On 2015 May 22, University of Kansas School of Nursing Journal Club commented:

Team 9: Sage Peterson, Jessica Joslin, Dahnika Sachs, Melissa Ryan, Erin Ekholm, Brittney DuBois, Halie McCombs (Class of 2015)

Background Introduction

This article focuses on the transnational migration of nurses worldwide and the uneven distribution of nurse labor in a current nursing shortage (Prescott, 2014). This plays in directly with our class discussion on global nurse migration. Our team chose this article because it ties in the reasoning for migration of nurses to the US from other countries with our class discussion of integrating these nurses into our American healthcare system.

The article brings up the issue of our current nursing shortage and how it is not evenly distributed. There is more demand for nurses in less developed countries because the desire to work there is not as high as in the more developed countries such as the US or UK (Prescott, 2014). In class, we discussed the role of migrating nurses in our own culture and health care system and how important it is to be culturally open and competent. We are seeing a lot of internationally educated nurses migrating to the US to work because we do have a shortage and we are a more desirable place to work than other less wealthy countries. A lot of the nurses that we see migrating into America are from the Philippines and India. These foreign educated nurses help cut down on the nursing shortage here, but they could be potentially causing shortages in the home countries. The article also discusses this and other political “push and pull” that leads to nurse migration.

Methods

We were able to find this article by searching “global nursing” in PubMed. The article reviews the literature on nurse migration and its current and future impact on healthcare systems worldwide. There is a focus on the “push/pull” of economic logic and the cause and effect of nurse migration (Prescott, 2014). The concepts of political-economic, historical, and cultural factors are all covered in the article and their impact on nurse migration. The data was collected from reviews of nursing literature in order to analyze and provide directions for future anthropologic studies. The target population that this issue of nursing shortage and migration has the greatest impact on is the global healthcare systems.

Findings

What was mainly discussed and found in the article is that we have a big problem with an uneven distribution of nurses globally. This is causing inadequate migration to some countries and an abundance of migration to others. An example of this would be the migration of Philippine educated nurses to the US. Because of this, we are seeing the need to integrate them properly to our healthcare system in order for them to be successful. What also needs to be considered is the impact this has on the sending countries (like the Philippines) that are seeing more and more nurses leaving to work in more developed countries with better jobs and pay (Prescott, 2014). This unbalanced labor is creating problems globally and this study brings up these issues in order to bring attention to the matter for future studies.

Implications

The article is relevant to our nursing practice in many ways. It gives us an understanding and reasoning behind nurse migration around the world and gets us thinking about what we can do to solve this issue. Also, since there is so much transnational migration of nurses, it is important for us to be culturally competent and open about providing other culturally different nurses the opportunity to assimilate to our healthcare system. By better understanding the reasoning and method that many foreign nurses have for migrating out of their home countries to others, we are able to assimilate them to the local health care system better.

References Prescott, M., & Nichter, M. (2014). Transnational nurse migration: Future directions for medical anthropological research. Social Science & Medicine, 107113-123. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.02.026

On 2015 May 22, University of Kansas School of Nursing Journal Club commented:

Team 9: Sage Peterson, Jessica Joslin, Dahnika Sachs, Melissa Ryan, Erin Ekholm, Brittney DuBois, Halie McCombs (Class of 2015)

Background Introduction

This article focuses on the transnational migration of nurses worldwide and the uneven distribution of nurse labor in a current nursing shortage (Prescott, 2014). This plays in directly with our class discussion on global nurse migration. Our team chose this article because it ties in the reasoning for migration of nurses to the US from other countries with our class discussion of integrating these nurses into our American healthcare system.

The article brings up the issue of our current nursing shortage and how it is not evenly distributed. There is more demand for nurses in less developed countries because the desire to work there is not as high as in the more developed countries such as the US or UK (Prescott, 2014). In class, we discussed the role of migrating nurses in our own culture and health care system and how important it is to be culturally open and competent. We are seeing a lot of internationally educated nurses migrating to the US to work because we do have a shortage and we are a more desirable place to work than other less wealthy countries. A lot of the nurses that we see migrating into America are from the Philippines and India. These foreign educated nurses help cut down on the nursing shortage here, but they could be potentially causing shortages in the home countries. The article also discusses this and other political “push and pull” that leads to nurse migration.

Methods

We were able to find this article by searching “global nursing” in PubMed. The article reviews the literature on nurse migration and its current and future impact on healthcare systems worldwide. There is a focus on the “push/pull” of economic logic and the cause and effect of nurse migration (Prescott, 2014). The concepts of political-economic, historical, and cultural factors are all covered in the article and their impact on nurse migration. The data was collected from reviews of nursing literature in order to analyze and provide directions for future anthropologic studies. The target population that this issue of nursing shortage and migration has the greatest impact on is the global healthcare systems.

Findings

What was mainly discussed and found in the article is that we have a big problem with an uneven distribution of nurses globally. This is causing inadequate migration to some countries and an abundance of migration to others. An example of this would be the migration of Philippine educated nurses to the US. Because of this, we are seeing the need to integrate them properly to our healthcare system in order for them to be successful. What also needs to be considered is the impact this has on the sending countries (like the Philippines) that are seeing more and more nurses leaving to work in more developed countries with better jobs and pay (Prescott, 2014). This unbalanced labor is creating problems globally and this study brings up these issues in order to bring attention to the matter for future studies.

Implications

The article is relevant to our nursing practice in many ways. It gives us an understanding and reasoning behind nurse migration around the world and gets us thinking about what we can do to solve this issue. Also, since there is so much transnational migration of nurses, it is important for us to be culturally competent and open about providing other culturally different nurses the opportunity to assimilate to our healthcare system. By better understanding the reasoning and method that many foreign nurses have for migrating out of their home countries to others, we are able to assimilate them to the local health care system better.

References Prescott, M., & Nichter, M. (2014). Transnational nurse migration: Future directions for medical anthropological research. Social Science & Medicine, 107113-123. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.02.026