Obama says no to overseas nurses
Washington, Friday, March 06, 2009: US President Barack Obama today opposed the idea of inviting overseas nurses, including from India, to fill up the huge shortfall the United States is facing right now.
America like most of the Western countries is faced with acute shortage of nurses and in recent years it has allowed medical personnel from India, China and Philippines to immigrate to work in hospitals.
“The notion that we would have to import nurses makes absolutely no sense,” Obama told a gathering of health experts and lawmakers at a White House meeting on health care reforms.
Instead, Obama argued that the best possible approach to meet this shortfall is to train people inside the country.
For people who get fired up about the immigration debate and yet don’t notice that we could be training nurses right here in the United States,” he said responding to an observation made by Congresswoman Lois Capps from California.
We have a huge shortage of nurses today. Estimates are that the US will be lacking over 500,000 nurses in the next seven years,” said Democratic lawmaker Capps.
Last week, a legislation was introduced in the US Congress to create a special category of nursing visas, which would facilitate much faster and easier brining of trained nurses from Asian countries.
Silas you have to be kidding when you say: "America is dealing with a generation of people who are used to having and not working for it. As if It just appears without hard work and sacrifice. Not many people want to work for anything anymore."
The problem in the States is not lack of people wanting to work, it inability to afford education. There are loads of men and women who would love to be nurses but can't afford to go to nursing school. Hopefully Obama's plan is to provide cheaper education.
as far as i know, nurses all over the world perform the same functions, for how can one nurse in one country be admitted in another country as nurse also? the only thing they are required to do is to pass the language test and written tests involving nursing theories. so yup, same profession...
mo lang!
arecel.......maybe nurses are professional maids where you come from but they certainly ain't where I'm from!
Britexpat, I never went into nursing for the love of the job lol ;) Can't explain why I did really probably cos I was too thick to be a vet lol!
Let's explore this :)
In the old days (you and me) nursing and teaching were deemed vocational .. People went in these for the love of the job more so than money..
Now it is not so. Hence lots of people are going in to Nursing and Teaching who may not be "suited" for the environment.
dora, one of the reason why there is shortage of american nurses is because few americans enrolled in nursing. because of the good economy before, college-bound kids take up law, medicine, marketing, finance/investment, literature,fine arts, etc... few wanted to be a nurse cause let's face it, the job involves long hours, grumpy patients and feces/blood/mucus. to be a nurse is to be a professional maid. sounds exhausting to me. so now that the economy is faltering, perhaps more kids might take this course up since the pay is good albeit the bad side mentioned above.
mo lang!
Sorry...nurses should be more polite?!! Thats part of their bloody job! If they aren't polite kick 'em out! How can one possibly 'nurse' and not be polite!
not just anybody has the ability to become a qualified nurse and as I said before...why is it that there is a shortage of American nurses? There must be some reason and that reason should be looked at first!
working in a machine shop. A woman mechanic, a thing seldom seen in Asian & Middle East Countries. Especially in this economic downturn, it will force them to do some odd jobs just to keep up their daily needs.
Good Old days , there may not be enough local interest in the job. Now on , I guess there will be , and will grow with time.
Wise decision.
______________________________________________
Listen to Many..Speak to a few.
Is this not "protectionism" of sorts.. ?
It is a good move to get people off the dole queue.
'brining'?
Red Pope ...I bow before your wisdom...lol
Obama is doing the right thing.....train the locals.
He is also bring in more nurses from Asian countries till the time USA is able to attract more local nurses ...see the last paragraph:
"Last week, a legislation was introduced in the US Congress to create a special category of nursing visas, which would facilitate much faster and easier brining of trained nurses from Asian countries."
venks1964 that makes no sense whatsoever....
Dear all,
Think about America developed by other
nationalities not by american origins. All thier product buyers only other nationalities . Think his foolish policy.
Are you welcome this
The only problem I got, who is going to pay for the training of 500,000.00 Nurses?
My taxes or the oil corporations taxes?
It is a good presidential initiative, but like always it has it limitations.
More nurses are hurt, attack and even killed in the line of duty, than any other job in the USA. That is a reality. Why? They are the first line of defense of all the medical institutions.
Have you ever wonder Why there is a shortage of nurses in the USA?
It Is all related to the amount of injuries suffer pointing to disabilities, lack of pay and benefits. They are over work all the time.
Good luck on that one, Mr. President. Why don't you try to move a patient that is 6'5", 225 pounds and change his adult diapers?
Mr. President have you ever wonder, why nurses work in teams of two or more, all the time?
For safety reasons......
Westerners will do a mental count of Hadji's inside any aircraft, at any airport, before take off...
Peter Russel
What exactly is Qatarization, please? (I really don't know)
then why do you guys complain about Qatarization?
I like what Obama said. Big industry is falling drastically. It's as if the only way to live is in rural areas and catering to rural people (such as farming), simply to be able to live. The barter system comes to mind. The whole idea of capitalism seems to be out of perspective. It's as if the US has cheated itself out of being the US. As Earth, We as A Whole are not doing much better.
When this happens, it's more like, what happens now?
He is AMERICAN. He has said a truth. Acccept it.
salman, what do you mean?
I do frequent the dunes...... Is my helicopter here yet?
People will get injured on purpose and get admitted to the hospital if that happens (as will I) LOL
Mandi, I suppose Obama's angle is to appeal to immigrants and minorities. It's all the same for certain people. As far as a lot of people are concerned, it doesn't make a difference, as long as he's not The Man.
Err, Obama isn't an immigrant. he was born in the US.
Mandi
i suppose he forget where he came from? can u imagine a immigrant saying no to other immigrant workers.
Aana free, jaana free,
Pakde gaye tho khana free.
Nightmare, probably so. Unless there are security concerns with any given country regarding VISAs, it seems to be pretty much the same across the board from what I can see. Not like Obama himself really makes the decision. It's The Money behind the democratic party. He's a spokesman. Myself hiring a translator is basically the same thing.
bloody good point there!!
there are lot of african nurses working in the US will obama say no to them also?
Aana free, jaana free,
Pakde gaye tho khana free.
They have a school of nursing here......
Okay, so where are Qatari nurses trained?
i saw a very pretty lebanese receptionst at HMC never seen any qatari nurses though.
Aana free, jaana free,
Pakde gaye tho khana free.
as a Westerner, and thank God has only been to Hamd once I saw how crap they were.
I apologise to all but you are no wayyyyyyyyyyyy, as good as Western trained Nurses.
as a Westerner, and thank God has only been to Hamd once I saw how crap they were.
I apologise to all but you are no wayyyyyyyyyyyy, as good as Western trained Nurses.
Do they have Qatari nurses at HMC.....qualified I mean? I wouldn't know!
SN, i mean, Dora...
i dont know if you're an HMC staff but i heard lots of good comments than not so good ones about Filipino nurses there regarding their performance but complaints about the local staff ... dont mistake it as Filipinos-are-good-and-others-are-not... im just comparing it with Q nurses and not with the others ;)
LOL
Can you imagine these women who do not look after their own kids, let alone wipe the arse of somebody else?
If you think about WHAT a real Nurse does, NO WAY would/could they do
Yeah, why are they not as competent?
greentea......why are they not as competent as Filipino nurses?
though they are not as competent yet as Filipino nurses
Yes, why not indeed.....we'll have to wait and see!
so we could see some blonde chicks injecting patients buttocks?
Me too.
All Qatari nurses? Why not?
All Qatari nurses...now that would be very interesting!
i wonder when qatar would do something like this im tired of seeing the same old indian and filipina nurses at hospitals in qatar.
Aana free, jaana free,
Pakde gaye tho khana free.
Is that called Americanization?
I agree with the US prez!!
It has gone back ;) 50% theory 50% practical, Project 2000 went out years ago and that originated from the USA, it didn't work there nor did it work in the UK.....
I agree. America is dealing with a generation of people who are used to having and not working for it. As if It just appears without hard work and sacrifice. Not many people want to work for anything anymore.
**My opinion**
with Obama. Sorry but these Nurses may be 'nice' but they are no way as good as Western trained Nurses.
They should think long and hard about training their own.
In England Nurse training was killed by Project 2000.
Go back to the old way, when Nurses were Nurses, not junior Doctors.
anyway, it would take the same time to train an American nurse as it would to retrain an Indian nurse......sorry chaps but thats how it is, before the racist comments come a-flooding in!
One needs to work out why there is a shortage of nurses in the USA then..........
I think he's actually on the right track. It's a relatively high-paying field.