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Demand for foreign nurses is intensifying

Foreign nurses are now filling a very high share, perhaps as much as one third, of new hospital based nursing jobs.

Put this in context: One out of every five new jobs created between 2004 and 2014 will be in the healthcare sector. Three of the ten industries with the highest total job additions are in the health care area: practitioner offices, private hospitals, and home health care.

Nursing jobs will grow at a relatively fast rate in the next decade. Foreigners hold currently about 300,000, or 11%, of nursing positions. Nurses from the Philippines make up one third of these workers. Latin American/Caribbean workers are about a quarter. In the past few years hiring of foreign nurses has spurted due to rising demand and limitations on nursing educational slots in the United States. Foreign nurses tend to work for metropolitan area hospitals and, due to more experience, many work in ICUs and are paid relatively well.

Much of this information comes from a presentation by Linda Aiken, professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing.

For a description of the legal and professional steps in recruiting a foreign nurse, go to this article.

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