Foreign-Educated Nurses for Nursing Shortage

By 2012, U.S. will require 1 million replacement nurses. To fill the vacancies, U.S., hospitals must not only depend on U.S.-trained nurses but also on foreign-educated nurses. Norwalk Hospital is part of this national trend when it has hired nearly 60 foreign-educated nurses during the last four years, in the first place from India.

International recruitment brings a significant number of nurses but it can use up two years, for the greatest part because of the immigration process which can spend eight months to fully accomplish in some instances.

Before foreign-educated nurses can be hired in the U.S., they who are looking for employment in the U.S. must pass all their nursing programs, pass a series of examinations and be completely licensed. Likewise, they must pass an English as a Second Language course. Before they arrive, an introduction to U.S. culture are also provided to them.The foreign-educated nurses Norwalk Hospital has hired have actually been extremely good in providing care to the patients.

As the U.S.-trained nurses are not enough to fill the requirements of U.S. hospitals in nurses, the excess in foreign-educated nurses is ready to satisfy the vacancies. The foreign-educated nurses are waiting to be recruited.