N ews
F ebruary - 11, 2004
T he C lackamas P rint • 3
Immigrant nurses earn winning opportunity
WIN program breaks language barriers, decreases nursing shortage
Cyndee Mady
Co E ditor - in -C heef
Though the nursing
shortage is prevalent in
Oregon,
the
recently
founded
Workforce
Investment with Immigrant
Nurses program (WIN) will
help immigrant nurses gain
the pfbper credentials to
practice nursing in the.
United States and help alle
viate the shortage.
“It’s
an . incredible
opportunity for this diverse
group of people,” said
Alice Goldstein, ESL
(English as a Second
Language)
department
chair.
“Nurses
come
to
America to do what they
have been trained to do,
and they can’t do anything
with their skills because of
the language and cultural
barriers, said Goldstein.
‘When you can develop a
program where people can
overcome these issues, it is
a great service.”
WIN is funded by a
grant from Northwest
Health Foundation, who
awarded
Clackamas
$200,000 for two years last
October. By the end of the
month, a general informa
tion session was opened to
the public.
“We were expecting
maybe 30 to 50 people and
we had over 200,” said
Nursing Coordinator for
WIN Judy Anderson.
A screening process
eliminated three-fourths of
the hopefuls, allowing the
50-60 remaining applicants
to have one-on-one inter-’
views. Eligibility require
ments included English
speaking skills, Visa status,
credentials, interest, avail
ability and commitment to
the program.
The nurses who were
selected for WIN represent
20 countries, including
Russia, Ukraine, Nigeria,
Kenya, Ethiopia, Japan,
China, the Philippines,
Germany and various Latin
countries, to name a few.
“The individuals in the
WIN program are some of
the most remarkable people
I have ever met. They have
overcome challenges many
of us only read about in the
paper,” said WIN Program
Director William Frank,
“Once tFey were all
nurses, helping and healing
in their own countries of
origin.
Now the WIN
Program is lending a help
ing hand to those who have
come [to America] with
their dreams of helping
others,” he said.
All of the nurses in the
WIN program live in
Oregon and have graduated
from a nursing program at a
university in their own
country. Many have tried to
pass die nurse licensing
exam in the U.S., but could
not overcome the cultural
and language differences.
WIN is designed to help
prepare immigrant nurses
for the exam.
“They will have intense
English for two terms and
then begin the 15-week
nursing program in the
summer,” said Anderson.
CYNDEE MADY C lackamas P rint
The Workforce Investment with Immigrant Nurses program (WIN) meets evenings in Dujardin Hall.
(Back row from left) Ramone Figueras, Instructor Joe Ponce, Mahnaz Alidoosti, Anna Vasina. (Front row
from left) Natalya Khamitova, Noriko Young, Vera Menkova and Larysa Tremaine participate in WIN.
“After they pass the nursing more autonomy. They’re recognize [a questionable most of the nurses are
licensure exam, they have expected, legally, to ques order], it is the nurse’s going to be facing retire
three months of closely tion orders that they feel responsibility as well as the ment in the next 10 or 15
years,” she said.
supervised practice in a are inappropriate—-to have doctor’s.”
According to Anderson,
Though WIN was
responsibility for a physical
hospital.”
Anderson designed to aid in the nurs the recruiting process needs
Although participants in assessment,”
WIN already practiced said. “In other countries ing shortage and the neces to begin in high schools.
“We want to have
nursing in their own coun they, more or less, will just sity for bilingual nurses,
tries, they will have to work follow the doctor’s order. Anderson still has concerns enough qualified nurses.
hard to adapt to the-transi If the order is incorrect, about the growing problem. It’s going to get very acute
“What we’re dealing ... as the baby boomers
tion of becoming American the responsibility is the
physician’s. [In the United with now is the average age start needing hospitaliza
nurses.
“In America, nurses have States] if the nurse does not of nursing is quite high, so tion,” said Anderson.
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