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With many U.S. hospitals experiencing a nursing shortage due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some are hoping to bring foreign nurses in to help after many green cards went unprocessed or unclaimed.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates more than 500,00 seasoned nurses will retire by the end of 2022. Additionally, the National Center for Biotechnology Information found that while nursing employment opportunities are expected to grow 15 percent by 2026, the aging population of baby boomers, burnout from those currently in health care, and the stress from the COVID-19 pandemic means hospitals are even more understaffed, leading to increased patient mortality.
However, with more than double the available green cards this year, recruiters hope to bring more nurses to hospitals to help mitigate the staffing shortage.
Amy L. Erlbacher-Anderson, an immigration attorney, told the Associated Press she is seeing a greater demand for foreign nurses now than she has in 18 years.
"We have double the number of visas we've had available for decades," she said. "That is kind of temporarily creating a very open situation."
In September, the U.S. State Department instructed embassies to prioritize visa applications for health care workers on a case-by-case basis. However, Greg Siskind, an immigration attorney, told the AP U.S. consulate offices are not required to issue visas simply because they are available and most green cards are awarded to professionals already in the U.S.
Faith Akinmade, a nurse from Nigeria, has been working as an ICU nurse in Kentucky, but her work visa is set to expire in March, meaning one more nurse could be leaving her understaffed hospital.
"At this point and time, I just feel like I have faith that at the end of March, something is going to show up to continue to work," Akinmade told the AP.
According to a study from the University of California San Francisco, California alone needs more than 40,000 nurses to fill current jobs and adequately staff health care facilities.
Additionally, while the American Association of Colleges of Nursing reported a six percent increase in enrollment, insufficient faculty to teach and COVID constraints limited the number of students accepted to study in the program.
Sinead Carbery, the president of a nursing recruiting firm, told the New York Times nearly 1,000 nurses are arriving in the U.S. each month, the highest she's seen in three decades. Additionally, since the start of the pandemic, she said the demand for international nurses rose somewhere between 300 percent and 400 percent.
However, hospitals seeing nursing shortages before the pandemic will still face them despite the potential increase of foreign nurses coming to the U.S.
Avant Healthcare Professionals, which recruits nurses from countries overseas to place them in the U.S. hospitals, used to see 800 nurse requests, but now have more than 4,000.
"And that's just us, a single organization," Lesley Hamilton-Powers, the president of Avant told KTVQ-TV. "Hospitals all over the country are stretched and looking for alternatives to fill nursing vacancies."
Billings Clinic, the largest hospital in Montana, is just one of the many U.S. hospitals experiencing a shortage and turning to alternative methods to fill in the gap. In addition to hiring as many as 200 traveling nurses and paying them up to $200 an hour, the hospital also hired nearly two dozen nurses from countries, including the Philippines, Thailand, Kenya, Ghana, and Nigeria.
Mary Venus, a Filipino nurse, is one of Billings Clinic's new nurses.
"Nursing is the same all over the world," Venus said to KTVQ, "but the culture is very different."
