Guidelines Seek To Prevent Abuse Of Foreign-Trained Nurses

Main Category: Nursing / Midwifery
Article Date: 18 Sep 2008 - 8:00 PDT

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A coalition of health care industry groups and unions recently released voluntary ethics guidelines to protect foreign-trained nurses from abusive employment practices at U.S. medical facilities, the Washington Post reports. The U.S. nursing shortage has prompted many medical facilities to recruit nurses from abroad.

The guidelines address issues such as a wage gap between U.S.-trained and foreign-trained nurses and assignment of foreign-trained nurses to positions that U.S.-trained nurses do not want. In addition, the guidelines include summaries of relevant employment laws and offer examples of practices that medical facilities can implement to support foreign-trained nurses.

Coalition members said that the guidelines also recommend that medical facilities not recruit nurses from nations with shortages of medical personnel. Medical facilities that adopt the guidelines must agree to independent monitoring. AcademyHealth executive Vice President Patricia Pittman said that the coalition will develop a plan for monitoring compliance with the guidelines later this year (Aratani, Washington Post, 9/16).

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