AUSTRALIAN IMMIGRATION NEWS

US hopes on immigration to solve nursing shortage

Friday, 22 February 2008

Immigration to the United States could be in the pipeline for many nurses who could fill shortages in California.

Currently, there are only 622 nurses for every 100,000 residents in California, compared with the national average of 787. In a survey done in 2006, the American Hospital Association calculated the nationwide nurse vacancy rate at 116,000.

The California Employment Development Department has stressed that the state will need to hire 10,910 new nurses annually through 2014 in order to avoid a nurse shortage crisis.

A starting nurse working 36-hour weeks can expect to gross $3,700 per month on average.

Before nurses can work in the United States, they have to face a screening process that includes evaluation of their nursing credentials by state nursing boards or the non-profit Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools, which is based in Philadelphia.

Nurses from non-English-speaking countries must pass an English-language proficiency exam, and those whose training is deemed to fall short are required to take additional classes.

Once these steps have been taken, they can take the US standardised test for registered nurses.

Most foreign nurses who want to work in the United States, some with the aim of immigration, apply for an occupational visa that gives them permanent residency. Mexican and Canadian nurses qualify for another kind of work permit that has no numerical limits and is authorized under NAFTA.

Figures from the Chicago-based National Council of State Boards of Nursing, which administers standardised US nurse licensing exams, show that by far the largest numbers of foreign-educated nurses who qualify to work in the United States come from the Philippines, followed by South Korea, India and Canada.

The average age of registered nurses at El Centro Regional is 50, and "they're going to start retiring in droves very soon," said William Moore, El Centro Regional in Imperial County's assistant director for human resources.

According to a study done by the Immigration Policy Center in 2004, a research arm of the pro-immigrant American Immigration Law Foundation, 11.5% of the registered nurses working in the United States were foreign-born. It anticipated that immigration will contribute to the growth of this proportion as the nation continues to struggle with shortages of health care workers.

Bringing internationally trained nurses to work in the United States not only relieves the immediate shortage, but helps foreign countries benefit from the earnings sent home.

If you would like to work in the United States or would even like to take a step towards immigration, take our free online visa eligibility assessment to find out for which working visa you qualify for.

Your skills could be just what the doctor ordered!