Recruiting and employing foreign nurse graduates in a large public hospital system

Recruiting foreign nurse graduates (FNGs) is one way hospitals--particularly those in the nation's inner cities--are responding to the periodic and cyclic shortages that characterize the labor market for registered nurses. Until now, little was known about the overall efficacy of this strategy. This article reports the findings of an 18-month study of the recruitment and employment of FNGs by the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation. Although considerably more expensive to recruit than domestic nurses, FNGs have higher retention rates than U.S.-educated nurses and possess other characteristics that make them desirable recruits for hospitals experiencing a nursing shortage.