Bordering on a solution

State and national nursing shortages could be addressed by hiring from Mexico, but English proficiency is one of many hurdles potential applicants face

By Sandra Dibble

UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

January 13, 2008

EL CENTRO – For years, the Imperial Valley's largest hospital has grappled not only with the national nursing shortage but with a lack of Spanish-speaking nurses able to communicate easily with the Latino patients who fill most of the beds.

The solution may be right next door, in Mexico.

“For the valley, nothing makes more sense,” said Tomás Virgen, assistant chief nursing officer at the 163-bed El Centro Regional Medical Center. After years of searching as far as the Philippines for nurses, El Centro Regional has begun recruiting in the Baja California capital of Mexicali, a dozen miles south.

Potentially, an unlimited number of Mexican nurses could work in the United States under a special provision of the North American Free Trade Agreement, but few are trying, and only a small portion of those have been successful.

Their biggest hurdle: English. Though thousands have four-year nursing degrees – the equivalent to a U.S. bachelor of science in nursing – the great majority lack the language proficiency in English to work at U.S. hospitals.

Not only are we allowing Mexican trucks, which are often rolling disasters along with their drivers who are often poorly trained and inexperienced, to travel our highways with impunity, now we are going to import the notoriously horrendous Mexican medical care as well. Even been to a hospital in Mexico? The treat is often worse that the disease!