registered nurses, relief act, school faculty, shortage of nurses, us congress, white house forum
March 9th, 2009 at 6:23 pm
This is a very welcome development for American Nursing. It is high time that the USA employs 100 percent of its nurses from the country itself in this time of financial disaster. Americans ought to get jobs first, since the country is in a terrible crisis. Most countries especially the number one supplier of foreign nurses - the Philippines use American nursing textbooks and systems, and it’s a paradox that the USA should be importing nurses from that country. This excellent comment by Obama will wipe out the nursing shortage and totally eliminate the need for importing foreign nurses from the Philippines, greatly helping the economy of the USA. Employing American nurses only and halting the issuance of immigrant visas for nurses from other countries will boost the US economy.
March 13th, 2009 at 8:19 pm
this is an absolutely wrong idea.b caz every american knows how important that foreign nurses part is in americans healthcare.PLEASE LEAVE THIS IDEA
March 22nd, 2009 at 10:40 pm
No doubt this is a good idea raised by president Obama to stable US economy but I think those applicants who have gone through the immigration process & only waiting for their visa # to be current should be given visa ,this new idea should be worked out & apply apply for those who havent apply as health care givers till now b/c v have struggle hard & r waiting for 05 years
September 23rd, 2009 at 11:42 pm
Respected sir
I am sending this mail because the Indian nurses are spending a lot of money for the registration to the agencies. Many of them have completed all the required courses spending money and their effort which is needed only to the USA. Many nurses including my daughter have received the case number from the NVC. As you are aware the RN registration expires after 2 years and needs money for renewal, most of them have renewed their registration more than two times. Now the NVC says that they have received more applications than the law allowed. I have a request that only required number of applications is to be accepted. Here by I request to your honor at least those who have completed the procedures may be allowed to forward .It is true that initially you may take care of your country and your people. They will also serve your country and your people. May the Almighty bless you and your country abundantly?
Waiting for your favorable reply.
March 4th, 2010 at 3:36 pm
please president obama, change ur view of not heiring nurses from other countries, it is very difficult for providing nurses only from usa, as many nurses from diffirent countries are waiting to come to usa to give their service,since more than 6 yrs, please accept them, god will bless u and STATE OF USA,, WE INDIANS LOVE U AND USA.