The CGFNS exams are an anachronism and do not help the looming nursing crisis that will be dropped amongst our midst in the next  few years.  Our Virginia boomers count among them thousands of RNs in the work force.  Our aging population will soon be joined by many of these nurses who have reached retirement age. 

Let's take a look at the realities:

1.  We are already experiencing a severe nursing shortage.  Our new graduates, too few to cope up with the vacancies, are certainly joining an overworked work force - not too attractive a proposition for these young nurses who will certainly look for other, more desirable options.  Our high school graduates do not usually look forward to a career in nursing, even with generous scholarship offers available for them, so we have to tap on the international market until our educational system can put a solution in place.

2.  The shortage in the state is alleviated, in part, by a few newly-hired international nurses who had to run through the whole gamut of exams that start with the CGFNS one.  There is also a trickle of nurses hired from other states either as travelers, flexis, or FTEs, but they usually gravitate to the urban centers after a short period or move out of state. 

3.  Our aging population has ballooned before our eyes - our seniors have higher life expectancies - and the bulk of the baby-boomers are reaching retirement stage in huge numbers at the same time.  Many of the nurses caring for them now will soon join them.  These are our most experienced nurses we are losing - as  a sidebar,  are we leaving them in the care of new and inexperienced care-givers because of lack of nursing graduates and our restrictive hiring of foreign, highly-qualified nurses? 

We believe that the nursing shortage situation in the Commonwealth will be softened by an influx of a judicious number of highly-qualified international nurses who are ready to step into the void after a short orientation period.  The time is now, let's remove the CGFNS hurdle and encourage highly qualified international nurses to join the Virginia work force.  Haven't they already proven their expertise by the sheer number of their compatriots who have served their patients with TLC all over the world? 

Very sincerely,

Rudy Bolipata

President - Filipino-American
Association of Central Virginia (FAACV)