honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Tuesday, August 20, 2002

Path to U.S. eased for foreign nurses

By Steve Friess
Special for USA Today

Nurses' licensing examinations will be offered abroad beginning in 2004, a move that is expected to bring more foreign-born nurses to the United States and help alleviate the acute nursing shortage that is crippling American health care.

The required test currently is given only in the United States and its territories, which forces other nurses to make costly trips to take it. The National Council of State Boards of Nursing decided over the weekend to start offering the exam at overseas sites by October 2004.

Desperate U.S. hospitals are looking to hire thousands of foreign-educated nurses to help fill more than 125,000 vacant positions. Experts predict that figure will triple in the coming decade as baby boomers demand more health care services and fewer Americans go into nursing.

Foreign students, in turn, increasingly view nursing school as their ticket to the United States. Add to that the advantage of taking the test in or near their native country, and the number of test-takers is likely to soar.

More than 23,000 foreigners took the examination last year, up from about 20,000 the year before.

Of those, more than half were from the Philippines, which educates thousands more nurses than the country needs. The would-be nurses often seek work abroad so they can send money home to their families.

Stories abound of U.S. health-care companies spending as much as $10,000 per hire in recruiting efforts and immigration costs to fill their vacancies.