Job offers for nurses in the United States

Digest this. According to a study conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Labour, employment opportunities for Registered Nurses (RNs) in that country will grow faster than the average for all occupations, through 2008.

Industry watchers in the United States estimate that around 1,26,000 nurses are required by various hospitals in the U.S.

So, if you are interested in working in the U.S. and are thinking about giving the counselling for nursing a miss, ponder over it again. Among all the countries whose hospitals absorb nurses from India, USA heads the list.

More than 75 per cent of the vacancy advertisements placed by various hospitals in the U.S. are for trained nurses, which illustrates the huge demand the country has for trained nurses.
The American Medical Association, in a journal published in 2001 envisaged that the United States would face a shortage of nurses by as much as 20 per cent by the year 2020 that comes to around four lakh nursing jobs, going by a rough estimate.

However, becoming a registered nurse in the U.S. is not as easy as pie. There are two main stumbling blocks for someone to overcome before he/she would be eligible to get a job there.
Every India-trained nurse would have to clear a test administered by the Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools (CGFNS), an internationally recognised authority that evaluates and verifies credentials pertaining to the education, registration and licensure of nurses and health care professionals worldwide.

The test is designed to gauge the technical competence of a nurse. It is usually conducted in March, July and November and has objective-type questions.

Upon clearing the CGFNS test, a nurse would have to appear for and pass the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) examination.

IELTS evaluates a candidate’s proficiency in English and is held twice every month. A nurse should be able to meet the minimum IELTS band score of 6.5 for academic and 7.0 for spoken to be eligible.

One more barrier needs to be crossed — the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX), conducted by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN). Upon clearing this examination, one would be able to get employed as an RN in any hospital in the U.S.

Jobs in U.K., UAE

Not just the U.S., but leading countries around the globe like U.K., UAE, Canada and others have a huge demand for healthcare nursing professionals.

More information can be had from the
websites: www.cgfns.org and www.ncsbn.org