Why do US employers really require hospital experience from foreign nursing applicants?

Question

What happens to us fresh graduate nurses who find it tough to apply in hospitals due to the increasing number of nurses and no vacancies esp. here in the Philippines? What happens even if we have the US exams but no experience? In every job, we all start as a rookie right? So why need experience, when US hospitals still train newly hired nurses, foreign or locals? I know they want to hire experienced nurses to give the best care service for their patients. But even a rookie can give the same or even better care service than the experienced. Experience should be a preference, not a requirement. Give opportunity to us inexperienced to prove we can provide care and services to US patients even without a hospital experience here in the Philippines.

Answer 1

Two issues:

1. Immigration and petition qualification. There is minimum standards, educational and experience requirements under the law. In order to qualify and get the visa petition approved, you have to have: (a) education and experience equivalency something CFGNS can do, (b) Visa screen certificate.
2. Employer specific requirements. Each employer is different. They come up with minimum experience requirements to ensure quality of service to their patients, decrease training time, decrease insurance costs (as a result of malpractice by inexperienced people) etc. It is a question of business philosophy and attitude as well. I do understand what you mean by "But even a rookie can give the same or even better care service than the experienced" however it is true for generic services. For other services and in specialized care, one needs to be experienced. For example, if I am going for regular check up, I don't mind a rookie nurse who is going to take my pulse, blood pressure and other vitals, record it and pass it on to the doctor before doctor see me. In other situations, if I am going to have a surgery, let us say heart surgery, the nurse better be trained to be able to work with the doctor at that level.

So, it really depends on situation.

In professional life there is no substitute for experience. Experience is what makes you more knowledgeable, better professional and valuable. When you are new, you look at factual situation and apply the theory from books. When you are experienced, you combine the practical application based on real life situation, remember the theory and combine it with intuitive sense to take care of situation. There is no substitute for experience and you pay the price or earn only with time.

It really boils down to supply and demand. If you can find employees easily with experience, everybody prefers that. If you can not, employer has to adjust and train.

There is no one answer.

Answer 2

It's because their insurance requires it.