Global Nursing Migration Today

The shortage of nurses is a subject that has been an ongoing problem that has affected numerous countries worldwide, not just in the United States. This research paper by Barbara Bush examines the nursing shortage, particularly in the United States, and the process of filling-in nursing by migrating foreign nurses into the country. She presented that for over 6 decades, United States has been faced with this dilemma and has continuously resorted to recruiting nurses from overseas. Bush tackles how this recruitment affects the donor country in terms of easing the process of nurse exportation and immigration and using the global nursing shortage as a lucrative business to supply and export local nurses to meet the nursing needs of recipient countries.

Bush is aware that the recruitment of nurses from abroad has been a tactic long used by United States to resolve the problem of nursing shortage. Health Resources and Service's Administration's 2004 survey reports that 3.5% of registered nurses in 2003 are foreign-educated. Nurses recruited internationally are geographically clustered in the United States, primarily working in urban states such as California, New York, Florida, New Jersey, and Texas. In New York alone, as many as 30% of New York's registered nurses are foreign-educated, as published on a report by New York State Education Department in 2003.

To attract nurses from overseas, a variety of tactics have been implemented as noted by Bush such as low-cost, affordable housing and sign-on bonuses. To ease the immigration process, the U.S. immigration has waived in some states the requirement of passing the Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools. States that have eliminated this examination, in turn, shows a greater number of foreign-trained nurses.

While recipient countries work on recruiting nurses overseas, some of the countries supplying these nurse countries sequentially are experiencing a shortage of nurses themselves. To solve the issue, Bush reports that these donor countries have placed a demand on their respective governments to increase compensation in order to keep their nurses instead of having them migrate to greener pastures.

Many donor countries have also used the nursing needs of first-world countries as a profitable business by increasing nursing schools to accommodate the demand of student applicants. In relation to this move, these decline countries have seen a decline in quality programs and faculty, which is illustrated in a decrease in passing rate of local and international board examinations.

This research done by Bush notably affects staff education as nursing shortages considerably increases the likelihood of poor patient outcomes. Health care facilities may have to shorten or reduce services in relation to inadequate staffing or increase the nurse to patient ratio. Nursing shortage directly negatively impact patient outcomes, may it be in terms