Title:
Shortage of Nurses Is Worldwide, but Worst in Poorer
Nations
Description: This is
a VOA Special English Technology Report.
See text below
Text:
The health care industry needs more nurses. All
areas of the world face a nursing shortage. But the
shortage is most severe in developing countries.
Many of their nurses leave. They move to more
developed nations for better pay, better working
conditions and better chances for career
development.A World Bank report earlier this year
called attention to the problem. For example, nearly
two thousand nurses left the Caribbean between two
thousand two and two thousand six. Caribbean nations
currently have about one nurse for every one
thousand people. The ratio of nurses to population
is about ten times higher in the United States and
countries in the European Union. Currently, more
than twenty-one thousand nurses who trained in the
Caribbean are working in the United States, Canada
and Britain.Gaetan Lafortune is with the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development in Paris. He says the nursing shortage
also affects industrialized countries. Mr. Lafortune
says a large number of nurses are expected to retire
within the next ten years. At the same time, the
health care needs of aging populations are expected
to grow, intensifying the shortage of nurses. He
says some researchers in the United States have
projected that there may be a shortage of close to a
million nurses by two thousand twenty. The United
States is one of thirty-one countries in the
O.E.C.D. Gaetan Lafortune says in recent years many
of the countries increased their efforts to hire
foreign nurses. But he says this has raised concern
that O.E.C.D. countries were mainly exporting their
shortage problem to countries that may have an even
greater need for these nurses. In May, the World
Health Assembly approved a global code of practice
on the international recruitment of health workers.
The assembly is made up of countries in the World
Health Organization. The code advises against
actively recruiting health workers from developing
countries that face severe shortages. The world also
faces a shortage of nursing trainers. As a result,
nursing schools are forced to turn away qualified
students. And that's the VOA Special English
Development Report. You can find transcripts, MP3s
and podcasts of our reports at
voaspecialenglish.com. What are your thoughts about
the nursing shortage and what should be done about
it? Share your comments on our website or on
Facebook at VOA Learning English.
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Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
