Dr. Jonathan Ellen, former CEO and physician-in-chief at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, writes in a recent piece that the U.S. is experiencing a worsening nursing shortage. “This gap in employment,” Dr. Ellen writes, “leaves patients vulnerable and without proper care.”
Dr. Ellen argues that “it’s important for officials to recognize that low ceilings on work visas have led to fewer skilled immigrants coming to the United States to fill needed gaps in our workforce.” A backlog of visas for foreign-educated nurses has impeded the country’s ability to address the staffing crisis.
The piece cites reporting from the Washington Post, which examined “a Bismarck, North Dakota, medical center that was forced to put a cardiology unit expansion on hold until foreign-educated nurses they had been counting on arriving were able to do so.” Due to delays in foreign-educated nurses being able to come to the U.S., some acute heart patients at the Bismarck facility will need to be transferred to a Fargo location 200 miles away.
Dr. Ellen writes that the Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act (HWRA) is a commonsense bill that “would provide an immediate way for the vast pool of qualified foreign-educated health care professionals seeking employment in the United States to begin caring for American patients.”
Specifically, the “bill would recapture unused immigration visas from previous years and make them available to qualified nurses who want to care for American patients and advance their careers.” The policy has won support from Republicans and Democrats in both chambers.
Dr. Ellen concludes, “America’s healthcare workforce shortage undermines patient care. Congress should act by prioritizing passage of the HWRA.”
Read the full piece here.