Nursing is a profession that focuses on individual care, families and communities to achieve good quality of life and improve health and wellness. There are millions of nurses all over the world. In the United States alone, statistics shows that there are 2,909,357 licensed registered nurses. Because of high demand in this field of healthcare, developed countries hire nursing practitioners from developing countries like India, Caribbean and Southeast Asian countries. According to records, one of the main reasons on this shortage in the healthcare field is low salary and fewer benefits.
Nurses in the developing countries in Asia go out of their country, migrate to 1st World countries such as the US and some countries in Europe to find opportunities. The world health organization announced that global nurse migration has a great impact on developing countries. Nursing shortage in Asia, South Africa and parts in Latin America has worsened in the past few years and continuously growing.
Statistics
Reports all over the world show that the severity of nursing shortage is caused by low income. Developed countries entice nurses from these countries by giving them competitive salaries and various benefits such as career advancement. In the Caribbean and Latin America, statistics shows that they have 1.25 nurses for every 1000 people. This is 10 times fewer than in the US and some European nation and reports predict that by 2025, Caribbean countries will be short of more than 10,000 nurses to help the population.
In the Southeast Asia, most of the trained nurses migrate in the US and Europe. There are a lot of nursing graduates and even registered nurses who are not employed. Mismanagement of nursing hiring and placement is due to lack of resources. Hospitals and medical institution pay nurses especially entry levels a minimum pay 10 times lower than the wage given by developed countries.
The effects of nurse shortages in developing countries affected the nation’s economy and health and wellness of citizens. Treatments for patients cannot be monitored, treatments are prolonged, education and information are not delivered and patients do not have rooms to stay or wait in crowded rooms. It is unfortunate that some developing countries don’t have specific plans and programs for nurses. Bonuses are given and benefits are provided but still, the salary is beyond their expectations and worth of their jobs. 1st World countries develop programs and excellent compensation packages for nurses to attract them migrate in their countries.
Resolving these issues require good programs by governments in developing countries. Nursing classes (http://cnaclassesonlinerx.com/) and programs are competitive and are provided to students. However, employment is relatively low for these professionals. There are a lot of registered nurses in developing countries but they often resort to other careers because of employment shortages. Those who have the capacity to work abroad, leave their countries to find the right opportunities for them.
The World Health Organization has developed global standards for nursing professionals based on standards and perspective of nursing associations, academic institutions and other government body but in the end, good quality service provided by top notch nurses from developing nations are enjoyed by developed countries.
image source: http://www.who.int/entity/bulletin/volumes/88/5/BLT-10-020510-Fc.png