Skilled Nurses Lured away from Poor Countries

Apr 25, 2022

Imperialist powers always steal away resources and skilled workers from poor countries, but this expanded widely during the pandemic, including an aggressive drive for more nurses. One thousand nurses arrived in the U.S. each month from African nations, the Philippines, and the Caribbean at the height of the pandemic. Capitalist governments streamlined immigration rules to fast track new hires into the workforce.

Nurses in poor countries work under increasingly deplorable conditions. Hospitals and clinics are few and far between. Those available are grossly under-equipped and understaffed. Even nurses with specialized skills receive little more than poverty wages with no benefits.

Like vultures, the profit-hungry health industry owners target those most exploited. They lure skilled poor-country nurses by offering measly pay increases and a pathway to residency. To escape poverty with hopes of a better life, many accept these offers.

The consequences are calamitous for health systems in the poor countries, which can least afford to lose these skilled workers. Already in ruin prior to the pandemic, health care infrastructure is near total collapse under the strains of the current health crisis. The media reported that a doctor in Zambia, the sole doctor in a district of 80,000 people, makes less than $1,000 per month. He works in a hospital that wasn’t able to use ventilators because simple C-clamps weren’t available.

As the crisis deepens and patient care plummets worldwide, health industry capitalists thrive. Infused with billions in government tax-payer give-aways, huge conglomerates rake in massive profits. HCA Healthcare, one of the largest providers in the world, recorded 3.75 billion in profit in the 4^th quarter of 2020 alone!

These billions of dollars of profits should be confiscated and re-directed to the massive health needs of the world’s population, along with all the other stolen billions.