As a nursing director with more than twenty years of experience, I would like to applaud Governor Blagojevich for his foresight in removing a longstanding roadblock that discourages foreign nurses from practicing in Illinois.

In his State of the State address, the Governor proposed eliminating an Illinois requirement that foreign nurses take an additional exam not required of nurses trained in our country. Illinois is an extremely culturally diverse state and nurses from foreign countries feel comfortable calling Illinois "home." Why would we want to place burdens on these dedicated professionals to practice their profession in our state?

I have seen firsthand the struggle nursing homes encounter with this issue. Many foreign nurses refuse to come to Illinois nursing homes because of this additional examination. Instead they go to work in other states. Under the Governor’s proposal, foreign trained nurses would be required to meet the same requirements and take the same exams as American trained nurses.

Illinois is facing a profound nursing shortage of 8,000 registered nurses and 1,200 licensed practical nurses per year, projected through 2010. The average age of an Illinois nurse is approaching 50 years old, with nursing school enrollment declining at a precipitous rate. We need these foreign nurses to meet the basic care needs of our state’s 100,000 nursing home residents.

Given our state’s dire nursing shortage, Illinois must eliminate all unnecessary roadblocks for foreign nurses to practice in our state. We congratulate the governor for addressing an issue that will lead to real progress in augmenting Illinois’ supply of qualified nurses.