- Target:
- registered nurses and anyone concerned about heath care
- Region:
- United States of America
- Website:
- www.aacn.nche.edu
Foreign registered nurses were told in February 2008 they could not work in the US because of the unavailability of EB3 visas. The immigration laws in the US have limits on the amount of visas issued per year, but since the demand is high on nurses the EB3 visas are used up quickly. Countries that use up more than others are the Philippines, India and China.
In 2005 the proposed solutions was to take the number of work visa that the United States allocated for other countries but were unused, and make them available to countries prolific in providing nurses. Even with that solution the numbers were still exceeded. And now they are telling all nurses from any country really they are not allowed to come for another 2 or 3 yrs. This situation will negativity affect patient care since nursing schools in the US can not meet the need for RN's in the heath care fields. It is the patient who ultimately pays the price for this shortage...please help us get the message out there - we need more nurses!
We are writing this petition because we are concerned that current visa laws and regulation will prevent foreign nurses from coming to the United States to fill much need positions in the health care industry.
The current quota for the EB3 visa, under which foreign nurses are allowed to work in the US, seriously underestimates the nursing shortage. The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has a narrow quota on this type of visa category. The latter closes annually because of high demand on this visa from both nurses and employers in the US. As a result the issuance of EB3 visas stop for 2 or 3 years during which serious back falls can occur in the quality of care given to patients due to the unavailability of skilled worker to take care of them. The need for nurses is much higher than the number of visas issued evidently.
The American Hospital Association (AHA) reported in April 2006 118,000 Registered Nurses (RNs) will be needed to fill vacant positions in hospitals. The Bureau of Labor Statistics also estimates that more than 1.2 million new nurses will be needed by 2014.
The demand does not match the supply of US nursing graduates from both baccalaureate and associate nursing schools according to studies by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing and United States Census Bureau.
Serious work must be done to deal with these numbers in order to grantee quality in American health care. One solution that can help is to free the visas given to foreign nurses from as much limits as possible including cut of numbers for these visa or at least make the availability of the EB3 visas equivalent to the needs of the US heath care market.
Please sign this petition if you agree or empathize with this issue. Signatures will be forwarded to the California congressman and the US Department of State.
You can further help this campaign by sponsoring it
The Increase US work visas for foreign nurses petition to registered nurses and anyone concerned about heath care was written by B. and is in the category Health at GoPetition.