Tag: CGFNS International

Rebranding heralds greater focus on building a future-ready global healthcare workforce

As it expands its mission to support healthcare workforce development on a global scale, CGFNS International announced today it will change its name to TruMerit™, a decision approved by the CGFNS Board of Trustees in fall of 2024.

The initiative signifies a new journey for CGFNS, an acronym for Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools, which for nearly a half-century has supported the career mobility of nurses and other healthcare workers by validating their education, skills, and experience as they seek authorization to practice in the United States and other countries. It comes in response to calls to invigorate capacity building of the healthcare workforce so it can meet the needs of people in a rapidly evolving global health landscape.

TruMerit, a reference to “genuine excellence,” points to the organization’s role in validating the meritorious achievements of global healthcare workers. It will continue to be a worldwide leader in providing these services while broadening its mission to strengthen research and advocacy in support of healthcare workforce development solutions, including global standards and frameworks for specialty certifications that will empower career pathways for healthcare workers, regardless of where they choose to work.

“With this rebranding, we are stepping into a new era of global impact with faith in the proposition that healthcare workers in every country-empowered with the knowledge, tools, and inspiration to achieve excellence in their profession-can lead the way to resolving the healthcare challenges of today and tomorrow,” said Dr. Peter Preziosi, the organization’s President and CEO.

“TruMerit will advocate for and generate intellectual capital to drive investment in a future-ready global healthcare workforce. We know that a commitment to the development and validation of their skills is the best contribution we can make to addressing shortages, health equity and access challenges, and the demand for patient-centric care model evolution,” he added.

The name change will be the centerpiece of a comprehensive rebranding of the organization, which will include a new visual identity across its public profile, including its website, customer portals, credentials and certificates, and social media channels. The rebranding effort will begin rolling out in mid-March and will be completed by the summer.

“Our new name carries both a meaning and a message about who we are and what is important to the global healthcare workforce we serve,” said Lea Sims, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, who led the year-long renaming initiative and is overseeing the organization’s transition to its evolving identity and new brand. “The name TruMerit reflects our longstanding mission of helping healthcare workers around the world advance their careers while preserving the earned credibility associated with CGFNS and its nearly half-century of service to nursing and the allied health professions.”

Click here for more information on the CGFNS rebranding to TruMerit.

About CGFNS International, Inc.
Founded in 1977 and based in Philadelphia, CGFNS International is an immigration-neutral not-for-profit organization proudly serving as the world’s largest credentials evaluation organization for the nursing and allied health professions. CGFNS International is an NGO in Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and is a member of the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CoNGO).

Contact Information
David St. John
dstjohn@cgfns.org

SOURCE: CGFNS International

Uncertain outlook for 2025 as new immigration policies are implemented

A new CGFNS International report indicates that a robust annual rate of nurse migration into the United States held steady in 2024 as healthcare systems continued to look to foreign-educated nurses to help address persistent staffing shortages.

However, in its 2024 Nurse Migration Report, the organization also said the current high rates were likely unsustainable amid persisting visa retrogression and caps on employment-based green cards for nurses, along with new immigration policies being implemented by the Trump Administration that will likely have further impact on visa availability and processing times.

CGFNS, a global health workforce non-profit that verifies credentials of healthcare professionals for immigration authorities and state licensing boards, reported that in fiscal year 2024 it received 24,733 applications for its VisaScreen® (VS) service. While this is a 4.6% drop from FY 2023, the organization noted application levels remain significantly higher than pre-pandemic figures, with the 2024 figure at nearly 200% above FY 2018.

Other key data from the report:

• While VS certifications went to nurses from more than 100 countries in 2024, 92% were educated in one of the top 10 countries on the list.
• The Philippines continued to account for more than 51% of VS certificates, followed by Canada with 8% and Kenya with 6.5%. There has been a slight shift in this distribution recently, with the Philippines dropping from 60% of the total last year, while Kenya, Nigeria, and Ghana have all showed considerable growth in their share.
• Like countries of education, visa categories are also significantly concentrated, with 76% of VS certificates issued to those seeking permanent green cards (such as EB-3 visas), while TN (12%) and H1-B (11%) made up the only other significant categories.

“These figures confirm what others are seeing, that U.S. healthcare systems continue to depend on nurse immigrants to address persistent staffing shortages. Disruptions to this pipeline of qualified nurses would have far-reaching consequences, exacerbating workforce shortages, increasing patient care loads, and worsening nurse burnout,” said Dr. Peter Preziosi, President and CEO of CGFNS. “This is a multilayered global challenge that demands collaborative and innovative solutions among source and receiving countries.”

CGFNS International is approved by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to satisfy federal credential screening requirements for occupational visas for nine categories of foreign-educated healthcare professionals.

To offer global context for the U.S. numbers, the report also analyzes worldwide migration of nurses and healthcare professionals, particularly as both source and destination countries continue to grapple with balancing the demand for skilled healthcare workers against the challenges of retaining their domestic workforces. It noted that some countries in Africa, including Zimbabwe and Ghana, have paused the release of certificates that are needed by nurses to emigrate, while Nigeria has introduced in-country service requirements that nurses must fulfill prior to migration. Other governments, such as Namibia, have pursued the pathway of creating incentives for nurses who choose to stay.

Download the 2024 Nurse Migration Report: Balancing sustained workforce demand amid shifting migration flows.

Contact Information
David St. Johndstjohn@cgfns.org

SOURCE: CGFNS International

CGFNS International, a worldwide leader in international credentials evaluation and certification to support health worker careers, has been inducted into the World Rehabilitation Alliance (WRA).

The WRA is the World Health Organization’s global network of stakeholders whose mission is to advocate for the implementation of WHO’s Rehabilitation 2030 initiative, which aims to improve rehabilitation management and investment, build a high-quality rehabilitation workforce and services, and enhance data collection on rehabilitation.

“We are delighted to receive this recognition of our extensive work in developing practical solutions to improve rehabilitation care for the more than 2.4 billion people around the world who need it,” said Dr. Peter Preziosi, President and CEO of CGFNS. “We are also determined to further dedicate ourselves to advancing the WRA’s impact in promoting and strengthening health systems worldwide through better and more accessible rehabilitation services.”

Preziosi noted that one of the key calls to action of the WRA is for “developing a strong multidisciplinary rehabilitation workforce that is suitable for country context and promoting rehabilitation concepts across all health workforce education.”

“We believe we have a great deal of knowledge and experience to contribute to advancing critical workforce initiatives in the global rehab community, especially toward achieving the WHO goal of integrating rehab care more firmly into primary healthcare across local settings,” said Dr. Julia To Dutka, Chief of the CGFNS Global Health Workforce Development Institute. “Providing global certifications to recognize knowledge and skills of health workers will help facilitate this integration.”

To that end, for the past five years, CGFNS has been leading a collaboration of key stakeholders to develop exam-based global certifications for nurses and other health workers in rehabilitation settings worldwide. That effort has produced the first-ever global credential for registered nurses working in rehabilitation, habilitation or restorative care – the Certified Global Nurse – Rehabilitation (CGN-R), which was launched last month.

The organization is also developing credentials for other rehabilitation health workers, including physical and occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, and rehab technicians, using an interprofessional and interdisciplinary approach. These global credentials, Certified Global Health Worker – Rehabilitation (CGHW-R) and Certified Global Health Worker – Rehabilitation Advanced (CGHW-RA), will be available in 2025.

As a newly appointed member of the WRA, CGFNS will participate in four of its workstreams: Workforce, Primary Care, Research, and Emergencies.

About CGFNS International, Inc.
Founded in 1977 and based in Philadelphia, CGFNS International is an immigration-neutral not-for-profit organization proudly serving as the world’s largest credentials evaluation organization for the nursing and allied health professions. CGFNS International is an NGO in Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and is a member of the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CoNGO).

Contact Information
David St. John
dstjohn@cgfns.org

SOURCE: CGFNS International

Exam registration for Certified Global Nurse – Rehabilitation (CGN-R) to open in July, handbook available now

CGFNS International, a worldwide leader in international credentials evaluation to support health worker careers, has launched the first-ever global credential for registered nurses working in rehabilitation, habilitation or restorative care.

The Certified Global Nurse – Rehabilitation (CGN-R) credential is intended to advance and improve services for the more than two billion people worldwide who need this care. It has been developed specifically for eligible registered nurses worldwide who wish to have their applied experience and competencies in rehab care recognized and verified by passing a certification examination.

The exam was created in collaboration with a global task force of more than 60 rehabilitation nursing experts from 17 countries who contributed their knowledge and guidance to develop a global competency framework for rehabilitation nursing and to create a test blueprint for a competency-based exam. The task force’s framework is aligned with the Rehabilitation Competency Framework established by the World Health Organization.

Accordingly, those who earn the CGN-R credential will be able to show their employers, prospective employers and others that they have been assessed against a global industry standard for rehabilitation care and that their expertise has been benchmarked against other nurses in rehab care worldwide.

Registration for the CGN-R exam will open in July, with testing dates to be scheduled for November. Registered (first-level) nurses with at least two years’ work experience in rehabilitation care are eligible to apply. Further details on eligibility requirements, exam topics and how to apply can be found in the exam handbook, now available at the CGFNS website.

“This will be the first global specialty certification offered anywhere for rehab nursing. It represents a huge shift for our global health workforce, for whom specialty credentials are often out of reach and require migration to the countries that offer them. The CGN-R certification will enable rehabilitation nurses everywhere to demonstrate a validated specialty skillset to their employers, carry the credential with them wherever they want to work in the world, and advance their career opportunities,” said Julia To Dutka, Chief of the CGFNS Global Health Workforce Development Institute, which is leading the initiative to develop this and other global credentials for the rehabilitation workforce.

“Provider certifications enable health systems and hospitals to confidently identify the most well-equipped workforce candidates to meet their burgeoning care needs. At a time when qualified interdisciplinary care teams are critically needed in rehabilitation care, the CGN-R establishes a global standard against which employers can set the bar for provider qualifications within their health systems,” said Terrence Carolan, Managing Director of Medical Rehabilitation and Aging Services of CARF International, an independent, nonprofit organization that accredits more than 66,000 rehabilitation and other health and human service providers on five continents and that has advised CGFNS in developing the CGN-R credential.

Nurses who sit for the initial CGN-R exam in November will receive a discount on exam fees.

CGFNS is also offering an early adopter program for hospitals, health systems or rehabilitation organizations that would like to invest in specialty certification for their rehab nurse workforce. The program includes opportunities to host the CGN-R exam onsite for their rehab nursing teams and earn an early adopter’s badge for organizational recognition.

Information on additional credentials for other health workers in a rehabilitative/habilitative/restorative environment – including physical and occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists and rehab technicians, among others – will be made available in the coming months.

More information on the program can be found at https://www.cgfns.org/services/certification/global-rehabilitation/

About CGFNS International, Inc.
Founded in 1977 and based in Philadelphia, CGFNS International is an immigration-neutral not-for-profit organization proudly serving as the world’s largest credentials evaluation organization for the nursing and allied health professions. CGFNS International is an NGO in Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and is a member of the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CoNGO).

Contact Information
David St. John
dstjohn@cgfns.org

SOURCE: CGFNS International

CGFNS International and The DAISY Foundation(TM) this evening honored two nurses for their contributions to ethical international recruitment practices with the first-ever CGFNS DAISY Award for Outstanding International Nurse Recruiter. The presentation was made at a ceremony in New York City.

Sinead Carbery, President of International Staffing Solutions for AMN Healthcare, and Christy Craft, a quality improvement nurse manager at Health Carousel, were selected as honorees from more than 140 submitted nominations.

Both honorees are registered nurses working at health professional recruitment firms and were recognized for their commitment to helping foreign-educated nurses cope with the challenges they face as they navigate their way to employment in the U.S. health system.

Carbery, herself an immigrant nurse from Ireland, has helped thousands of other migrating nurses over her nearly three decades in international recruitment. She is noted for her commitment to ethical recruitment practices and her compassion for migrating nurses and their families during their journey.

Craft leads a team whose effort resulted in more than 500 nurse assignment placements in 2023 alone. Under her guidance, the team also runs transition-to-practice and clinical residency programs that prepare migrating nurses for their duties as RNs in the U.S.

The CGFNS DAISY Award for Outstanding International Nurse Recruiter is open to individual nurses actively engaged, either directly or indirectly, in international nurse recruitment efforts. With a focus on “nurses helping nurses,” the award honors those who have made an extraordinary impact on the lives of nurse migrants through their compassion, empathy, and embodying the principles of the recruitment code from the CGFNS Alliance for Ethical International Recruitment Practices.

The award was presented by CGFNS International President and CEO Dr. Peter Preziosi and Dr. Deb Zimmermann, CEO of The DAISY Foundation.

About CGFNS International, Inc.
Founded in 1977 and based in Philadelphia, CGFNS International is an immigration-neutral not-for-profit organization proudly serving as the world’s largest credentials evaluation organization for the nursing and allied health professions. CGFNS International is an NGO in Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and is a member of the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CoNGO).

About The DAISY Foundation
The DAISY Foundation is a not-for-profit organization, established in memory of J. Patrick Barnes, by members of his family. Patrick died at the age of 33 in late 1999 from complications of Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP), a little-known but not uncommon auto-immune disease. (DAISY is an acronym for Diseases Attacking the Immune System.) The care Patrick and his family received from Nurses while he was ill inspired the creation of The DAISY Award(R) for Extraordinary Nurses, an evidenced-based means of providing Nurse recognition and thanking Nurses for making a profound difference in the lives of their patients and patient families. In addition to the DAISY Award(R) for Extraordinary Nurses, the Foundation expresses gratitude to the nursing profession internationally in over 6,500 healthcare facilities and schools of nursing with recognition programs for nurses wherever they practice, in whatever role they serve, and throughout their careers – from nursing student through lifetime achievement, and through several lines of research grant and evidence-based practice projects funding. More information is available at https://DAISYfoundation.org.

Contact Information
David St. John
dstjohn@cgfns.org

SOURCE: CGFNS International

View the original press release on newswire.com.

CGFNS International announced today it has established a Global Health Workforce Development Institute. The new think tank will conduct original research and leverage knowledge developed by CGFNS over its half-century of providing credentialing services — as well as its vast experience with workforce mobility issues — to advance scientific knowledge about the evolution of health workforce roles and the development of credentialing and certification programs and policies.

A long-term objective of the Institute will be to create rigorous global certification programs that streamline the assessment and recognition of practice competency. These will empower nurses and other health professionals around the world to achieve “work-readiness” regardless of where they choose to apply their knowledge and skills, while enabling them to showcase their competencies to employers, regulators, and educators worldwide.

“Amid an unprecedented health workforce crisis, and with an increasing number of health workers being displaced by the impacts of climate change and armed conflict, the patchwork quilt of standards and qualifications between countries threatens to prevent health workers from practicing to their capacities, much less helping to alleviate workforce shortages in high-need countries and improve healthcare access for underserved populations,” said Peter Preziosi, President and CEO of CGFNS.

“This new Institute will be the centerpiece of our effort to address this challenge and ease mobility for health workers to practice where they want and where they are needed,” he added.

Leading the new Institute as its Chief is Julia To Dutka, EdD, a renowned global expert and strategist in credential assessment and global labor mobility who is widely published in the fields of education, regulation, and language teaching and testing. Dr. To Dutka brings to the Institute a unique integration of experience from her many years of service at CGFNS, as well as from higher education and from the assessment industry, where she has led large-scale global assessment initiatives.

The Institute will comprise three centers of excellence:

• The Center for Global Assessment and Certification will lead efforts in the setting of global standards and assessment of competencies in the health professions. Its senior director, Joseph McClintock, PhD, has more than 20 years’ experience in all aspects of certification and educational assessment, including test design and creation, item and test development, standards setting and job task analysis. He joins the Institute after serving as vice president of Measurement, Inc., a leading provider of customized educational assessment services.
• The Center for Knowledge Management will manage CGFNS International’s extensive international education and health regulatory databases, along with other knowledge assets, with a focus on leveraging the educational and regulatory data to advance initiatives, policies and further research in global health workforce development. Its senior director, Emily Tse, MPhil, is a recognized expert in the credential evaluation field who previously managed the Country Index series on educational systems around the world at the International Education Research Foundation (IERF).
• The Center for Global Research and Policy will catalyze a robust research and development agenda and contribute to global human resources for health scholarship through inquiry around global health workforce development, care delivery, and lifelong learning issues. Its senior director, Lauren Herckis, PhD, joins CGFNS from the faculty of Carnegie Mellon University, where she has led interdisciplinary research efforts focused on evidence-based practice for using emerging educational technologies across diverse cultural contexts.

“With our nearly 50-year mission of evaluating nurses and allied health professionals who have chosen to live and work in their country of choice through assessment protocols centering on academic and professional credentials, it is time for CGFNS to recommit itself to improving the health and well-being of the world’s populations,” said To Dutka. “The Institute will enable CGFNS to serve as a thought leader, to advance new and innovative certification systems, and to support models of care delivery that will accelerate health workforce growth and evolution worldwide.”

About CGFNS International, Inc.
Founded in 1977 and based in Philadelphia, CGFNS International is an immigration-neutral not-for-profit organization proudly serving as the world’s largest credentials evaluation organization for the nursing and allied health professions. CGFNS International is an NGO in Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and is a member of the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CoNGO).

Contact Information:
David St. John
dstjohn@cgfns.org

SOURCE: CGFNS International

View the original press release on newswire.com.

Report Shows Visa Certifications Hitting a New High in 2023 But a Decline is Likely With U.S. Immigration Limits

In a report published today, CGFNS International revealed that in 2023, it issued its highest-ever number of occupational visa certifications to nurses and other skilled health workers seeking to migrate to the U.S., where health systems confront a staffing crisis.

The company, a non-profit that verifies credentials for immigration authorities and state licensing boards, said it issued nearly 27,000 of its VisaScreen® certificates during the government fiscal year that ended in October. That is more than twice the number of certificates CGFNS issued the previous year.

The increase continues a six-year upward trend, during which the annual number of VisaScreen® certificates has quadrupled. Over this time, U.S. health systems have increasingly scrambled to fill staff vacancies amid a longstanding nursing shortage that was aggravated by pandemic-era challenges and is projected to worsen through the end of the decade.

In the report, CGFNS stated that higher levels of nurse immigration in recent years are likely to have peaked, even as the nursing shortage widens. This is because, barring intervention, U.S. visa availability is declining to pre-pandemic levels.

Download the 2023 Nurse Migration Report: Navigating Nursing Shortages and Immigration Barriers.

Data in the report were derived from applicant information submitted to the VisaScreen® Service and the CGFNS Credentials Evaluation Service, two leading pathways through which foreign-educated nurses and other healthcare professionals can migrate to and work in the U.S.

Other key findings in the report:

• The Philippines continues to be by far the largest source of immigrant nurses for the U.S., accounting for more than 60% of the total VisaScreen® certificates issued by CGFNS. 
• In 2023, the vast majority (85%) of certificates were issued to registered nurses (RNs), with another 14% issued to clinical laboratory scientists. 
• More than three-quarters (78%) of those applying for certificates were seeking permanent green cards, up from 64% in 2018 and up nine percentage points in just the past year, showing a strong trend toward permanent migration among nurses.

“Recruitment of nurses from outside the U.S. by using best practices has been critical to helping U.S. health systems cope with extraordinary staffing challenges and to ensure patient safety. With many thousands of qualified foreign-trained nurses willing and waiting to migrate to meet this present need, now is not the time to further restrict their numbers, especially when nurses want to come to the U.S. to advance their careers,” said Peter Preziosi, President and CEO of CGFNS.

Contact Information
David St. John
dstjohn@cgfns.org

Amid technological advances in the credentialing industry and a growing global focus on addressing health workforce deployment, CGFNS International announced today it has appointed a new Chief Technology Officer. Nish Jayamohan comes to CGFNS with nearly two decades of experience managing technology product and application development in the healthcare space.

As CTO, Jayamohan will lead the organization’s efforts to transform its technology platforms and processes with the goal of enhancing and streamlining customer experience, expanding its programs and building a new framework for credentials evaluation and verification and workforce development on a global scale.

“With his record of success in leading large-scale technology implementation projects, Nish is uniquely qualified to head up a digital transformation that will reshape and streamline our applicant user experience and overall customer service,” said Peter Preziosi, CGFNS’s President and CEO. “As a key innovator in our company leadership, he will be critical to meeting our objective of advancing both mobility and career development for nurses and other health professionals worldwide.”

Jayamohan joins CGFNS after serving as Senior Director of Product Management, Software Engineering and Application Development for PharMerica, a national leader in pharmacy services that focuses on senior living communities, nursing facilities, public health organizations and post-acute care organizations. While there, he worked with corporate executive leadership to design and develop technology applications and enhancements to improve the company’s customer service and operational processes. He previously served as a senior technical lead developing and managing software for Health Net, a large healthcare insurance provider.

“I am eager to help CGFNS deliver on its obligations to a critically important customer and client base, and particularly to use leading technologies to make its services and programs second to none. Health professionals who dream of migrating to care for patients and advance their careers deserve nothing less,” said Jayamohan.

About CGFNS International, Inc.
Founded in 1977 and based in Philadelphia, CGFNS International is an immigration-neutral not-for-profit organization proudly serving as the world’s largest credentials evaluation organization for the nursing and allied health professions. CGFNS International is an NGO in Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and is a member of the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CoNGO). For more information, visit https://www.cgfns.org.

Contact Information
David St. John
dstjohn@cgfns.org

CGFNS International announced today that it has appointed Lea Sims, a veteran executive who has held both private and public sector marketing leadership roles, as its Chief Marketing and Communications Officer. Sims will join the CGFNS senior leadership team and play an integral role in driving the organization’s brand transformation strategy.

Sims has 35 years’ experience in healthcare, most recently as the Global Marketing Lead for Verizon’s healthcare and life sciences practice, where she also led vertical marketing for Verizon Business Group. Prior to that, she served as Director of Professional Practices for the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity, a role that required strategic oversight of the association’s marketing, communications, print and digital publications, professional credentialing, government affairs, and advocacy programs. An early career in clinical roles within health systems – including 15 years in healthcare documentation – led to teaching, writing, and ultimately marketing and communications for allied health professions and health technology.

“With her deep experience at the intersection of healthcare, technology and workforce development, Lea Sims is uniquely qualified to help lead CGFNS into a new era of boosting global mobility for health workers worldwide,” said Dr. Peter Preziosi, the organization’s President and CEO. “She will play an outsized role in promoting key innovations in global competency-based digital credentials, career development and redesigned care delivery models on a global scale.”

“I’m thrilled to be joining CGFNS at such an important inflection point in its notable history and at an equally critical time in the evolution of nursing and allied health careers globally,” said Sims. “Decentralization of care, clinician shortage and burnout, care model evolution, and the accelerated adoption of technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) are transforming the landscape of care and shifting the training and scope of practice of clinical teams. There’s never been a more important moment in time for this organization to advocate for streamlined credentialing and career mobility for this essential workforce. And I look forward to helping CGFNS tell its story.”

About CGFNS International, Inc.
Founded in 1977 and based in Philadelphia, CGFNS International is an immigration-neutral not-for-profit organization proudly serving as the world’s largest credentials evaluation organization for the nursing and allied health professions. CGFNS International is an NGO in Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and is a member of the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CoNGO). For more information, visit https://www.cgfns.org.

Contact Information
Mukul Bakhshi, Esq.
Chief of Strategy and Government Affairs
mbakhshi@cgfns.org
(215) 243-5825