Is there trouble ahead for nursing in the Emirates?

In college, one of Bss's friends and fellow dorm RA was a nursing student. She was the first person that told me about the great nursing shortage that America was beginning to face. Later, one of our church members was a nursing professor who told us more about the problems that were coming. I was thinking about this problem and how it relates to the Emirates when I saw a couple of articles this week.

With a world-wide shortage of nurses, richer countries are importing them from elsewhere:

Everyone needs nurses. Almost every country is scrambling to find and keep them. The result is a trickle train that transports nurses to more money and better working conditions, from poor countries to richer ones that lure them.

"I know there are a lot of organizations where the pressures are, ‘Get the workers in. I don’t care how you get them, get them in,’ " said Cathy Druce, RN, a nurse recruiter at Harrison Hospital in Bremerton, Wash[ington (state), USA]. "It’s very much dog-eat-dog." The train essentially stops in the United States. "In America, they pay top salaries."

So among the nurses leaving for America are Canadians (it is especially easy for Canadian nurses to work in the US, because they "can enter the United States on the TN visa passed under NAFTA, available only to citizens of Canada and Mexico. It’s easier than obtaining a green card." (previous link). So now, some hospitals in Calgary have now begun recruiting nurse here in the UAE as well as elsewhere.

Now it is possible that these nurses are Emiratis, but it seems more likely that these are expat nurses. I know that there are a lot of Philipino nurses here ("The top six countries that employ Filipino nurses are Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Britain, Taiwan, Ireland and the United States.") and other nationalities as well. Also, the US will now allow Philipino nurses to take their license exams in the Philippines, which will make it even easier for them to move to the US to take jobs.

Add in the factor of possible citizenship^* (available in the US, Canada, etc but not in the GCC) to the higher salaries that the West offers, which the shortage should increase further, and it would seems likely that those nurses with a choice will choose to go west. This would seem to mean that the Emirates will have to import their nurses from those countries with less rigorous training.

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* I say this because of an interesting conversation I had once with a naturalized American citizen. This person told me that there are many cases of one brother going to the UAE and another going to Canada or the US. The one in the Emirates works for many years, saves a lot of money, and then at retirement returns home. The one in the West works many years, saves a lot of money, and then is given the chance to become a citizen of the new country.

(NB: I am not criticizing the Emirates for not offering citizenship to expats. I am merely pointing out that in a global economy, especially one in which it is a seller's market, such things will be considered by potential employees.)

Only in the UAE

I had one of those "only in the UAE" moments the other day. A group of librarians from UAE U, Zayed U, and HCT trying to work out the wording on a brochure about a new service we are launching together. The only problem is that the group consisted of two Americans, three Canadians, three Emiratis, and one African who had learned British English, so trying to get everyone to agree on simple things like what preposition to use (e.g. we Americans wanted to say "staff at the university", the Canadian/British English users wanted "staff in the university"). After working all this out, I had to point out that few of the students at (or in) our universities will ever read any of this anyway, since we will also have an Arabic version.

What do you think?

I was tied up with work all week and so I (thankfully) missed the recent controversy at the Community Blog. I didn't get to read either the 7days article or the comments about it there. So please understand from the beginning that this post is not an attempt to stir up that hornet's nest again.

But with that in mind, I would be interested in hearing about everyone's thoughts and personal philosophy about cultural/national respect. Let me go first:

As I have said before at my blog, I'm a guest here in the UAE, and I believe that it is rude of a guest to be critical of his host, and so I try not to be, though I know that I have failed from time to time. But I will go home someday, and in the end it is up to Emiratis to decide what sort of country they will have.

In the same way, it bothers me when foreigners, while they are in America, criticize America, her people or her leaders. I still think that they should be legally allowed to do it, but it makes me think that they are behaving rudely. It bothers me a lot less when foreigners criticize America elsewhere, but unfair or ignorant remarks can still upset me.

But then, to not be hypocritical, doesn't that also mean that I shouldn't criticize other countries or leaders? I don't think so, I think that the location makes the difference, in the same way that everyone does things at home they would never do in public or at someone else's house.

But if so, then I am a hypocrite, for I have made no end of comments and jokes about "cheese-eating surrender monkeys" and the like when I'm in the US. But it would be hypocritical to have an "if you don't like it, go home" attitude toward foreigners at home and then complain about how you are treated elsewhere though.

I could be wrong about some or all of this. For example, maybe "guest" isn't the right analogy. Or maybe it is OK for guests to gently criticize. So, what do you think?

Random facts

One of the things I love about working in a library is that you never know what information you will come across. For example, the June 2005 Atlantic Monthly has two brief articles about this area of the world of interest:

* According to the Congressional Research Service, the UAE has one of the most generous contributors to the humanitarian rebuilding of Iraq after the war, especially when you factor in the relatively small population. It has given $215 million or about 790 million dirham. This is not military aid spent, this is rebuilding money. While it has not sent any troops, it has also contributed by helping train the new Iraqi police force. I had read about how generous the UAE was under Sheik Zayed, so this didn't surprise me at all. (On the other hand, France has contributed only $10 million. It is almost like they want project of creating a democratic Iraq to fail. Nah, that couldn't be it.)

* [27 July 2005 - This part of this post has been removed at the suggestion of a commentator. Since I'm still learning where exactly the line is between a fair observation and too strong criticism, I'm erring on the side of caution on this one, though to be honest, I really can't see how what I wrote could be construed as insulting or negative.]