As America runs short of nurses, US senators are looking abroad. They have inserted a little-noticed provision in their immigration bill that would throw open the gate and, some fear, drain nurses from the world's developing countries, particularly the Philippines.

The legislation is expected to pass this week. The Senate Provision, which removes the limit on the number of nurses who can immigrate, has been largely overlooked in the emotional debate over ilegal immigration.

Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), who sponsored the proposal, said it was needed to help the United States cope with a growing nursing shortage.

Brownback said he doubted the measure would greatly increase the small number of African nurses comig to the United States, but acknowledged that it could have an impact on the Philippine and India, which have been sending thousands of nurses a year to America.

The exodus of nurses from poor to rich countries has strained health systems in the developing world, which are already facing severe shortages of their own. Many African countries have begun to demand compensation for the training and loss of nurses and other health professionals who move away.

Some rich countries have responded. Two years ago, Britain, a huge beneficiary of nurses from Malawi, pledged to give that country more than $100 million to increase the salaries of nurses and other health workers.

But the senate provision, which would remain in force until 2014, contains no such compensation and has not stirred serious opposition in Congress.

The provision, however, is not part of the House immigration bill. So if the full Congress approves the legislation, a committee from both houses would then have to decide whether to include the provision on nurses.

RP hardest hit

Public health experts in poor countries, who were told about the proposal in recent days, reacted with dismay and outrage, coupled with doubts that their nurses would resist the magnetic pull of the United States, which sits at the pinnacle of the global labor market for nurses.

Removing the immigration cap, the experts said, would particularly hit the Philippines, which sends to the United States at least several thousands of nurses a year, more than any other country.

"The Filipino people will suffer because the US will get all our trained nurses," said George Cordero, president of the Philippine Nurses Association. "But what can we do?"

118,000 Vacancies

The nurse proposal has strong backing from the American Hospital Association, which reported last month that American hospitals had 118,000 vacancies for registered nurses.

The federal government predicts the accelerating shortfall of nurses in the United States will swell to more than 800,000 by 2020.

New York Times News Service.