One of the biggest issues facing our country today is immigration — and for good reason. There have been more than 5.8 million illegal crossings at the southern border since President Biden took office, and a new record in December 2023 of 302,000 migrant encounters. The U.S. federal government has an obligation to protect our borders and the people who live within it, so it’s no wonder this issue has become a hot button topic in current events.
As the crisis continues, policymakers should be careful not to conflate the issue of illegal immigration with the country’s glaring need for legal immigration, particularly in the healthcare sector. Though the issue has been demagogued or misunderstood across the political spectrum, 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.
Notably, there is a backlog of visas for foreign-educated nurses who are urgently needed to fill labor shortages in American hospitals. The U.S. will experience a shortage of up to 450,000 nurses — approximately 20 percent of the entire workforce, according to a 2022 McKinsey study. This gap in employment leaves patients vulnerable and without proper care. 9 in 10 nurses believe the quality of patient care has suffered because of the shortage, as demonstrated in a survey by ConnectRN,
The detrimental effects that the nursing shortage is having on America’s healthcare system are under appreciated. In locations where shortages are the worst, hospitals are resorting to closing facilities.
The Washington Post recently reported on 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. The expansion’s pause came after the U.S. State Department announced that, because of retrogression and availability of visas, admittance for foreign-educated nurses would only be available for those who applied before December 2021.
It’s a single example of the effect that America’s nursing shortage is having nationwide on patients who need care. The medical center’s inpatient nursing director for intensive care and cardiology told the Post that some of their acute heart patients would need to be transferred to the center’s Fargo location 200 miles away.
A bipartisan effort that both sides of the aisle can agree on is the Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act (HWRA). If enacted, the bill 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.
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. It’s a policy that members of Congress from both sides of the aisle support. Both the House and the Senate versions of the bill have been cosponsored by significant numbers of Republicans and Democrats.
Hospitals across the country would greatly benefit from passage of this bill. It’s not an exaggeration to say that refusing to act on this critical shortage could be a matter of life or death. Nursing shortages have been tied to an increase of 10.5 percent in resident deaths in U.S. nursing homes.
As a result of the State Department’s freeze on visa applications, thousands of trained and qualified nurses must likely wait until 2025 to work in the United States. This pause is devastating to a sector that has been plagued by staffing shortages that have only accelerated since the pandemic induced more burnout and retirements.
America’s healthcare workforce shortage undermines patient care. Congress should act by prioritizing passage of the HWRA.
Dr. Jonathan Ellen is the CEO of Labrador Health. He is the former CEO and physician-in-chief at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital.