NBR conference 2007 and Nursing jobs

In the NBR conference 2007 the President of US-Bangladedh Advisory Council Sabbir Ahmed said, "At present there are 400,000 vacant posts for nurses in the US, and Bangladesh can export skilled human resources against those posts". I could not agree more. I believe that management and entrepreneurs in that sector should pay a serious attention to this matter.

US-Bangladesh Advisory Council President's comment remind me to one of my essay I wrote during 2003. I remember I had to be very cautious and sensitive about the topic. Hence the introduction was very lengthy (1st 3 paragraphs) or may be boring to the context of a short history of migration and some historical imperatives. Here is a complete copy of that essay:

Author: Abu Abdullah
Date: 01/11/03
Nursing: an opportunity overseas

Nursing is noble profession. Every country, every civilization there will be always demand for them, unless the world one day in future come up with a technology or innovation which protect human kind from any disease or cut and bruise. The globalization brings the countries of the world closer day by day. For Bangladesh this is an opportunity to participate in the global nursing work force. Let me explain in a bit what I mean by that.

From the early history of mankind, people travel or migrate to other part of the countries for better living, to pursue their dreams, to contribute the continuous development of the world, create arts, music, innovation and solution for growing needs for mankind. In early days conqueror invade countries for fortunes, over the period of time they went back to their homes. Then Europe went to America for land, gold and food. They brought the hard working people from Africa and use them for their own fortune and growth. Then they treat them as subhuman. Next batch of migration from Europe specially Ireland, Italy and others worked on the development of America on roads, freeways, industries, agriculture along with the early migrants. They enjoyed better life and also contribute America. There were a lot of reverse migration as well. In late 20th century and now, people from Asia, specially China and south-east Asia came to America for High Tech jobs. The contributed in development of electronics, microprocessor, internet, networking, communication and anything related to innovation and technology along with the Americans and early immigrants. What puts them in that position are their keen interest for education and dedication on learning. Education was their only hope for better life. They had to make them valuable. For few years the world economy slowed a little bit; but the innovation continues. The next phase would be in Bio-technology, medical science and genetics. The success of humane genome project opens a whole new world of research and innovation. There is room for everybody to participate on that front. Next time I will try to write how we can participate in that movement though we are far away from High Tech.

The biggest resources Bangladesh has for the globalization is its people. We are in better position because with a little effort we can produce a large number of English specking workforces. The toughest challenge for us is to utilize that work force for the betterment of them. They and their families enjoyed better life, brings better life for the country. We have very little opportunity in the scope of our country because of our little economy and little purchase power. But we can develop focus expertise and channel that expertise for globalization. We did that already for middle eastern countries. A few from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, pursue their graduate education in America and contributing in Global High Tech area as well as helping taking care of their families in Bangladesh, creating purchase power and indirectly creating jobs. We need to have more of these models. Until recently I did not thought of Nursing as compare to High Tech jobs. America is hiring foreign English speaking experienced nurses from all over the world, specially now from South Africa.

There is a risk of loosing our existing nurses to serve the country. I am not proposing to export them and have our hospitals and nursing homes helpless. This is why this is a very sensitive and risky venture. We have to plan and execute keeping in mind that we only pursue the win-win projects. One of the guideline may be as follow.
Schools that train nurses could create additional capacities. Students, which are good at English from Universities or colleges, are trained with a commitment of serving 1-2 years at Nursing homes or hospitals. This should not be free. They should get paid for their job. This is a win-win situation for them as well for their experiences. Students who are not good at English may improve their skill and also get the opportunities to participate. Once we have enough nurses, we may give the opportunity for Global jobs.
Jobs in America are high paying (ranging $25K to $50K per year) and very fast, we should not deprive anybody from the competition. The nurses who, has been serving for a long time, if they want to explore the opportunity, they should no get punished. At the same time new nurses should pay their due service to the authority. The point here is that we should only produce enough to first serve our local needs and then for revenue.

For the graduates from Universities or colleges who want to venture themselves, may as well pursue on their own. Use the Internet for research and information. The students from BUET pursued their better life in High Tech on their own; but their advantages ware, they had earned their Bachelor degree from BUET almost free of cost. I may write another article on that.

Not to mention about the profitable business in Dhaka commonly known “Couching” center. They may cash out on this venture. So we have to watch out for that unless they are really competitive. Just for an example, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston has hired nurses from Philippines. Philippines are a logical choice because their training programs are much like US. The nurses got themselves adapted smoothly and sending their hard cash to their families who still live in Philippines. Look for information on National League of Nursing (http://www.nln.org/) and for Boston opportunity examples visit (www.massnurses.org) or St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center (http://www.semc.org/).

The Job opportunities for Resident Nurses are expected to grow more then 36% through 2010. This field has been rated “grow faster then average” by the US Department of Labor. For more information on that, please visit the US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics on Internet. I hope to write more on the Nurse Training and Education requirement in my future writings. I would like to give another data; the median annual earnings of RN were $44.840 in 2000. Please keep in mind that a significant part of that salary goes to taxes (about one third) and a third goes to housing or rent.