TOKYO, Wednesday 25 August 2010 (AFP) – Japan will provide English translations in a professional nursing exam to remove a language hurdle for foreign applicants after almost all of them failed the test this year, officials said Wednesday. Hundreds of nurses and care-givers from Indonesia and the Philippines have been allowed to work temporarily in rapidly ageing Japan, but they have to pass the Japanese-language test if they hope to stay longer than a few years. To respond to rising complaints that the tests are discriminatory, the health ministry has also decided to simplify the wording...

By Robin Williams Adams WINTER HAVEN | Polk County, like Florida, faces a major shortage of nurses in the coming years as a huge group of baby boomer nurses retires. Florida’s shortage has eased somewhat as the recession causes nurses to delay retirement and work longer hours, according to the Florida Center for Nursing, but the center’s research still points to an impending crisis. “We can’t be misled into thinking there’s no longer a nursing shortage,” said Janet Fansler, vice president and chief nurse executive at Lakeland Regional Medical Center, which employs...

by Tessa Hoffman A $5000 cash incentive to attract maternal and child nurses to Moreland appears to be working. A state-wide maternal nurse shortage, compounded by a baby boom, has left parents waiting up to a month to get their child in to see a nurse at some of Moreland’s maternal and child health centres. The sign-on bonus was first advertised in July to recruit one full-time and a part-time nurse. Social development director Jenny Merkus said the incentive “seems to be helping” with a number of queries leading to four applications from nurses who were now being interviewed. Acting Mayor...

Carol Sorgen For years now, we’ve been hearing about the nursing shortage in this country. Is that still the case? On the whole, yes, say nurse recruiters throughout the Washington metropolitan area, though there has been a temporary “blip” as a result of the recession. “The economy has certainly had an impact on the job market for nurses, as nurses who were planning to retire have delayed those plans, part-time nurses have requested additional hours, and full-time nurses have sought additional shifts,” says Dennis Hoban, Senior Director of Recruitment for Washington...

The Scottish government is being urged to safeguard vital services as nurses and midwives are forced to fight to secure NHS jobs. In a bid to save money, health boards are resorting to “unsustainable tactics” including not replacing people and freezing posts, which is affecting available positions for newly trained nurses, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Scotland said. The measures could have “devastating consequences” for future patient care, the union warned. This year nearly 4,000 NHS posts will be cut, including 1,500 midwifery and nursing jobs, Health Secretary...

By N.C. Aizenman The Obama administration awarded $159.1 million in grants Thursday to educational programs that train nurses and geriatric specialists as well as those that recruit and support students from minority groups that are underrepresented in those fields. The grants, which include new and continuing funding, build on multimillion dollar investments called for under the new health-care overhaul law in order to address a growing shortage of primary care workers. A 2008 report by the Council on Physician and Nurse Supply said schools would need to produce 30,000 nurses annually to offset...

by Katerina Nikolas The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is cognizant of the ever increasing critical shortage of nurses, which is further compounded by the cost student loan debt that those who qualify as RN’s face upon graduation. In an effort to alleviate some of these problems the Nursing Education Loan Repayment Program is expanding to include more nurses each year, and helps to pay some of the associated qualifying costs by helping with loan repayment. However not all applicants will be able to benefit from the program as it is very oversubscribed. To address this The Bureau...

Andrew Lansley’s radical reforms will see GPs commission care for their patients, with no opt-out and no extra pay Randeep Ramesh, social affairs editor Andrew Lansley, the health secretary, will announce the biggest shakeup of the National Health Service since its creation in 1948 with radical proposals in a white paper on Monday. It will include plans to use markets, not targets, to improve performance, hand £80bn of taxpayers’ money to thousands of family doctors, and free foundation hospitals to leave the state sector and become “not for profit” companies. Read more…

The recession may have temporarily eased the nation’s nursing shortage, but experts say hundreds of thousands of nurses will be needed as the economy recovers and society continues to age. Anderson University hopes to be part of the solution by launching a nursing school in 2012 to produce more nurses in the Upstate. But it could face the same problems that keep other nursing schools from turning out enough nurses, including a dearth of faculty and clinical slots. Anderson University plans to convert existing space on the campus for the nursing program, said spokesman Barry Ray. Pending all approvals,...

By Faris Al-Qahtani RIYADH – Inspections carried out by Control and Investigation Board (CIB) teams in various hospitals found 572 non-Saudi doctors and nurses practicing medicine with forged qualifications. The CIB, in a report that is to be discussed at the Shoura Council, said that it discovered during its inspections that the laboratory in the Baish Hospital in Baish governorate had disposed of radiology waste in sewage. The CIB teams also discovered a number of shortcomings, including a lack or unavailability of necessary medical equipment, shortage of medical, technical and nursing cadres...