by Leigh Morgan
December 6, 1997

Nursing organizations are tentatively supporting a bill introduced in Congress that would allow foreign nurses to work in some US hospitals.

The bill, introduced by Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., Would allow 500 foreign nurses to enter the country each year for the next five years in order to fill long-standing job vacancies at certain hospitals. The American Nurses Association has remained unopposed to the bill, but threatened to reverse its position if lawmakers weaken key provisions that limit where and how long noncitizen RNs can work in the United States.

At least two hospitals face critical nursing shortages and could benefit from the measure. Concerned that it may have to reduce services, 220-bed St. Bernard Hospital in Chicago instigated the recent congressional action. The hospital blames its high-crime location for deterring potential job candidates.

Mercy Regional Medical Center, a 330-bed hospital in Laredo, Texas, is also facing a dire shortage and has conducted an unsuccessful nationwide recruitment effort. A local population boom and the hospital’s border location have contributed to the problem, according to a spokesperson.

Rush’s bill, the Health Professional Shortage Area Nursing Release Act of 1997, comes on the heels of a similar measure that expired in 1995. The measure allowed noncitizen nurses already working in the United States to stay in the country through last September. Nurses’ unions quelled efforts to renew the bill.

"That act needed to sunset because the way it was written there were too many opportunities for it to be abused," said Stephanie Tabone, RN, director of practice for the Texas Nurses Association, which also tentatively supports the new bill. "Nurses were brought here and exploited as nurse aides or passed into the larger society, and that wasn’t the intent of the bill." Some foreign nurses paid thousands of dollars for a visa expecting to work as RNs but ending up as aides, according to Tabone.

Unlike the previous measure, the new bill allows a carefully limited number of nurses to come into each state and restricts their employment to specific hospitals on a temporary basis. Rush’s bill also requires more careful screenings of noncitizen nurses to ensure they are actually prepared for RN positions in the United States.

Nursing organizations want to find long-term solutions to improve working conditions and job placement strategies in areas where recruitment of U.S. nurses has failed, Tabone added.