Issue link: https://nnumagazine.uberflip.com/i/198609
providers, like nurses, are trained in English, said Eric Buch, the top Higher Wages." "The issue of wages has been kept under the surface for a long time," health adviser to the New Partnership for Africa's Development, a group established by Africa's heads of state. "You'll see that emerge, she said. "There are a lot of players in healthcare that don't want to see that's my guess," said Buch, who teaches health policy at the Univer- higher wages as an avenue out of the current situation and propose othsity of Pretoria in South Africa, in the May 2006 New York Times arti- er means such as more nursing schools and immigration. But these othcle. "The United States could become a place where we bleed our er avenues won't be effective. "I think the public would really be shocked if they knew about the healthcare workers." Brownback's measure would undermine the ongoing effort to working conditions for nurses," said Lovell, citing things like inadecombat AIDS and malaria by exacerbating poor countries' shortage quate staffing and mandatory overtime, and that many nurses work of healthcare providers, according to Holly Burkhalter with Physi- without breaks. "If the public knew they would really care about [it cians for Human Rights. "We're pouring water in a bucket with a hole but] a lot of these conditions are hidden from the public. It isn't what in it, and we drilled the hole," she said in the May 2006 New York people see when they go to visit someone in a hospital." Lovell said she sees increased recruiting from abroad as way to Times article. One group that is supporting Brownback's plan is the American essentially avoid dealing with the central problem of wages and Hospital Association, a hospital lobbying and trade group. It cites as working conditions, but is careful to say that no one can object to justification for the legislative amendment—and the continuing someone coming from another country and getting a better standard effort to lure nurses from abroad—the contention that there is a of living. It is just that immigration is not the solution to the nursing shortage of nurses in the U.S. and that the problem is growing. The shortage. Still, "it is immoral of the United States to ignore the impact hospital industry has employed such statistics in its effort to fend off drives for mandatory standardized nurse-topatient staffing ratios. However, CNA/NNOC leaders challenge the pretexts cited by the hospital industry. They say changes brought about by healthcare industry restructuring over the past 20 years have resulted in many nurses working in non-hospital settings or out of the field altogether. In 2004, the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee adopted "There is the continuing problem of a "Code of Practice for the International Recruitment of Nurses." It said, in part: the absence of RNs working at the bedMany countries worldwide, including the US, are experiencing shortages of registered side," said Deborah Burger, RN and presnurses. These shortages, which tend to be more severe in developing countries and rural ident of the California Nurses Association. areas, reduce the capacity of nation-states to provide good quality health services to their "This is particularly true in states that, unpopulations. like California, do not have adequate Some countries are responding to the problem of shortages by systematically recruiting staffing ratios and where wages are subnurses from other countries, in particular from developing countries. While this helps recipistandard and working conditions defient countries to overcome their staffing shortages, it often deprives source countries of the cient. All sorts of non-healthcare knowledge, skills, and expertise for which large amounts of resources have been expended. businesses are actively recruiting nurses While short-term international migration offers the potential for healthcare workers to away from healthcare. This is true of receive additional training and specialization in order to improve their ability to provide things like legal consultancies and insurcare once they return home, the adverse effects on the quality of the health care systems ance firms that are anxious to hire nursthey leave behind may outweigh such benefits. es because of their knowledge and their While CNA/NNOC recognizes the rights of individuals to migrate, this Code provides a respect by the public. It's tempting beframework within which international recruitment and migration should take place. cause in these other arenas you probably The Code provides guidelines for the international recruitment of nurses in a manner would be treated better and do better fithat takes into account the potential impacts of recruitment and migration on services in nancially." both the source and recipient countries. According to Burger, "there would be The Code seeks to safeguard the rights of both nationals and non-national nurses workno need to lure nurses from abroad if we ing in the U.S. were willing to spend the necessary The Code discourages the targeted recruitment of nurses from countries which are resources to attract and educate a suffiexperiencing shortages and/or where the effectiveness and quality of health care systems cient nurse workforce and provide the in source countries is undermined by recruitment. compensation and working conditions The Code applies the principles of Quality, Equity, Promotion of Nursing, Transparency, to retain it." and Fairness. The question of nurse compensation To review the entire code, visit the CNA/NNOC website at www.calnurses.org and check and working conditions has been raised under "nursing practice." strongly by Lovell, principle author of "Solving the Nursing Shortage through CNA/NNOC's Code of Practice 16 REGISTERED NURSE W W W. C A L N U R S E S . O R G APRIL 2007