Senate bill aids recruitment of overseas RNs

October 29, 2007 ~ AHANews Now
The Senate last week approved legislation designed to reopen the supply of foreign-born registered nurses (RN) and physical therapists (PT) to U.S. hospitals.

The measure, part of H.R. 3043, the Senate-passed fiscal year 2008 Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill, authorizes the government to claim 61,000 unused employment-based (EB) visas from past years and make them available to RNs and PTs from the Philippines – the primary source of overseas RNs for American hospitals – and other countries. The legislation also imposes a $1,500 fee for each nurse visa issued. Funds raised by the fee will educate more U.S. nurse faculty and enable nursing programs to enroll more nursing students....
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