Filipino Nursing Herald

While waiting out the retrogression, now is the best time to complete all your documents, get the NCLEX done (if you haven't done so), and perhaps earn some work experience (if you're not employed yet). Although not all employers in the U.S. require experience, it'll be good to boost your own confidence especially if you're a young fresh graduate. Don't let the retrogression get you down, the worldwide nursing shortage won't be gone in a day. Read this story , for instance, of a hospital in Southwest Florida which is contemplating international recruitment efforts. An excerpt from the article, reads: International recruitment . Lee Memorial brought in 54 nurses from India who were under contract with Southwest Florida Regional Medical Center and Gulf Coast Hospital before Lee Memorial purchased those two facilities. If the nurses work out — and by all appearances they are — Lee Memorial might again look overseas for staff. Other data to think about: Hospitals ar...

A new report by PriceWaterhouseCoopers says the U.S. medical workforce system needs resuscitative care. It says that even though there are more doctors and nurses today than ever before, they are not being trained, distributed or deployed efficiently. A huge decline in the number of nurses will begin in less than three years but hospital employers are still in denial about just bad nurses feel about their work conditions. Read the official media release on the PriceWaterhouseCoopers report here .

This just in from ABS-CBN Interactive : At least nine US states are now "eagerly recruiting" Filipino nurses and other health professionals, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines said. Former senator and TUCP general secretary Ernesto Herrera identified the nine US states as California, Texas, New York, Florida, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan and New Jersey. 'Over 50 percent of 77.5 million American baby boomers—those born between 1946 to 1964—live in these nine states. This is why these states need health professionals by the thousands,' Herrera said. I suppose nobody told Herrera about the retrogression, but this info is good to know, at least we know where the opportunities are. Read the rest of the story here .

The California Job Journal reports that the average nurse in the U.S. is 47 years old and in California the average age is 51 years old for operating room nurses, who are in such demand in the state. To try and fill the gap, one facility, the Sequoia Hospital, opened its own nursing school, a joint program with San Francisco State. To attract more nurses, it has also even offered sign-on bonuses up to $7,500 for hard-to-fill specialty positions. Kaiser Permanente says it too has seen difficult times getting more nurses to work on its hospital floors. To give nurses flexible work options, it has created a call center where "advice" nurses can take in calls, get symptoms of non-emergency patients and suggest treatments or consultations with physicians.

The Associated Press reports that the prognosis for the nursing shortage in the U.S. looks increasingly bleak as America's elderly population grows alarmingly large in the next few decades. Check out the story here . Meanwhile, President Bush continued to urge Senators to work on the proposed immigration reform act. Legislators have agreed to tackle a limited number of amendments starting next week before putting the bill to a final vote.

Hardly anyone in my batch ever ambitioned to be an ostomy nurse, but I know several people who've specialized in this area of nursing who are successful in their careers. With the aging population in the U.S., both of patients and health workers, it looks like these specializations will need increasing numbers of nurses now and in the near future. Nursing shortages afflict some specialties