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Thursday, August 7, 2008

House Panel Approves Bill to Provide More Foreign Physical Therapists

Yesterday, the U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law approved legislation that would raise the cap on employment-based visas for qualified, foreign educated registered nurses and physical therapists by 20,000. The legislation, H.R. 5924, was introduced by Representatives Robert Wexler (D-FL) and James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) in response to the nation’s persistent nursing shortage.

Specifically, The Emergency Nurse Supply Relief Act addresses the unavailability of employment-based visas (EB-3 visas) for nurses by providing a three-year exemption from the current employment-based visa cap. It loosens that cap, replacing it with a separate annual cap of 20,000 registered nurses (RNs) and physician assistants (PTs), allowing for 60,000 RNs and PTs to come to the United States over the next three years.

The legislation would also authorize a grant program for nursing schools aimed at increasing the number of domestically trained nurses and for current nurses who wish to pursue a graduate degree in nursing.

The full committee is expected to take up the HANYS-supported legislation in September. - Susan Van Meter

http://www.hanys.org/news/index.cfm?storyid=466

5 comments:

Marcus Aurelius said...

From the statistics that I've seen, foreign educated RN's pass the NCLEX (the national licensing test for Registered Nurses), on average, at about a 40-50% rate while American educated RN's pass the same, on average, at about an 89% rate.
The same indicates to me that employers are more concerned about maintaining low wages, poor working conditions, and a "monopoly" on the nursing labor market so as to maintaing profit levels than in the welfare of the patient population.
I strongly oppose this bill, have posted on the internet on numerous occassion in opposition to this bill, and have written my US Congressional representatives in opposition to this bill.

Anonymous said...

I would wager that you're the loudest voice of opposition throughout the blogosophere, and I'm the loudest supporter. On medsapenursing i thought perhaps there was a second opponent! but here i see you just efficiently used the paste command. ;) You don't address the legitimacy of the nursing shortage now or in the future. How can you skip that part?

Marcus Aurelius said...

Here is a partial response to "anonnymous"The following is part of a transcript, during a recent Congressional
Hearing, in which an AFL-CIO representative stated that organization's
opposition to HR 5924:
"NEED FOR GREEN CARDS FOR SKILLED WORKERS
Statement of Steven Francy Executive Director, RNs Working Together
AFL-CIO
Committee on House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration,
Citizenship,
Refugees, Border Security, and International Law


June 12, 2008


My name is Steven Francy and I am the Executive Director of RNs
Working Together, AFL-CIO. I want to thank you for the opportunity to present our views on the issue of whether the expansion of work visas to foreign nurses is an appropriate solution to the nursing shortage that our nation faces.
First a little about the organization RNs Working Together (RNWT). We are a coalition of ten AFL-CIO unions who represent over 200,000 working registered nurses. Each affiliate union has 2 of its nurse leaders who serve on the RNs Working Together Leadership Committee.
One of their responsibilities is to set policy for our rganization.
We are a democratic organization and operate by building mutual
agreement among our members regarding issues that concern working registered nurses.
First of all, the continuing shortage of Registered Nurses is a
problem that virtually everyone acknowledges. If you were to walk the halls of America`s hospitals and asked a nurse what is the number one problem that they face, they would probably say, ``we do not have enough staff to deliver quality care.`` While we appreciate everyone`s efforts in trying to address this crisis, we do not believe that relying upon thousands of additional foreign nurses to deliver health
care in the United States is an appropriate solution to the ursing
shortage.
There are many factors that contribute the current nursing shortage. Two of the major factors that I would like to draw your attention to today is our inability to train enough Americans to become registered
nurses and the difficult working conditions that working nurses face.
To resolve these, and other factors that contribute to the nursing shortage, will require a focused, comprehensive strategy.
First, we do not have the capacity to train enough nurses. Last year
alone, approximately one hundred and fifty thousand (150,000)
qualified applicants for nursing schools were turned away because
there were not enough seats available. Our inability to train these applicants is due to a shortage of RN faculty who are often paid less than practicing nurses. Congress needs to pass legislation that will increase the capacity of nursing schools to train nurses. This would
include incentives to attract nurse faculty as well as to actively recruit and provide financial assistance to those Americans who would
like to become nurses.
In addition, it is estimated that there are 2.9 million licensed RNs
in the U.S., but only 2.4 million are providing care to patients.
Hundreds of thousands of licensed nurses have left the bed-side in
favor of the many other job options now available from outpatient jobs, computer jobs, quality management, doctor`s offices, pharmaceutical jobs or leaving nursing entirely. A key reason for this migration away from the bedside is that chronic understaffing and unmanageable workloads are a day-to-day reality. While increasing the
number of visas may seem like an easy solution, in reality it does
nothing to retain nurses that are already trained, skilled
professionals. Stopping this leakage of nurses will require Congress to direct their attention to this issue and pass legislation that will directly improve working conditions. Examples include prohibiting mandatory overtime and requiring hospitals to meet safe minimum staffing levels. We are confident that by taking these steps, those nurses who have left the profession and those that are now thinking about leaving the profession will come back and care for America`s sick.
As you know, America is not the only country facing a nurse shortage.
Indeed there is a worldwide shortage of registered nurses. Thus the use of immigration policies that allegedly benefit one country in the short-run can be devastating to a developing country`s ability to deliver health care to their citizens. Some countries have an even
greater shortage of nurses and any loss of the nurses they have
trained can undermine their government`s efforts to staff their own hospitals and clinics. In one year alone, Ghana lost more than 500 nurses - more than double the number of its new nurse graduates. In the Philippines, not only are they losing more nurses than graduate from nursing schools, now even doctors are training to become nurses
in the hopes that they will find employment in the U.S. In Zimbabwe, it has been estimated that the nurse to patient ratio is 1 nurse to 700 patients. Obviously, nurses in developing countries will find coming to America for a job very attractive, as they will experience a
great increase in their incomes. But expanding nurse visas simply out sources nurse training to developing countries and robs them of many of the nurses they have trained. In sum, taking nurses from poor countries will have a small short-run impact on the U. S. while increasing the short and long-term misery of poor,developing
countries.
Again, I understand that increasing the number of work visas seems like an easy solution. However, we believe that developing a comprehensive long-term strategy that directly addresses the factors
contributing to the nurse shortage in our country, such as increasing
our capacity to educate new nurses and improving working conditions,
is a more productive use of time and resources and is the only real
way in which America can solve this long-term issue.
Thank you again for the opportunity to provide testimony regarding this important and difficult issue. I can answer any question you can have. "











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Marcus Aurelius said...

Here are some other organizations and people who oppose this horrendous act:
Rick Johnson View profile From: Roy Beck, President, NumbersUSA Date: Friday 8DEC06 4:30 p.m. EST Backroom negotiations underway to bring 90,000 MORE foreign NURSES next year -- Phone to stop ANTI-AMERICAN WORKER EFFORTS NEVER STOP -- BUT WE
DON'T EITHER, DO WE?* We've just learned that the other Texas
Republican Senator (Kay Bailey Hutchison) is negotiating furiously to pass a foreign nurses bill tonight. While Sen. Cornyn (R-TX) remains stymied in passing his bill to increase overall skilled workers by several hundred thousand next year, Hutchison is greasing the skids for another slam against American nurses. *CALL YOUR TWO SENATORS --
NOW!!!! Capitol Switchboard 202-224-3121* Choose from the following in what to say: 1. I just heard that Sen. Hutchison is nearing a deal to import another 90,000 foreign nurses next year. 2. I oppose yet another effort to undercut the wages and working conditions of American nurses. 3. The country has tens of thousand s of trained nurses who are waiting for working conditions to improve before returning to their field. If you keep importing foreign nurses, the improvement will never happen. 4. Unless you want to stop American girls and boys from pursuing nursing careers in the future, you must stop turning it into a foreign profession. 5. Sen. Hutchison's chronic efforts to flood the country with foreign nurses are thwarting the ability of the free-market system to entice and reward career choices
based on what skills are needed by our society. Sen. Hutchison is
ruining the nursing profession year by year. 6. Adjourn, end this
Congress and go home without adding ANY more foreign workers of any kind. 7. Many politicians such as Sen. Hutchison seem to believe that because nursing is a tough, demanding job that the pay and working conditions should be constantly undermined and that only "foreign serfs" should do the work. That is a terrible principle. In our
society, the tougher the job and the more difficulty in filling it,
the more pay should increase and the more employers should strive to improve the working conditions. Efforts like Sen. Hutchison's
represent an unethical kind of classism that should be repugnant in a 21st century American Congress. If you are reading this, please call -- because most people won't see this email in time! EXTRA CREDIT ACTIVITY After you have called your two Senators, we have a few very special leaders who need extra calls, if you have time, and especially if you live in their state or region: Senate Majority Leader Frist (R-
TN) Senate Majority Whip McConnell (R-KY) Senate Minority Leader Reid
(D-NV) Senate Minority Whip Durbin (D-IL) House Speaker Hastert (R-IL) House Majority Leader Boehner (R-OH) House Majority Whip Blunt (R-MO) House Minority Leader Pelosi (D-CA) House Minor ity Whip Hoyer (D-MD) Senate Judiciary Chairman Specter (R-PA) Senate Judiciary Ranking Member Leahy (D-VT) House Judiciary Chairman Sensenbrenner (R-WI) House Judiciary Ranking Member Conyers (D-MI) I certainly hope you
Texans are doing everything you can to let your two Senators know how disappointed you are them. MAKE SURE THEIR HOME STATE OFFICES ARE GETTING A LOT OF CALLS, TOO. Let's not let all of our American nurses (both native-born and foreign-born) down. They deserve the support of all of us in this moment of great threat. Sen. Hutchison has succeeded in sneaking through similar giant increases in foreign nurses in past years. She has to be competing for the title of the Most Anti-Nurse Person in America. THANKS FOR JUST A FEW MORE PHONE CALLS BEFORE CONGRESS LEAVES TOWN, -- ROY P.S. You all have done a remarkable job
of keeping the phones busy all d ay today in the Senate on the Cornyn H-1B bill. The word we had from many congressional staffers today is that the tech industry lobbyists -- especially Microsoft lobbyists -- are fit to be tied. They cannot believe that so many Members whom they thought they had purchased with campaign contributions are standing up
against them on this bill. You know the only reason they are standing up is because of your pressure/support. We are told that the lobbyists have begun calling some congressional offices in tirades hurling all kinds of threats about the future. You've held them off this long.
Keep the pressure today until the switchboards close. Our goal is that the House will leave town later this evening before the Senate has passed Cornyn or Hutchison and we will have won. Although the Senate likely will be in session tomorrow, it won't do any good for them to pass something that the House has not already passed, since the House
won't be around to vote on an ything after it leaves town. AN EXAMPLE OF MANY EMAILS FROM VICTIMIZED AMERICANS "In response to those who are hestitant about opposing H-1B. "In the next five years my wife, a nurse for 32 years and still working for another 10, and I will have
spent/borrowed over $250,000 to educate my son as an engineer and
daughter as a nurse. "My family has been here since the 1850's and my wife's family since 1880's. Our kids have worked extremely hard and our family has sacrificed much for them to achieve their goals. They have suffered much from immigration. A fair number of our professional friends and associates have lost their jobs and careers because of technical foreign workers working for less pay. "I support education
anywhere in the world and welcome people who want to be educated here but we are flooded by those who stay. "Remind politicans they work for us and not for themselves." options Dec 9 2006, 6:36 am

: NEW EMERGENCY -- Stop 90,000 new foreign nurses
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From: Roy Beck, President, NumbersUSA Date: Friday 8DEC06 4:30 p.m. EST Backroom negotiations underway to bring 90,000 MOREforeign
NURSES next year -- Phone to stop *ANTI-AMERICAN WORKER EFFORTS NEVER STOP -- BUT WE DON'T EITHER, DO WE?
We've just learned that the other Texas Republican Senator (Kay
Bailey Hutchison) is negotiating furiously to pass a foreign nurses bill tonight.
While Sen. Cornyn (R-TX) remains stymied in passing his bill to
increase overall skilled workers by several hundred thousand next year,Hutchison is greasing the skids for another slam against American nurses.
CALL YOUR TWO SENATORS -- NOW!!!!
Capitol Switchboard
202-224-3121*
Choose from the following in what to say:
1. I just heard that Sen. Hutchison is nearing a deal to import another
90,000 foreign nurses next year.
2. I oppose yet another effort to undercut the wages and working
conditions of American nurses.
3. The country has tens of thousand s of trained nurses who are waiting for working conditions to improve before returning to their field. If you keep
importing foreign nurses, the improvement will never happen.
4. Unless you want to stop American girls and boys from pursuing nursing careers in the future, you must stop turning it into a foreign profession.
5. Sen. Hutchison's chronic efforts to flood the country with foreign nurses are thwarting the ability of the free-market system to entice and reward career choices based on what skills are needed by our society. Sen.
Hutchison is ruining the nursing profession year by year.
6. Adjourn, end this Congress and go home without adding ANY more
foreignworkers of any kind.
7. Many politicians such as Sen. Hutchison seem to believe that
because nursing is a tough, demanding job that the pay and working conditions should
be constantly undermined and that only "foreign serfs" should do the
work. That is a terrible principle. In our society, the tougher the job and the
more difficulty in filling it, the more pay should increase and the
more employers should strive to improve the working conditions. Efforts like Sen. Hutchison's represent an unethical kind of classism that should be repugnant
in a 21st century American Congress.
*If you are reading this, please call -- because most people won't see this email in time!
EXTRA CREDIT ACTIVITY
After you have called your two Senators, we have a few very special leaders who need extra calls, if you have time, and especially if you live in
their state or region:

Senate Majority Leader Frist (R-TN)
Senate Majority Whip McConnell (R-KY)
Senate Minority Leader Reid (D-NV)
Senate Minority Whip Durbin (D-IL)
House Speaker Hastert (R-IL)
House Majority Leader Boehner (R-OH)
House Majority Whip Blunt ...

ndarsana said...

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Regards
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