Paper
Friday, July 23, 2004
This presentation is part of : Solutions in Nursing Education
Internationally Educated Nurses in the U.S. Workforce
Carolyn J. Yocom, PhD, RN, FAAN, College of Nursing, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Newark, NJ, USA and Catherine R. Davis, PhD, RN, Administration, Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Learning Objective #1: Describe the characteristics of foreign-educated registered nurses who work in the United States
Learning Objective #2: Identify similarities and differences between foreign-and U.S.-educated registered nurses and their implications
Background: The registered nurse workforce in the United States is composed of both US and internationally educated nurses. While several studies have examined selected characteristics or subsets of international nurses prior to or following RN licensure, no study examining the international nurse population as a whole in the RN workforce was identified.

Purpose: To (a) describe the characteristics of international nurses who migrated to and became RNs in the United States and (b) compare the characteristics of international nurses with their US educated counterparts.

Design: A comparative descriptive design examined demographic, educational and employment data collected in the 2000 National Sample Survey - Registered Nurses (NSSRN). 1

Method: A national sample of 28,679 RNs who met the following criteria was drawn from a public use file containing data provided by RNs who participated in the 2000 NSSRN: educated in the United States or a foreign country and were employed in the United States on March 22, 2000.

Results: Analysis of data provided by 1,115 internationally educated RNs and 27,564 US educated RNs revealed differences in the following areas: racial and ethnic background, nursing education, language proficiency, employment patterns and income. There was no significant age difference between the foreign educated nurses (43.71) and the US educated nurses (43.42).

Conclusions/Implications: Successful incorporation of international nurses into a domestic workforce is critical – particularly during times of nursing shortage. International nurses continue to be an integral part of the US nursing workforce, improving the diversity of that workforce and providing culturally relevant nursing care. International nurses work in a variety of clinical and educational settings and are more commonly found in staff nurse positions than US educated nurses.

1 Spratley, E., et al.. (2001) The registered nurse population: March 2000: Findings from the national sample survey of registered nurses. U.S. DHHS, Washington, DC.

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