Question

Many resources are spent on recruiting foreign nurses. It is a fast-growing private sector business. If the United States and other industrial nations put their resources into fixing the problems that lead to this shortage of nurses, would the need to recruit foreign nurses decrease? Why or why not?

Answer 1

The scarcity of quality health personnel including nurses is being identified as one of the biggest obstacle in achieving health system effectiveness.

Developed countries like America face low fertility and a large population of the elderly which causes a shift to chronic and degenerative diseases with high care demands that is, ultimately the demand of nurses' and midwives.

As the demand for nursing staff increases in these countries, they spend many resources to employ nurses from areas that have a high nurse: population ratio.

However, the if the causes of shortage is analysed and the government of the United Nations and other industrial nation's put in efforts to combat the causes, this shortage might be overcomed and we may not need to outsource health professionals.

As more and more nurses reach retirement age, there needs to be an equal number of new nurses entering the labor force to replace them, otherwise a shortage occurs. The government can offer to pay people’s way through nursing school if they promise to work at their location after graduation. This may help increase the number of new nurses joining in.

The private sectors, who are the major bodies for outsourcing nurses from other countries can offer large sign-on bonuses toevery new nurse who joins their staff.

They can offer education reimbursement to their nurses. This means that if they choose to advance their medical careers, their hospital will pay them back for any expenses. This will allow nurses to expand their opportunities and continue to strive for more knowledge.

Nursing as a job can be very challenging due to the work hours, the vast syllabus and the dedication that the job demands. In return, the nurses should be offered proper workplace environment. This is the concept of a magnet hospital which is considered a great place to work by its nurses, have a low turnover rate for its nursing staff and be located in a place with notable competition for nursing jobs.

According to me, employing the aforementioned efforts can help overcome the shortage of nurses. There is only need to reallocate the resources and increase the work force in the same region. This can decrease the need for recruitment of foreign nurses.