Filling the nursing pipeline with enough RN’s to care for our rapidly growing patient population, has quickly become an exercise in problem solving involving lawmakers from all states and working at all levels of government. Some are quick to point out how the decades long nursing shortage has temporarily stalled.

But this is largely due to previously retired nurses filling the nursing pipeline for the time being. That can only last for so long, and a more lasting solution to supply more nurses for the workforce will soon be needed. Specifically, a few hundred thousand (and rising, especially if universal health care passes) nurses will be needed by 2025.

Many industry experts and lawmakers have looked toward foreign nurse “imports” (while trying not to make foreign trained RN’s sound like cars) to fill the pipeline. Florida representative Robert Wexler has proposed that the U.S. allow 20,000 additional foreign trained nurses to enter and work here, while we continue working on a more permanent solution.

In the “pro” column, welcoming foreign trained nurses into the American workforce helps to bridge staffing gaps and at a price that most hospitals can afford. In the “con” column, foreign trained nurses frequently encounter language and culture barriers, training and skill crossover challenges and require extra training to pass the NCLEX exam.

President Obama has stated that he would prefer legislators focus more on a solution to increase the capacity of U.S. nursing schools to graduate more students, and provide incentives to attract more nurses into the field domestically. He points to the rising unemployment rate as the best argument to make sure that all domestic nursing resources have been tapped before turning our attention to other countries.

The number of foreign born and trained nurses has risen over the years, from 9% of the total RN’s working in the U.S. in 1994 to 16.3% in 2008, as the shortage has worsened. With the nursing shortage worsening and the economy taking its regular hits, there is something to be said about the “home field” advantage right now, for those with a passion for the very recession proof field of nursing.

Source: Business Week Magazine

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