Erica DeBoer, the chief nurse at America’s largest rural health network, thought she could finally offer some relief for her overworked staff and thousands of patients. More than 160 reinforcement nurses were supposed to arrive over the coming months across Sanford Health’s Midwest facilities from as far away as Manila and Lagos, Nigeria.
But now, only 36 are coming — if they’re lucky.
The US is in the midst of a visa retrogression, when a surge in demand collides with annual caps, jamming up the processing queue. The delays are particularly bad for the main visa category that hospitals use. Today, government officials are only just starting to work on filings made two years ago — right around the time when many hospitals began hiring foreign nurses and applying for their visas.
Experts estimate that at least 10,000 foreign nurses have been delayed indefinitely — a holdup that’s almost certain to worsen an already dire national shortage. After the pandemic led 100,000 nurses to leave their jobs due to burnout or early retirement, US hospitals looked abroad to fill the gap.
“We just can’t take as many patients,” said DeBoer, a 30-year nursing veteran, who plans to hire pricier contract staff in the short-term and push to see more patients online when possible. Foreign workers were a big part of the strategy to fill 1,000 open nurse roles across Sanford Health in the next few years. “We were counting on those international nurses,” she added.
Ha! Who did not see this coming!
Foreign nursing staff is nothing new.
Likely it ramped-up ramped up due shortages here caused by tyrannical Covid behavior, overwork, labor disputes (I will let the user decide who is at fault there), shitty attitudes, entitlement, bottom line, and a host of other items.
Keep in mind, the LEFT wants to destroy what remains of American healthcare.
Ruining existing nursing capacity first with covid mandates, then ruining the ability to even get foreign replacements will cause further damage to healthcare.
Result: the demand for MORE GOVERNMENT intervention in the healthcare space.
No time and resources to bring in LEGAL immigrants who are a net gain for our country.....Oh no, Tater needs all the resources at the border processing the low IQ, illiterate welfare applicants, so they can vote dem by and by for the free shit.
