Reference no: EM133213039
Lets take a look at the following scenario and respond to the following questions:
Registered nurse Carmen Lopez wants a raise-so she's leaving Mexico and moving to California to take a job at Desert Valley Medical, a hospital near Los Angeles, where her income will increase tenfold. "I was making US$500 a month in Mexico, and in the U.S. I will be making between $25 and $28 an hour," Lopez says. Lopez, upon finishing her U.S. nursing exam, will be joining nine other Mexican nurses at Desert Valley Medical.
As U.S. baby boomers now in their early sixties age, the number of registered nurses in the United States is not keeping up. The U.S. government forecasts that by 2022 the demand for registered nurses will have increased by 40 percent while the number of nurses will have risen by just 6 percent. there are currently 2.2 million working nurses.
Lopez and her colleagues were recruited by MDS Global Medical Staffing in Los Angeles. Roger Viera, cofounder of MDS Global Staffing, says he and his business partner have invested $1 million, and the Mexican government added another $1 million, to open a nurse residency program in Mexico that trains and certifies nurses to work in the United States. "We only recruit qualified nurses. They must have a four-year bachelor of science degree and four years of work experience," Viera says. MDS expects to recruit from Mexico's 12 nursing schools and from Costa Rica in the near future.
MDS has also recruited Maria de la Cruz Gonzalez, who says she's excited about this opportunity to emigrate with her husband and work as a nurse in the United States. "The hospitals offer us a two-year contract where our nuclear family can come along to live with us in the U.S.," she says. MDS gives the nurses 3 months of paid rent and transportation, provides placement with client hospitals, and provides training in technology and language. They will be able to work in U.S. hospitals for 2 years under a North American Free Trade Agreement visa.
Donna Smith, chief nursing officer at Desert Valley Medical, says she is happy to have the Mexican nurses join her staff and believes that they are as qualified as U.S. nurses. But, she says, they will need more technical experience before they can go to work, since technology is different in the hospitals of Mexico. "We will provide them with extra training once they get here," she says.
- Is recruiting nurses abroad a good idea for U.S. hospitals facing worker shortages?
- Can you think of any cultural problems U.S. hospitals might encounter as a result?
- What long-term recruiting measures should U.S. hospitals strive for?