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Four years after she flew to the Philippines and began the
process that ended in 39 newly hired nurses, Mary Jane
Brecklin, RN, MA, BSN, says foreign recruitment made her
organization better in more ways than one.
“It was a life-changing experience for us,” said the
recruitment and retention services coordinator for St.
Louis-based SSM Health Care, a 23,000-bed network of home
health, inpatient, and rehab services and hospitals.
Not only did SSM employees come together to create a
generous start for their new counterparts, but the
administration also figured out new ways to retain all staff
members. Despite an estimated cost of $16,000 per nurse and
the complications leading them through the thicket of
immigration bureaucracy, administrators say the trouble of
overseas recruitment was worth it.
Accreditation agencies have helped ease the process. In
June, the National Council of State Boards of Nursing
announced it would offer the NCLEX in three foreign
countries — Hong Kong, England, and South Korea. The
Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools continues
to open new locations of its NCLEX predictor test for the
same reason; it recently branched out into China and India.
Most international nurses in the United States come from the
Philippines, but many others come from Canada and India. In
the past few years, Africa and China also have provided more
nurses for U.S. facilities.
Fewer immigration restrictions in the late ’90s opened up a
new market for recruiters who were seeking solutions to the
nursing shortage. The number of overseas nurses moving to
the United States, which has ebbed and flowed according to
restrictions over the years, subsequently jumped. According
to the national council’s figures, 16,490 nurses from
outside the United States passed the NCLEX in 2003, nearly
double the number in 2001.
http://www.nurseweek.com/news/features/04-06/recruits_2.asp
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