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Peterson predicts that with so many nurses leaving the Philippines, the country will soon experience a nursing shortage of its own. She says this poses an “ethical dilemma.”

Vicki Huber, RN, MSN, CHE, chief nursing officer at University Medical Center in Las Vegas, says UMC has stopped recruiting foreign-trained nurses because of her concern about luring them away from countries that need their skills. “I’d rather promote development of the profession through schools of nursing than to rob other countries of a precious resource,” she says.

Huber hopes that local nursing students rotating through the teaching hospital for clinical training will join UMC. Also, she says, many Filipino staff nurses are encouraging their children to become nurses, and some already have. “So that’s really what we’re trying to promote — one big extended family,” she says.

The problem of recruiting foreign-trained nurses has been exacerbated by tighter visa restrictions. In January, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced it would no longer issue employment-based visas for workers in the Philippines and other countries that have exceeded their annual quota for green cards until new visas become available. Nurses whose employers petitioned after Jan. 1, 2002 must now wait more than three years to receive permanent residency. Previously, nurses who were sponsored by a U.S. hospital and received visa approval could become permanent residents in 18 to 24 months. The temporary visa program expired in 1995.

The PNASD is sponsoring HR 139, the Health Improvement and Professionals Act of 2005, introduced by Rep. Tom Lantos of California. The bill calls for the recapture of unused employment-based immigrant visas.

Rama-Banaag says she wants other nurses to realize that Philippine nurses are not in the U.S. to “take over,” but “to help address a need in the health care industry. We carry pakikisama [the spirit of trying to get along] with us. We want to be partners with everybody.”

Rebecca Ray is managing editor of NurseWeek , Mountain West edition. John Leighty contributed to this story.

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