New Immigration Bill Not Good for Nursing or Patients

It is not at all certain that Americans are aware of the fact that there are approximately 118,000 unfilled jobs for nurses, today, in the United States. Nor are they aware that Mexico has some of the finest nursing schools, medical schools, and teaching hospitals in the world. At the present time, American hospitals are trying their best to gather the cream of the crop, among foreign nurses, to fill these 118,000 spots. However, the new immigration bill is threatening to make that even harder to do than it is now, leaving hospitalized Americans complaining that their hospitals are deliberately understaffing, when such is not always the case.

At the present time, through NAFTA, the U.S. is bringing in between 12,000 and 15,000 nurses, from Canada and Mexico, per year. The nurses, their schooling, and their credentials are all screened by an independent, not-for-profit commission (Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools), whose sole interest is in ensuring quality health care for patients in our health care system. These nurses are from places that are close enough to the U.S. for the nurses to understand our patients' culture and to take expert care of them. Many, if not most, of these nurses are bilingual and can be a tremendous resource as patient advocates, as patient educators, and in emergency situations. Yet, the new immigration bill turns a blind eye to all of this and may make the situation in health care far worse than it already is.

Upon close examination, we find that the new immigration bill is going to be based on a point system. Nothing wrong with that, unless the proposed point system is not even remotely connected to reality. Right now, the U.S. desperately needs specialty nurses. But - with the new immigration bill, who gets the most points? People with advanced degrees! So, what does this mean? It means that everybody who has a Ph.D. in anything, no matter how useless it is and no matter if we have never actually needed an individual with their experience in the U.S., gets in before that cardiac specialty nurse you need to help you stay alive. The fact that she has a B.S.N., plus over 10 years experience in her specialty is of no consequence, nor is the potential this bill has for killing you or one of your loved ones.

This is not to disparage those who have a Ph.D. from another country and who would like to immigrate to the U.S. It is to say that whatever immigration bill we finally end up with should take into consideration that we need farm workers, construction workers, and nurses, especially specialty nurses! What would be wrong with filling those jobs first? It isn't that these immigrants are coming here to "take" our nursing jobs. We don't have enough nurses to fill our jobs. We need help! Hopefully, the American people will write or call their Congressmen and Senators and let them know that the immigration bill, as it is now proposed, is not what we need and will only make matters worse, especially in the health care field.

Source: Appleby, Julie (2007) Health care: Hospitals fear loss of control finding nurses. USA Today. [online edition]