IJEPA: Gray Area for Health Policy and International Nurse Migration.

Indonesia is recognized as a nurse exporting country, with policies that encourage nursing professionals to emigrate abroad. This includes the country's adoption of international principles attempting to protect Indonesian nurses that emigrate as well as the country's own participation in a bilateral trade and investment agreement, known as the Indonesia-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement that facilitates Indonesian nurse migration to Japan. Despite the potential trade and employment benefits from sending nurses abroad under the Indonesia-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement, Indonesia itself is suffering from a crisis in nursing capacity and ensuring adequate healthcare access for its own populations. This represents a distinct challenge for Indonesia in appropriately balancing domestic health workforce needs, employment, and training opportunities for Indonesian nurses, and the need to acknowledge the rights of nurses to freely migrate abroad. Hence, this article reviews the complex operational and ethical issues associated with Indonesian health worker migration under the Indonesia-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement. It also introduces a policy proposal to improve performance of the Indonesia-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement and better align it with international principles focused on equitable health worker migration.

Exchanging honest employment references: avoiding the traps of defamation and negligent hiring.

In present-day reference checking, many of the same organizations that seek as much information as possible about people they wish to hire resist giving out more than a bare minimum of information to other organizations. The strongest force driving this minimal reference information release is fear of legal action taken because of something said about an individual in a reference response. Many employers seem so frightened of being sued that they share nothing of substance, usually not realizing that in supposedly protecting themselves against defamation charges they are sometimes increasing the risk of negligent hiring charges. However, truthful reference information can be provided with minimal risk if it is provided in good faith, given only to those who have a legitimate need to know, is strictly job related, and is not communicated maliciously. References must always be provided objectively with information verifiable in personnel files.

Developing legally defensible physiological employment standards for prominent physically demanding public safety occupations: a Canadian perspective.

Canadian court decisions and human rights legislation impose strict legal criteria for developing applicant and incumbent physiological employment standards to qualify as a bona fide occupational requirement. These legal criteria compel researchers and employers to ensure that the standards are criterion-based and validly linked to the critical life threatening physically demanding tasks of the occupation, and this has led to the establishment of a systematic research process template to ensure this connection. Validation of job-related physiological employment standards is achieved using both construct and content procedures and reliability is established via test-retest procedures. The 1999 Supreme Court of Canada Meiorin Decision also obliges employers to demonstrate that it is impossible to accommodate an individual applicant or employee who is adversely impacted by lowering the physiological employment standards without imposing undue hardship on the employer. Recent evidence has demonstrated convincingly that familiarization opportunities, motivational feedback/coaching during test performance, and participation in a 6-week job-specific physical fitness training program can overcome the adverse impact of a physiological employment standards on a sub-group of participants, thereby providing "de facto" accommodation. In this article, the authors review the physiological employment standards for prominent Canadian physically demanding public safety occupations; police, correctional officers, nuclear emergency personnel, structural fire fighters, and wildland fire fighters, to illustrate the steps, challenges, and solutions involved in developing and implementing physiological employment standards designed to meet the requirements to qualify as a bona fide occupational requirement.

Equal-opportunity burden. Legal order for Florida hospital could mean new hiring rules on top of health reform hurdles for thousands of healthcare providers.

A judge's decision that a Florida hospital is a federal subcontractor because it provides care through the military's Tricare program has put the industry on alert. Hospitals fear they'll be forced to to jump through lots of hoops to comply with federal rules regarding hiring. "Many of the substantive obligations that are sought to be imposed ... are already fully applicable to hospitals through state and other federal laws," says Curt Kirschner, left, a lawyer with Jones Day.

Overseas trained nurses left vulnerable by 457 visa.

A recent review of our overseas worker visa has acknowledged that trained nurses employed temporarily in Australia have been left vulnerable by their sponsors. The Federal government review into the Visa Subclass 457 (457 Visa) has exposed considerable integrity and exploitation issues with the visa, writes the QNU Legal Team.

[Reflections on the Accreditation System of tenured University Professors in Spain]. / Reflexiones sobre el sistema de acreditación del profesorado funcionario de Universidad en España.

The article analyses the way that Spanish university professors are selected. It emphasises the need to improve this system, as the examination processes in the last few years have been arbitrary. Since the University Organic Law was reformed, the current National Qualification process has been turned into an Accreditation System of tenured University Professors. As a result, guidelines are needed to guarantee the validity and reliability of the evaluation system. The guidelines focus on: (a) the criteria and the standards of evaluation ;( b) the evaluation process; (c) the candidates; (d) the commission members; and (e) the scientific productivity standards. Additionally, some of the aspects of the scientific policy related to the Accreditation System of tenured Professors are analysed and commented upon. These aspects are accreditation according to the offer and demand of the universities and the process of consideration for eventual access to the university.

The interpretation and implementation of regulatory fitness requirements.

The Disability Rights Commission launched a general formal investigation (FI) into the impact of fitness standards on disabled people studying, qualifying, registering and working in three public sector professions, including nursing. The FI's review of statutory and regulatory frameworks identified a significant amount of primary and secondary legislation and guidance, with an array of fitness requirements of statutory basis. There is, however, scant reference to the Disability Discrimination Act. The FI additionally issued a forma call for evidence targeting key stakeholder organizations, exploring how these interpret and implement regulations and guidances. Responding organizations acknowledge that the potential for, and reality of, discrimination exists and stems from highly variable and subjective interpretations and implementation of the regulatory fitness requirements. There is a widely perceived lack of adequate and clear guidance for practice purposes. Fitness requirements can discourage disabled people from attempting entry into the profession. A risk-averse culture discourages disclosure, and can affect the types and timeliness of support being provided to disabled students and professionals.

Trust takes control of Filipino recruitment exams.

A London trust has tightened its procedures for hiring nurses in the Philippines because it said it had evidence that some candidates cheated in the recruitment exam.

NMC considers action against overseas unregistered nurses.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council is considering whether to take action against three unregistered practitioners from overseas who were discovered working as nurses at a UK trust.