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Welcome to the first homepage edition of i2P for 2012.
In many ways it has been a slow start to the New Year because of having to deal with the “leftovers” from 2011.
One of those items for i2P was that a third-party provider to the site did not advise of a code change to the security section in our subscribe panel, creating a range of frustrated subscribers not able to get on board.
We apologise to all those potential subscribers who were unable to register with us in the second half of 2011, but if you try once more you should have no problem.

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Volume 2012 Number 1

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Japan Looks Overseas to Recruit Trained Nurses

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James Ellerson articles by this author...

James Ellerson is passionate about developing primary health care services across the spectrum of all health care practitioners working in a practical alliance, whether in an urbanised or a remote setting. He sees a wide range of opportunities for all health professionals who are currently held back by lethargic leadership. Attitudinal change is now under way because of new directions being set by governments both globally and in Australasia, creating empowerment of patients, better systems of delivery, with all resulting in primary health care at an optimum level.

Japan faces a nursing shortage with the world's oldest population but not enough young people to help care for them. This could well represent the scenario in Australia sometime over the next 30 years unless we learn how to be smart in the delivery of health care to the elderly. Inevitably, this will mean remote monitoring systems and the introduction of robots for some nursing activities. Japan is looking to recruit its nursing staff from foreign countries, but not before it fast tracks its own workforce into senior and highly paid positions (with a high tax rate).

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Now Japan is loosening up its immigration policies and turning to foreign nurses to help make up for that deficit.

A news report claims that in May 2009, around 300 trained nurses and caregivers from the Philippines will arrive in Japan and begin working at hospitals and homes for the elderly.

But their recruitment, which is allowed under a free-trade agreement Tokyo signed with Manila three years ago, has come under fire from the Japan Nursing Association.

It says the Filipinos might not have sufficient training or understanding of Japanese culture to work as caregivers. Plus, it says, they will take jobs away from skilled Japanese nurses.

Many of the imported workers may wind up doing basic care-giving jobs in nursing homes such as bathing and feeding patients. The pay for this work will far exceed that of trained nurses working in the Philippines, but many labor analysts say most Japanese do not want this type of low-paying, low-skilled job.

Martin Schultz, senior economist at the Fujitsu Research Institute in Tokyo, says Japan needs its young workforce in higher paying professions, to increase the tax base that goes to support senior citizens.
 
"Japan's society has a major aging problem, this means there needs to be services for aged people. This is usually not a high-wage, high-productivity sector, in many countries this sector is covered by immigration, by low-wage immigrants," he said.

But Japanese nurses are not the only ones who are cautious about inviting Filipinos to work there.

Marian Tanizaki is director of the Philippines Center, a support group for migrant workers in Tokyo. She worries that Filipino nurses will have few opportunities to advance their careers in Japan and just be regarded as cheap labor.

If Japan's experiment in allowing foreign nurses to work here does not work out, there may be other options in a few years.

The government is supporting research to create highly skilled, care-giving robots that could start working at nursing homes within five years.

Given Australia's past history of not nurturing its local talent in any field of endeavour, it is hoped that the strategies of Japan may serve as a model and that every endeavour is made to pay all skilled health workers appropriately.
Strategies to encourage senior health professionals to work past their normal "use by" date should also be revisited to ensure the "seniors" are retained for mentoring younger professionals through the ranks.

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