Merits And Demerits Of Employing Migrant Nurses In Hospitals

Definition of skilled migrant worker and nurse migrant

Question:

Discuss about the Communication and Language Immigration Challenge.

Australia was the first country in the entire world to have established a department specifically meant for immigration back in 1945 (Jurado&Brochmann, 2013). Millions of nurses have since then settled in Australia through migration program for skilled and family migrants and through humanitarian programs for refugees. It has since then evolved to the present day, nurses from especially developing countries around the world are migrating to developed countries mainly in search for what they call as greener pastier or in other terms, employment opportunities which are better. They are mostly nurses who are skilled or semi-skilled and looking for employment. Some also migrate due to political instability in their motherland to seek refuge in the neighboring countries. The main motive of this report is to evaluate the merits and demerits which come along with employing this nurses in hospitals and how the demerits can be solved.

A Skilled worker can be defined in simple terms as a worker who has special training, knowledge and acquired ability in what they do. On the other hand, the term Migrant has no single universally agreed upon definition. According to McNamee, Pearson, Boer, and Palgrave (2015), a migrant is that person who owns a foreign citizenship or has moved to another country to stay temporarily or to settle for a long term. It generally means that a skilled migrant is that person who possesses a special knowledge in what he does and is based in a country which he is not a citizen. They moved to a foreign country to work specifically on their area of expertise.

One of the main benefits of employing this nurses is that they provide cheap labor. Generally, economically stronger countries have greater job opportunities which attract foreign nurses to apply for this job. In the countries they come from, payment is always very low and therefore what they are being offered in the foreign countries is much more competitive as compared to what they can or get in their motherland (Tejada, Bhattacharya, Khadria&Kuptsch, 2014). On the other hand what most of the companies offer them in the migrant country is obviously lesser than what they offer or could have offered to the domestic workers hence cheap labor. The other thing is that most of this nurses have been without a job in their motherland, this means they are desperate for money and they can settle for almost any amount offered to them as either salary or wages hence cheap labor (McNamee et al., 2014). In the long run, it helps the company to minimize its expenses thus leading to high profits which can be plowed back into the business to expand its production.

Advantages of employing migrant nurses in hospitals

Another benefit the hospital can get from employing migrant nurses is ease of training facilities for the local or domestic workers. Training facilities are always very important to local workers or employees of a new organization (Kell&Vogl, 2012). These training cost employer a lot of money to facilitate, as a result of this, they hire skilled migrant labors who are being paid a minimal amount of money and ask them to train others. It is important to note that skills are not only acquired through going to college or university. Foreign workers have versatile knowledge as compared to domestic workers, as a result employer get good talent at less expense.

 Hiring migrant nurses promotes diversity in an organization. Diversity is the difference in race, cultural differences, ethnicity and other social practices among people working together (Nohl, Schittenhelm, Schmidtke& Weiss, 2014). It comes with a bunch of advantages to the hospital and employees too. Diversity in an organization develops a diverse experience among employees, it promotes learning, increases adaptability in an organization, increase productivity which is very essential to any sector, it promotes the hospital to offer range of services to different clients who might not have liked the hospital’s services due to issues like language barrier, cultural differences, and difference in social practices between employees of an organization (Yeung, Brown & Lee, 2012). All these advantages of diversity enable hospitals to boost its profits and return on investment management.

The above advantages of employing migrant nurses clearly demonstrate that an organization can grow very fast and also make profits if they hire skilled migrants. The country also benefits indirectly as the growth of the companies increases its Gross Domestic Product in the international market.

One of the disadvantages of employing migrant nurses is lack of commitment on their side. An employer invest on the employee in terms of organizing visa and how they settle, after a period of time they decide to quit due to an issue with being homesick and the employer’s investment goes in vain. Moreover, foreign workers will require longer holidays to travel back to their motherland and again to travel back (Nohl, Schittenhelm, Schmidtke& Weiss, 2015). This time is essential to the company and it might cost it a lot in terms of customer relationship and profits. They might also be reluctant due to the fact that they feel to be working as the expatriate and hence cannot be fired easily.

Cheap labor

Another challenge of employing migrant nurses is the lack of lingua franca. Lingua franca simply means the common language (Yeung et al., 2012). The language barrier issue can be a great problem to organizations which hire skilled migrants, the nurses are skilled but there is always high possibility that they cannot speak the common language in the country they have been employed (Yeung et al., 2012). This forces the employer to invest in training this employee the common language as it will not only affect the employee’s confidence but also the organization’s progress management. For example; a skilled migrant nurse can do the hospital work but it may be difficult to communicate with patients who are not able to express themselves in the language he or she understands. This means patients will not attend such hospital due to lack of the lingua franca thus leading to the downfall of the hospital.

Whatever has its advantages must also have some challenges which come on board with it, the question is, how do you whether down the challenges if you have decided to employ migrant nurses? An employer needs to treat this nurses with dignity and without favor, once they feel they are being treated well, they will give back by being dedicated to doing their work promptly (Bauder, 2012). They will take most of their time trying to return the organization that favor and the more time they give dedicate in doing their work the more the organization benefits. A nurse, for example, will take his or her time to listen carefully to patients and provide them with the necessary services with honor, this will brighten the image of that hospital and attract more customers who will be flocking in thereby leading to it making more profits (Goldin, 2013).

Employers should be very sensitive to the language barrier and invest in training the nurses employed. It may be costly but it will be a one-off training which when done will benefit the company (Yeung et al., 2012). Once employees are able to communicate in the language which is common in the country, they will gain confidence and do their work with ease avoiding the risk of being left out in terms of freedom of expression during group work.

In the section of decision-making, an employer should involve this nurses in some decision making in order to build their confidence that they are also part of the company and their opinions are valued (Tejada et al,. 2013). They should be placed in departments where they work closely with the domestic workers to help them understand that they are not there to simply do specific duties which domestic workers are excluded from.

Training facilities

When all this are practiced by the employer, they will realize the beauty in employing migrant nurses. They will work all heartedly to the hospital and the benefits of their dedication will grow the company to a higher level, increase profits and give a return on capital.

Conclusion

The issue of employing migrant nurses is not a new in hospitals, it has been practiced in Australia for decades since the number of graduate nurses within the country has always been low. Many hospitals are coming up due to demand but there is no manpower to fill the vacancies, this is a main reason why employing nurses on the 457 visa is still important and the government cannot remove those nurses once they are employed even if the law changes. Therefor an employer should not be worried about future change of laws, the country need these nurses more than ever. The human resource department should be trained on the features to look at when employing these workers in order to reduce some risk at the stage hiring (Kell&Vogl, 2012). Having looked at the advantages which come along with hiring migrant nurses and also the challenges, it is crystal clear that employers should not be afraid of employing migrant nurses, they should simply find ways of handling the challenges which might come out of it as the benefits are much better. It will boost the hospital’s growth and the country’s as a whole gross domestic product also goes high in the international market.

References

Ahsan, A., Abella, M., &Beath, A. (2014). International Migration and Development in East Asia and the Pacific. Washington: World Bank Publications.

Bauder, H. (2012). Immigration and settlement: Challenges, experiences, and opportunities. Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press Inc.

Goldin, I. (2013). Divided nations: Why global governance is failing, and what we can do about it.

Jurado, E., &Brochmann, G. (2013). Europe’s immigration challenge management: Reconciling work, welfare and mobility. London: I.B. Tauris.

Kell, P., &Vogl, G. (2012). International students in the Asia Pacific: Mobility, risks and global optimism. Dordrecht: Springer.

McNamee, T., In Pearson, M., In Boer, W., & Palgrave Connect (Online service). (2015). Africans investing in Africa.

Nohl, A.-M., Schittenhelm, K., Schmidtke, O., & Weiss, A. (2014). Work in transition: Cultural capital and highly skilled migrants’ passages into the labour market.

Tejada, G. G., Bhattacharya, U. K.,Khadria, B., & In Kuptsch, C. (2014). Indian skilled migration and development: To Europe and back.

Yeung, A. S., Brown, E. L., & Lee, C. F. K. (2012). Communication and language: Surmounting barriers to cross-cultural understanding. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Pub.

World migration 2008: Managing labour mobility in the evolving global economy. (2008). Geneva, Switzerland: International Organization for Migration.