The other day, a former colleague (and friend), told me the foreign Physical Therapists we sponsored are one of the best solutions to the staffing challenges at the healthcare facilities she supports.
Until recently, I worked for a system of skilled nursing facilities - and for the past two years, successfully brought 8 or 9 Physical Therapists from the Philippines, India, Nigeria, and Ireland to facilities in the Northwest. When I left, I had at least as many lined up for 2009 immigration.
And she's right. We brought the foreign PT's to the locations we had the most difficulty staffing - which range from very rural locations where very few therapists live, to some very well populated areas where despite the number of therapists - there still aren't enough for the many good healthcare facilities.
Now that the economy is tightening and Americans are losing their jobs at record rates, will those foreign PT's become less needed or desirable? Absolutely not.
Amazingly, despite the number of able-bodied Americans looking for work, they don't qualify and cannot easily obtain the qualifications to work as Physical Therapists, Occupational Therapists, Speech Language Pathologist, or perhaps more critically - Nurses.
America is in desperate need of educated, licensed clinicians.
"Water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink..."
And unfortunately, the flood of potable water isn't coming. A lack of clinicians qualified to instruct means that universities don't have the capacity to graduate enough new clinicans to meet the demand for healthcare services - which are higher than ever before.
Which means my friends from the Philippines will continue to come here and have good paying jobs for the rest of their lives if they want them.
Now let me say I'm an ardent advocate of foreign nurses and therapists. I've worked closely with them for years. They have been a part of my career and my life. When they come to work in the US, they almost invariably work harder, actively learn and develop themselves as professionals, and bring a genuineness to patient care that so many clinicians lose along the way. Foreign nurses and therapists contribute greatly to quality healthcare.
In fact, immigration has been America's strength throughout its history. As I have often pointed out in this blog, acquiring and assimilating talent is one of the most amazing and successful phenomena that makes the Unites States unique. And who among us would be here without it?
That said, isn't it amazing that in the next year, while we're trying desperately hard to turn the economy around and re-employ our own people, that we will probably also pass laws to open a floodgate of green cards for nurses and physical therapists? As I've said, we desperately need them. But isn't it ironic that we're working to create a large, if not unending supply of the best class of work visas while our state unemployment funds are tapped?
But ironies in our economics and politics are many right now. At the same time that we lack the people to staff our vital and growing industries, we also are working on bailout packages to preserve industries that are inefficient and failing - like automobile manufacturing. Ultimately, in a post-industrial economy, unskilled labor - like manufacturing - is and will be on the decline. The immense costs of propping up the auto industry will only buy time - and protect jobs for the time being. Job protectionism is rarely, if ever, a smart economic policy.
So, we have jobs that desperately need filling - in Healthcare, IT and other professional areas. And we have people who desperately need jobs - but who aren't qualified for the jobs we have. Isn't there some way to rectify it?
Some countries - like Germany, Singapore and Japan - have government sponsored educational programs to retrain and educate workers to bring them into evolving, instead of declining industries. These countries are very good at keeping unemployment low and maintaining strong positions in the global marketplace - largely because of their investments in their people.
Why will we invest in large, poorly managed companies - but not in our own people? Wouldn't developing our own people - the real capital of a post-industrial economy - take us further? Couldn't we let go of the inefficient industries and failing companies if we blazed ahead where we have comparative advantages? Couldn't we take our economy further with people able to offer the services and capabilities our thriving industries need?
I love my Filipino, Indian, Chinese, Singaporean, Nigerian and Burmese friends. But I'd like to see my family and friends from home working too.
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