There is currently a bill in committee in the House of Representatives that could have a great impact on the shortage of full time and traveling physical therapists here in the United States. The bill, called H.R. 5924, or "The Emergency Nursing Supply Relief Act," was introduced by a representative from FL named Robert Waxler. Basically, this bill will allow additional Visas to be set aside for foreign-trained nurses and physical therapists.
As of today, this bill currently has 11 co-sponsors and is being supported by the AHA. From what I've discovered on www.opencongress.org, it seems this bill has not yet had a chance to be voted on by the House of Representatives.
Although it has a long way to go, this bill could be a great development in the world of physical therapy and nursing. The shortage is a major issue nationwide, and some new visas for these in-demand professions could help ease the pinch on a lot of hospitals and nursing homes.
If you would like to see more movement on this bill, contact your district's representative and let him or her know that H.R. 5924 is important to you. Here is the website to track down the representative for your district. https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml
Posted by: Dr. Ankush Bhargava PT, DPT on Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Respected Sir, I would like to draw your kind attention to the H.R. 5924 (The Emergency Nursing Supply Relief Act). I believe that such an act would significantly reduce the work load on current RNs and PTs in various settings and this would improve quality of healthcare at large. Currently, due to the acute shortage of these professionals, patient care is suffering especially in more challenging work settings like the nursing homes with ever increasing workload and shortage of adequate staff. More RNs and PTs are selecting to work on contract basis rather than full-time raising the cost of healthcare. There is also an increasing push on currently working health care professionals towards increasing productivity which proving detrimental to quality of care. Most healthcare settings are always short of RNs and PTs, in fact the human resources of these healthcare settings now have started to segregate vacancies as Nurses and Non-nurse (including other healthcare staff). I and some of my friends of international origin would really appreciate your support in this matter. Thank you for devoting your precious time in this matter. Regards, Dr. Ankush Bhargava PT, DPT