The U.S. health care industry has received well-deserved criticism from the international nursing community for its aggressive tactics in foreign nurse recruitment. Given the resources of this country, it is difficult to justify raiding other countries of their nurses instead of investing in our own nursing educational system.

The nursing shortage has made foreign nursing recruitment a lucrative business, attractive to international recruitment firms, immigration lawyers and others. Unfortunately, some hospitals are seduced by the promise of a quick fix vs. investing in the development of their local nursing pipeline. Ironically, today's average recruitment time for a foreign nurse is almost equal to the duration of an associate degree program.

As a history lesson (lest we repeat the mistakes of the past), the severity of the nursing shortage in California can be attributed to one important factor: the long-standing neglect of our own nursing educational pipeline, disguised by a historical overreliance on nurses educated in other states and other countries.

The California Board of Registered Nursing confirms that half the nurses in California today were educated somewhere else. Given the almost 5,000 new graduates that take NCLEX per year in California, we could double our annual output of new nurses and still not meet the needs of our health care delivery system. Compared to other states, our educational systems simply are not doing enough to educate nurses for our health care system.

Many hospitals in California, however, have taken a different path to find nurses. These hospitals understand the complex issues of workforce development and are taking steps to ensure that they have strong, well-educated nursing resources for the future.

These efforts include subsidizing faculty salaries for expanded nursing enrollment, providing hospital staff as clinical faculty, supporting learning labs, and providing work-study programs and student scholarships to increase student retention. Many hospitals are enlarging their student volunteer programs, implementing job-shadowing programs and reaching out to local schools to promote health careers.

What is your hospital/employer doing to support and build the local nursing pipeline? If you ask, you may be surprised to learn of many positive efforts and significant resources being invested in nursing. If your employer has not stepped forward yet, encourage him or her to do so. Contact your local nursing programs and ask them what they need. Ask your local chamber of commerce, employers, clubs, organizations and agencies to be involved in creating solutions for the nursing shortage.

Although our nation's health care delivery system is in the grips of a severe nursing shortage, it is the local community efforts that are proving fruitful. Given the alternatives, investing in the local education pipeline is easier and more beneficial in the long run than foreign nurse recruitment.

We'd like to know what your hospital/employer is doing to develop the nursing workforce and develop local nursing programs. Send your comments to carolb@nurseweek.com.

Discuss this and other topics with your colleagues at www.nurseweek.com/rnvillage.