AFRICA Health workers mull moving to U.S., U.K.

One expert said the U.S. should fix its own nursing shortage.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
NAIROBI, Kenya -- Ricarda Wahome moves expertly among the narrow, rusted metal beds of the central Nairobi hospital, her spotless white uniform and firm but tender manner the picture of professionalism.
A chief nurse at the hospital with 27 years of experience in Kenya, Wahome says her pay is so meager and her hospital so poor that she's thinking of looking for a job in the United States or the United Kingdom.
The promise of higher salaries and better working conditions lures some 20,000 African nurses and health-care workers annually to richer countries. The brain drain makes it even harder for African countries to treat diseases such as AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, which kill millions each year, experts say.
But with the United States facing its own nursing shortage, some on Capitol Hill want to make it easier for foreign nurses to immigrate to America. A provision in the Senate immigration bill would lift a cap on special visas for nurses, which is now 500 each year.
The idea has drawn criticism from U.S. and African health experts, who say it would accelerate the loss of health-care workers where they're desperately needed.
The United States needs "to resolve our [nursing] shortage by increasing U.S. production, retention and efficient deployment of nurses, and not by increased recruitment from countries that can ill afford to lose them," said Eric Friedman, a researcher with Physicians for Human Rights in Washington.
In demand
With the baby-boomer generation aging, America's demand for nurses is far outpacing the supply. In 2000, the Department of Health and Human Services projected a shortfall of 800,000 nurses by 2020.
That gap has lessened in recent years as U.S. schools train more nurses, Friedman said, but the demand for foreign nurses remains. Besides the nursing-visa program, hundreds of nurses immigrate to the United States each year through other channels, such as moving to be with family members.
The 16,500 African-trained nurses working in the United States are a fraction of the 2 million nurses total, but they represent a major loss to their home countries. Cash-strapped African governments spend little on public health, resulting in a massive shortage of health facilities and equipment and relatively few doctors and nurses.
In its annual report on global health, released this month, the World Health Organization said that Africa, which bears one-quarter of the world's burden of diseases, has just 3 percent of the world's health workers.
For every 100,000 Americans there are 937 nurses, the report said. In Kenya it's 114. In Ethiopia, one of Africa's fastest-growing countries, it's a mere 21.
At Wahome's Nairobi hospital, linens sometimes go unwashed and vital drugs are in short supply. Wahome earns less than $200 a month. Since her husband passed away three years ago, she's relied on her two adult children to support her.
"Because my children are grown now, maybe it's time that I can move on," she said.