| St. John's Defines Recruitment Standards
St. Paul, Minnesota (November, 2007) -- St. John's is participating on an industry-leading advisory panel--funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation--to create international nurse recruitment guidelines.
St. John's Health Network is in the second year of involvment with an industry-led advisory committee reviewing international recruitment ethics. The group seeks to assess the dynamics of migration of healthcare professionals from poor countries and to develop standards for ethical recruitment. To date, the group has conducted research on and published a baseline report about this topic. Currently, the group is focused on reviewing the report and developing guidelines.
The program is being coordinated by Academy Health, one of the nation's premier health research and policy organizations. Funding is being provided by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
While foreign-born nurses must meet language requirements and pass various other certification exams to enter the U.S., the overall activity of recruiters in this area has limited oversite or review. Because of this, recruitment programs operate at a variety of levels, many of them unseamly and some of them illegal. And because of limited education on and understanding of the process on the part of U.S. employer, who are the ultimate recipients of these nurses, much of the activity goes unnoticed and unreported.
In response to this, a group of industry experts--representing pracitioners, policy makers and academics--are working together through the facilitation of Academy Health to develop guidelines for recruitment.
St. John's already employs many activities that promote the sustainability and ethics of the process. For example, St. John's contractually obligates itself to invest a portion of its gross recruitment revenue directly into the healthcare infrastructure of the countries from which it recruits. St. John's also refrains from activetly recruiting nurses from countries that have known nurse shortages.
For more information on Saint John's Health Network, please contact us at 651-310-0396 or by email at Info@stjohnshealthnet.com . |
