Nurse Shortage? Obama and Trump, From Bad to Worse Policies
“Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man, and our politicians take advantage of this prejudice by pretending to be even more stupid than nature made them.” Bertrand Russell
One President rejected the idea of “importing nurses” awaiting resources to train its own citizens. Another President cut funding in Sciences, Medicine and Health & Human Services.
Healthcare professionals are trained to use their skills in providing medical care and saving lives. It borders on criminal that they have NOT been rightly compensated for decades. Now, healthcare facilities, governments, and businesses are “adding insult to injury” by forcing them to be at the “frontlines” without medical equipment risking theirs and their families’ lives.
Nursing, like teaching, is a noble, highly demanding profession, but inadequately paid. Working conditions partly explains the nurse shortage, with numbers continuously rising. As I note in my July 2019 paper, U.S. Deadly Troika: – Physician, Pharma, and Hospital, NURSES, the True Care Practitioners have been in high demand for decades. Policies from the last two U.S. Administrations has only exacerbated current COV-19 pandemic.
Ronald Shapiro, Illinois Business Immigration Lawyer of the Shapiro Law Group asks in his paper, “Will New Immigration Laws Prevent International Nurse Recruitment?” Shapiro answers some important questions as they relate to the 2017 U.S. travel ban, “The America First policies are aimed at protecting American jobs and preserving them for U.S. born citizens. But this may not be the case in the healthcare sector.” The organization Registered Nursing may agree.
However, according to the organization’s website article, “Are Changes to the Immigration Laws Affecting the Nursing Shortage? “, it clarifies misconceptions by noting that the countries affected by the ban are not where nurses typically immigrate from. They note that “In February 2017, under executive order 13769, President Donald Trump enacted a travel ban to bar or restrict entry to immigrants from countries deemed as a national security risk…Currently, the ban or bar is effective for North Korea, Libya, Syria, Iran, Yemen, Somalia and select officials in Venezuela.” This restriction is controversial and seen as unfair by some who feel it punished the innocent.
Travel bans may not affect nurse shortages until the restriction extends to countries that do. Still, budget cuts affect the ones who are already in the states. Trump’s administration cut funding across multiple departments in the Sciences and Medicine, including Health & Human Services (HHS), Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and National Institutes of Health (NIH). Not only was nurse recruitment limited but so were medical supplies.
President Trump’s immigration ban was not well-received by some Democrats even if did not directly affect nurse recruitment from countries banned. But he proposed a southern border wall that directly impacts people skilled in nursing and medicine from Mexico and South America? Yet, how did President Barack Obama respond to the nurse shortage during his time in office?
“President Barack Obama himself was quoted rejecting the idea of bringing more IENs into the United States: “The notion that we would have to import nurses makes absolutely no sense. There are a lot of people [in the U.S.] who would love to be in that helping profession, and yet we just aren’t providing the resources to get them trained—that’s something we’ve got to fix.”
No doubt, President Obama was wrong-there is less faculty and even fewer people in the U.S. pursuing “that helping profession.” The National Center for Biotechnology Information(NCBI) explains in the January 2019 study on Nursing Shortage that “The nursing profession continues to face shortages due to lack of potential educators, high turnover, and inequitable distribution of the workforce.”
Such dire conditions appear to have a snowball effect forcing nurses out of their chosen field altogether and negatively impacting patient care.
Recruiting Nations and States?
Understanding what country is or is not banned is important for those wishing to immigrate and recruiters who want to help in the process. Although the following data reflects numbers before the 2020 pandemic and the resulting travel bans, they point to critical countries for the healthcare industry.
Where are foreign-born nurses migrating from? “Foreign-born nurses in the U.S. are immigrating from Asia (29%) followed by Africa’s Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone at 28%…The Caribbean contributes 18% of immigrant nurses as well as Latin America (14%) with Europe, North America and Oceania comprising the remaining 24% of the population” as noted on website registerednursing.org.
What states in the U.S. are recruiting? According to registerednursing.org “States such as New York, California and New Jersey employ the highest shares of immigrant RNs, more than twice the national average.” However, that leaves 47 states struggling to meet the impending gaps increasingly in need of nurses.
Shapiro notes, “Nurse immigration is critically important in filling gaps in the health care system and any disruptions in the flow of IENs coming to the country would risk a health crisis.” He was correct as the COV 19 pandemic has shown.
That being said, how can organizations like Registered Nursing mitigate conflicting laws and policies? They understand that “Immigrant nurses are vital to the future demand of healthcare in the U.S. In spite of changes and controversy with immigration laws, organizations are continuing to seek the maximum resource of the foreign-born nurse to fill the gaping hole of nursing shortages.” Why not promote EB Visas. Now we’re talking policy.
According to NCBI, “As the U.S. economy and nursing labor market began to stabilize in the mid-2000s, policy attention shifted from creating new temporary visa categories for nurses to “recapturing” EB visas lost in the slowdown after 9/11.” However, irrespective of a stabilized economy, people will continually need to attend to their health, be that preexisting conditions, preventive care, or health crisis.
Clearly, restricting visas can only intensify nurse shortages. In the wake of the pandemic, travel bans were inevitable but some exceptions were attempted. The U.S. “brain drain” or shortage of workers in the sciences, technology, and engineering fields resulted in demand from abroad.
Good luck, in the March madness, Congress reacted and passed the Non-immigrant EB Visa bill to offer Australia and Ireland visas (@10,000 to be extended 50/50 between both countries). Bad luck, the Senate struck it down. To all you Aussie mates and Irish lads who may have benefited, hope your “ship came in” in time before the shutdown.
The Sick, the Dying and the Dead
Developed nations and world organizations (e.g. WHO, UN, Doctors Without Borders…) work to provide international health information and medical assistance. Scientists and medical staff assist the sick and the dying of war-torn and underdeveloped countries providing care and medicine as well as to stop the spread of diseases worldwide.
Yet, the U.S, the country that calls itself the most advanced has not only failed its people and allies but the world. It has shown its true dirty colors of substandard care neglecting to take preemptive measures that mean the difference between life and death.
Recent reports put U.S. deaths at about one-fourth of the world’s total. (59,266, Avi Shiffmann,
https://ncov2019.live/ 4.29.2020*). Could this be due to some of the people’s reported unhealthy lifestyle? It’s certainly not because they have the best doctors and medicine money can buy.
Nurse shortages may ultimately require countries to “import them.” However, once in their “imported country,” nurses will likely not refrain from traveling back and forth to their native land. I imagine there are some people who had and likely continue to have a monetary vested interest in hiring non U.S. citizens. But this can be seen across all sectors from government, education, retail, and small businesses to transnational corporations.
When you bite into your apple, salad, steak or order out, do you ask yourself, was the farm worker, butcher, cook, fast food pizza, taco or hamburger employee provided the right equipment and supplies when handling food?
The inconvenient, dirty and deadly truth is that these sectors have for decades forced citizens and undocumented workers alike to work without protective gear. But has the public ever questioned government or industry? What about your employer? How many times did your coworker come to work sick and your supervisor not speak with him? Loss of productivity or fear of lawsuits?
Thanks to those expedient but quite comical EOE laws, asking an employee to go home may likely invite race, gender, or handicap discrimination lawsuits. And what’s with the office potlucks? How many times did your coworker make you feel uncomfortable because you did not try her potato salad? Employers and employees will need to balance good business and good judgment while cohabiting in the new work normal.
Bottom line: It is virtually impossible to contain the spread of diseases and viruses in a globalized world whose population is in the billions and expected to grow, especially when every sector seems to be cutting corners sacrificing a healthy environment for productivity.
Power in Numbers – Vote Like Your Life Depends On It
Just think, the Trump administration countered most if not all of the Obama administration’s deals and policies including “Obamacare.” Yet, not “importing nurses” was one of the critical policies the Trump administration appears to have maintained siding with Obama. Both were wrong.
Here and now, the people need to take responsibility and demand accountability from their leaders. One of my mentors who worked in government critiqued the U.S. President’s administration and others comparing the pandemic to war. A Veteran of the U.S.-Vietnam War, he reminded me of a time when people took to Pennsylvania Avenue and questioned, “Hey, hey, LBG, how many kids did you kill today?”
“Where are the people,” he asked. “Children, parents, and grandparents are dead or dying daily, but for some it’s literally a “day at the beach.” The People need to come to terms with the idea, that in the grand scheme of things they are but pawns. Then again it has been argued that “a pawn well placed is more powerful than a King.”
For industrialists, “it’s not personal, it’s business.” For politicians, it’s not business, it’s personal. The first wants your money. The second your vote. Democrat or Republican, your vote “counts” toward position and power. Keep this in mind when voting six months from now.
Scientists and Physicians’ messages of vigilance and mitigation were lost in political and business translations. My message is but a small truth. Yet, a man who understood the business of private parties and the politics of church and the military guard may agree.
Leonardo da Vinci knew when, how and with whom to use his skills wisely realizing the power he had in his hands. His sketches are a testament to his genius in blending art, science, and weaponry.
“Small truth is better than a big lie.” Leonardo da Vinci
Two Presidents, two policies, and one disastrous outcome: Both were dead wrong given the number of American deaths attributed to the COV-19 pandemic.*
Gentlemen, you both have flown in Air Force One. Let me put this in avionic terms. President Obama, while you awaited the “resources to get them,” U.S. citizens trained to be nurses, your health care system used up fuel losing power and altitude. President Trump, instead of refueling and lifting the plane, you not only continued defueling but accelerated the speed where the health care system finally took a nose dive, creating a (to use one of your words, “huge”) national security risk.
Around the world, our nurses, technicians, and staff are our mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, daughters, sons, neighbors, and friends. Health workers are the bond that holds our families together. They did not sign up to be recruited as soldiers whose job requires them to take lives to defend their country.
Nurses’ call to duty does not entail risking their lives only to be symbolically called “heroes.” Nurses are trained to save the lives of heroes and the people of their country.
Mr. President, being forced to walk the bloody frontlines by government and those in the business of health, will nurses be forced to use their art of science as a weapon? Think of the power nurses have in their hands. Do you trust them with your life?
