The United Kingdom decided against signing an agreement among 22 European Commonwealth countries discouraging recruitment of nurses from developing countries. Instead, the U.K.’s health secretary pledged that the government would take measures “to avoid damaging” developing countries’ health care industries. The code agreed upon by the Commonwealth nations requests that countries receiving foreign workers compensate workers’ countries of origin by providing technological devices, training, and capital for the remaining workforce. The agreement was proposed after the Royal College of Nursing…

Federal officials have issued a one-year extension of the deadline for Canadian and Mexican health care workers to obtain more rigorous credentials before working in the United States, preventing what hospitals in border states such as Maine say would have resulted in crisis level staffing shortages, the Associated Press reports. The law, which requires non-physician health care workers from Canada and Mexico to pass proficiency and English-competency exams in order to earn U.S. licenses, was expected to result in a…

The CDC four months ago started to “quietly” send hospitals packages of various antidotes that can be used in the event of a chemical attack, the Associated Press reports. The chem-pack program—which cost the CDC $56 million last year and is expected to have a $34 million price tag for 2004—aims to have supplies in every state within the next two years. Although CDC officials will not disclose which locations already have received the chem-packs, they did say that Boston…

The nation’s nursing shortage is expected to worsen following implementation later this month of an immigration law that requires Canadian nurses to pass proficiency and English-competency exams in order to earn U.S. licenses, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. According to estimates by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing, the measure could result in the loss of as many as 15,000 nurses; the Journal-Constitution notes that Canadian nurses account for up to 40% of the nursing staffs in U.S. hospitals…

ARIZONA DAILY STAR Illegal entrants have been dying at the rate of one a day since June, making it likely Arizona will surpass last year’s record death rate, an Arizona Daily Star compilation of crosser deaths shows. The bodies of five illegal entrants have been found since Friday, driving the number of known border deaths to 121. That figure is based on information gathered from Mexico’s secretary of foreign relations and county medical examiners in Arizona. The Border Patrol tallies…

FDA to decide whether to recommend booster for whooping cough [PARA][PARA]07/13/2004 In response to the growing incidence of whooping cough nationwide, the FDA is evaluating the need for whooping cough booster shots that would be administered alongside tetanus and diphtheria booster shots, the Associated Press reports. The CDC has reported outbreaks of whooping cough-known as pertussis-in 11 states so far this year and notes that there were 11,000 cases of whooping cough in the United States in 2003, up from…

Wisconsin: Milwaukee-area health care organizations are increasing their minority recruitment efforts in the hopes of encouraging more minority students to pursue health-related professions in the region, which is facing physician and surgeon shortages. A physician from the University of Wisconsin Medical School has started a “health careers club” at one local high school and hopes to expand the program to public schools throughout the city. Meanwhile, the Medical College of Wisconsin has implemented two summer enrichment programs for high school…

Experts say the nation’s nursing shortage—which already has prompted hospitals to recruit nursing staff from countries such as the Philippines and India—is now prompting a growing number of hospitals to recruit in Mexico, the Associated Press reports. Although the recruitment of nurses from Mexico is still in its “early stages”—with only 58 Mexican nurses taking the U.S. nurse licensing exam in 2002—experts say the opportunity to multiply their salaries by as much as 10 times will likely lead others to…

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) invite investigators to submit R01 and R03 research grant applications on health literacy. The goal is to increase scientific understanding of the nature of health literacy and its relationship to healthy behaviors, illness prevention and treatment, chronic disease management, health disparities, risk assessment of environmental factors, and health outcomes including oral and mental health. Such knowledge will help enable healthcare and public health systems to…

Partly in response to allegations that hospitals “routinely” charge uninsured patients up to four times more for care than those with health insurance, hospital officials yesterday called on lawmakers to enact universal health coverage, saying it would help relieve the cost of caring for indigent patients, the Associated Press reports. The testimony was given at a meeting of a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee, which has been investigating whether hospitals overcharge uninsured patients and subject them to “aggressive” collection tactics in…