Is Recruiting International Nurses To Feed the U.S. Pipeline Worsening the Global Nursing Shortage?

By Anne Dabrow Woods, DNP, RN, CRNP, ANP-BC, AGACNP-BC, FAAN, main nurse of Wolters Kluwer Health Discovering, Analysis & Practice. 

It is no secret that the U.S. has been having difficulties with a nursing workforce crisis for several years, with health care corporations recruiting foreign nurses as a speedy fix to fill swelling vacancies. Through the pandemic, the inflow of worldwide nurses from the Philippines, Jamaica, India, Canada, and Africa enhanced drastically, up 44% from 2021 and 109% from 2018, according to the O’Grady Peyton International Inc. 2021 survey of International Nurses. Envisioned to continue on in 2023, this development could enable to stem our nationwide shortage in the small time period but it also provides to nursing shortages felt abroad.

A person region where we have found a significant selection of  nurses coming to the US to apply from is the Philippines. Nonetheless, this has remaining the Philippines with a lack of in excess of 350,000 nurses, many who arrive to the U.S. for greater wages and operating problems, explained Maria Rosario Vergiere, officer in charge for the Ministry of Overall health. These nurses who are hunting to make an critical adjust in their job elevate a basic concern: Is it moral to just take nurses from one particular place to fill the nursing lack in a different?

The migration of nurses from just one place to an additional also exposes a bigger concern: today’s nursing shortage is world wide, not just domestic. International locations and world nursing businesses have to have to operate collectively to address the nursing workforce disaster globally. The International Council of Nurses and the Earth Well being Firm are recognized leaders in addressing the world-wide nursing lack on the other hand, they need to have equitable guidance from all nations to ensure the scarcity is dealt with from a international viewpoint.

Global nursing worries

Whilst recruiting internationally qualified nurses may perhaps appear to be like a quick resolve, it provides with it a host of problems alongside with it that are not generally quickly distinct. 1 instance is that worldwide nurses need to pass the NCLEX exam and they ought to adjust to cultural and scope of observe dissimilarities. CGFNS Global, an immigration-neutral, nonprofit corporation, helps internationally educated health care pros seeking to are living and perform in a sought after country. They evaluate and validate their academic and qualified qualifications, educating them on language, tradition, and follow differences (CGFNS, 2023). The operate of this firm has been instrumental about the several years in supporting acute, lengthy-expression treatment, and other health care corporations fill vacant nursing positions with international candidates.

Worldwide nurses have historically struggled to go the NCLEX examination when compared to U.S. nursing graduates due to some of the roadblocks they experience in their shift. In 2021, the initially-time pass rate for the NCLEX-RN exam was 82.48% for U.S.-educated nurses and 46.48% for internationally educated nurses (CGFNS, 2022). As nurses endeavor to go the examination yet again, health systems could experience a strain in their onboarding approach for them. Even so, the bar raises in April when the Countrywide State Boards of Nursing releases the Upcoming Generation NCLEX exam for RNs and LPNs. The new NCLEX test, which assesses medical judgment and readiness to apply for graduating nurses, could adversely impact the by now tenuous movement of internationally skilled nurses eligible to get the job done in The us.

Will nurses educated in international international locations be capable to go the Future Technology NCLEX evaluation? Will their scores be improved or worse than the effects on the present NCLEX examination? Only time will notify what effect the examination alterations will have on the international nurse pipeline.

Getting the extended see

Although the U.S. will work to produce remedies to remedy the domestic nursing workforce lack, utilizing internationally skilled nurses will definitely continue on. On the other hand, we need to remember that for just about every international nurse acquired, a precious healthcare specialist is lost in their home region, which impacts individual safety and high quality of treatment – essential rights that should utilize in any geography. Probably the U.S. wants to take the extensive perspective, doing work additional closely with the world-wide group to find equitable options to the nursing workforce scarcity not only in our have yard but across the globe.

References

Alibudbud, R. 2022. When the heroes really do not truly feel cared for: The migration and resignation of Philippine nurses among the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of World Wellness. 2022 2: 03011. Doi: 10.7189/jogh.12.03011

CGFNS Worldwide, 2023. https://www.cgfns.org/

O’Grady Peyton International, 2021.  O’Grady Peyton International, Inc. 2021 Study of International Nurses.