International Nurses’ Day: Better pay, facilities abroad beckon Capital’s nurses

[OhioChick]

New Delhi, May 11: FORTY-YEAR-OLD, Sreelekha Menon (name changed), a nurse in Lok Nayak Hospital has big plans for future. A few more days and Menon would be flying to the United States.

John Michael, a recruitment agent, says about 10,000-odd cases are pending with the US embassy and the list will increase in months to come.

“We forwarded as many as 10,000 applications for visas to the US embassy after the nurses got through the preliminary examination. The H1B visas (for work permit) are likely to come in next few days,” he says.

Michael says every year, a significant number of nurses migrate to the US and West Asia countries. India is a major provider of nurses to these countries. A majority of nurses come from Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Punjab. However, around 30 per cent of them leave for options abroad, he says.

http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=235892