The need for supplemental staffing and its unavoidable legal consequences is a topic I am hearing about frequently these days. Whether agency nurses are foreign or domestic, many of the same problems and pitfalls apply. This issue's CEU feature discusses some of the procedural and legal requirements the nurse executive needs to be aware of in dealing with supplemental staffing agencies. The NCSBN column in this issue deals with a comparison of foreign-educated and US-educated nurses, and provides important insight into the issues that foreign nurses face as well as their wide range of backgrounds and experiences. Both of these articles are important given the high level of supplemental staffing use and the unprecedented level of foreign nurse recruitment present today. JCAHO is working on developing standards for staffing agencies. JCAHO certification of staffing agencies will undoubtedly address the problems raised in this issue. However, even once JCAHO begins to certify agencies it will still be the legal responsibility of the facility to ensure that the nurses coming to care for their patients are competent and appropriately trained.
I would like to draw your attention to the call for manuscripts and the call for reviewers contained in this issue, and ask that you consider doing one or both of these activities. The author guidelines are printed in the back of the issue, and any questions can be directed to me at the editorial office email address.