Migrant Nurses: Evaluating Benefits and Risks in Australian Hospitals

This essay examines the employment of migrant nurses in Australia, focusing on the 457 visa scheme. It traces the historical context of migrant nurse employment and its evolution, highlighting the advantages for hospitals, such as access to cheap labor and increased diversity. The essay also ...Read More

Running Head: MIGRANT NURSES 1
Benefits and Risks of Employing Migrant Nurses
Student Name
University affiliated

MIGRANT NURSES 2
Abstract
The essay talks about the employment of migrant nurses in Australia under the 457 visa
scheme. It shows the history of such employment and how it has evolved. It explains the benefits
that hospitals can gain if they adopt such kind of employment, it also covers the challenges
which come on board with employing nurses on a 457 visa scheme which greatly affect the
performance of the hospital and how this problem can be controlled. Practical examples have
been used where necessary to elaborate different scenarios to help you understand how these
more deeply. By the end of this, one is able to decide on whether to employ nurses using this
scheme or not.

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Benefits and Risks of Employing Migrant Nurses
Australia was the first country in the entire world to have established a department
specifically meant for immigration back in 1945 (Jurado&Brochmann, 2013). Millions of nurses
have since then settled in Australia through migration program for skilled and family migrants
and through humanitarian programs for refugees. It has since then evolved to the present day,
nurses from especially developing countries around the world are migrating to developed
countries mainly in search for what they call as greener pastier or in other terms, employment
opportunities which are better. They are mostly nurses who are skilled or semi-skilled and
looking for employment. Some also migrate due to political instability in their motherland to
seek refuge in the neighboring countries. The main motive of this report is to evaluate the merits
and demerits which come along with employing this nurses in hospitals and how the demerits
can be solved.
A Skilled worker can be defined in simple terms as a worker who has special training,
knowledge and acquired ability in what they do. On the other hand, the term Migrant has no
single universally agreed upon definition. According to McNamee, Pearson, Boer, and Palgrave
(2015), a migrant is that person who owns a foreign citizenship or has moved to another country
to stay temporarily or to settle for a long term. It generally means that a skilled migrant is that
person who possesses a special knowledge in what he does and is based in a country which he is
not a citizen. They moved to a foreign country to work specifically on their area of expertise.
Benefits of Employing Migrant Nurses
One of the main benefits of employing this nurses is that they provide cheap labor.
Generally, economically stronger countries have greater job opportunities which attract foreign

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nurses to apply for this job. In the countries they come from, payment is always very low and
therefore what they are being offered in the foreign countries is much more competitive as
compared to what they can or get in their motherland (Tejada, Bhattacharya, Khadria&Kuptsch,
2014). On the other hand what most of the companies offer them in the migrant country is
obviously lesser than what they offer or could have offered to the domestic workers hence cheap
labor. The other thing is that most of this nurses have been without a job in their motherland, this
means they are desperate for money and they can settle for almost any amount offered to them as
either salary or wages hence cheap labor (McNamee et al., 2014). In the long run, it helps the
company to minimize its expenses thus leading to high profits which can be plowed back into the
business to expand its production.
Another benefit the hospital can get from employing migrant nurses is ease of training
facilities for the local or domestic workers. Training facilities are always very important to local
workers or employees of a new organization (Kell&Vogl, 2012). These training cost employer a
lot of money to facilitate, as a result of this, they hire skilled migrant labors who are being paid a
minimal amount of money and ask them to train others. It is important to note that skills are not
only acquired through going to college or university. Foreign workers have versatile knowledge
as compared to domestic workers, as a result employer get good talent at less expense.
Hiring migrant nurses promotes diversity in an organization. Diversity is the difference
in race, cultural differences, ethnicity and other social practices among people working together
(Nohl, Schittenhelm, Schmidtke& Weiss, 2014). It comes with a bunch of advantages to the
hospital and employees too. Diversity in an organization develops a diverse experience among
employees, it promotes learning, increases adaptability in an organization, increase productivity
which is very essential to any sector, it promotes the hospital to offer range of services to

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different clients who might not have liked the hospital’s services due to issues like language
barrier, cultural differences, and difference in social practices between employees of an
organization (Yeung, Brown & Lee, 2012). All these advantages of diversity enable hospitals to
boost its profits and return on investment.
The above advantages of employing migrant nurses clearly demonstrate that an
organization can grow very fast and also make profits if they hire skilled migrants. The country
also benefits indirectly as the growth of the companies increases its Gross Domestic Product in
the international market.
Disadvantages of Employing Migrant Nurses
One of the disadvantages of employing migrant nurses is lack of commitment on their
side. An employer invest on the employee in terms of organizing visa and how they settle, after a
period of time they decide to quit due to an issue with being homesick and the employer’s
investment goes in vain. Moreover, foreign workers will require longer holidays to travel back to
their motherland and again to travel back (Nohl, Schittenhelm, Schmidtke& Weiss, 2015). This
time is essential to the company and it might cost it a lot in terms of customer relationship and
profits. They might also be reluctant due to the fact that they feel to be working as the expatriate
and hence cannot be fired easily.
Another challenge of employing migrant nurses is the lack of lingua franca. Lingua
franca simply means the common language (Yeung et al., 2012). The language barrier issue can
be a great problem to organizations which hire skilled migrants, the nurses are skilled but there is
always high possibility that they cannot speak the common language in the country they have
been employed (Yeung et al., 2012). This forces the employer to invest in training this employee

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the common language as it will not only affect the employee’s confidence but also the
organization’s progress. For example; a skilled migrant nurse can do the hospital work but it may
be difficult to communicate with patients who are not able to express themselves in the language
he or she understands. This means patients will not attend such hospital due to lack of the lingua
franca thus leading to the downfall of the hospital.
Risk Management of Migrant Nurses
Whatever has its advantages must also have some challenges which come on board with
it, the question is, how do you whether down the challenges if you have decided to employ
migrant nurses? An employer needs to treat this nurses with dignity and without favor, once they
feel they are being treated well, they will give back by being dedicated to doing their work
promptly (Bauder, 2012). They will take most of their time trying to return the organization that
favor and the more time they give dedicate in doing their work the more the organization
benefits. A nurse, for example, will take his or her time to listen carefully to patients and provide
them with the necessary services with honor, this will brighten the image of that hospital and
attract more customers who will be flocking in thereby leading to it making more profits (Goldin,
2013).
Employers should be very sensitive to the language barrier and invest in training the
nurses employed. It may be costly but it will be a one-off training which when done will benefit
the company (Yeung et al., 2012). Once employees are able to communicate in the language
which is common in the country, they will gain confidence and do their work with ease avoiding
the risk of being left out in terms of freedom of expression during group work.

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In the section of decision-making, an employer should involve this nurses in some
decision making in order to build their confidence that they are also part of the company and
their opinions are valued (Tejada et al,. 2013). They should be placed in departments where they
work closely with the domestic workers to help them understand that they are not there to simply
do specific duties which domestic workers are excluded from.
When all this are practiced by the employer, they will realize the beauty in employing
migrant nurses. They will work all heartedly to the hospital and the benefits of their dedication
will grow the company to a higher level, increase profits and give a return on capital.
Conclusion
The issue of employing migrant nurses is not a new in hospitals, it has been practiced in
Australia for decades since the number of graduate nurses within the country has always been
low. Many hospitals are coming up due to demand but there is no manpower to fill the vacancies,
this is a main reason why employing nurses on the 457 visa is still important and the government
cannot remove those nurses once they are employed even if the law changes. Therefor an
employer should not be worried about future change of laws, the country need these nurses more
than ever. The human resource department should be trained on the features to look at when
employing these workers in order to reduce some risk at the stage hiring (Kell&Vogl, 2012).
Having looked at the advantages which come along with hiring migrant nurses and also the
challenges, it is crystal clear that employers should not be afraid of employing migrant nurses,
they should simply find ways of handling the challenges which might come out of it as the
benefits are much better. It will boost the hospital’s growth and the country’s as a whole gross
domestic product also goes high in the international market.

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