The Quote Below—More Misinformation from the Media
“The U.S. nursing workforce is shedding workers. About 100,000 nurses quit or retired during the pandemic, while another 800,000 have signaled an ‘intent to leave’ by 2027. And yet, the country is failing to tap an available group of qualified health-care workers: immigrants. While there’s no single fix for the United State’s nursing shortage, a more efficient system to bring in foreign-trained [nurses] would go a long way toward easing it.
“Immigrants comprise about 16 percent of registered nurses and have been a crucial part of the health-care workforce for decades. Even so, the U.S. lacks a dedicated pathway for foreign-trained nurses to work in the country. Most come through the employment-based immigration system, which is capped at 140,000 green cards per year for all applicants and their family members. Of that number, roughly 40,000 are allocated to ‘skilled workers, professionals and other workers,’ a category that includes nurses. Because most of those green cards are awarded to workers already in the country, only 10,000 to 12,000 visas are available each year for new foreign-trained nurses.
“That’s insufficient to meet America’s health-care needs. Roughly 60 percent of the population has a chronic disease and a fifth will be above the age of 65 by 2030. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. will need to fill more than 200,000 vacancies for RNs each year, on average, through 2031. . . .
“For years, lawmakers have resisted efforts to expand the pipeline of skilled foreign workers, partly out of fear that increased immigration will drive down wages and compromise working conditions. Such concerns are understandable but are ultimately self-defeating. . . . Higher immigration could help restore some balance while benefitting the economy more broadly.
“In the absence of comprehensive immigration reform, lawmakers should pursue targeted steps to bring in more foreign nurses. . . . At a time of unprecedented demand on the US health-care system, keeping qualified foreign-trained nurses out of the workforce is shortsighted. Smarter immigration policy can get health workers where they’re needed”. – Immigration Can Help Save the Nursing Shortage, Bloomberg Opinion (published in Daily Camera) [Link]
Fact Check of Above Quote: For mass immigration enthusiasts the answer for every real or perceived labor shortage is more immigration. Thus, this article proposes foreign nurses as the primary remedy for our short-staffed nursing profession. Well, not so fast. The reality is much more complex.
Many of the problems in nursing are consequences of the Covid pandemic, which placed extreme demands on nurses and caused many to burn out. As the pandemic recedes into the past, normal conditions are returning which will make it easier to recruit and retain nurses. One reason nurses quit during the pandemic was the Covid vaccine mandate. That presumably is no longer necessary.
Nevertheless, a number of other problems remain. Among them are relatively low salaries for nurses, difficult working conditions, lack of appreciation and respect, and abuse from patients. A key question to ask is whether our health care system will have any incentive to tackle these problems if it can rely on a steady stream of immigrants. In nursing and just about every other field, mass immigration makes life easier for employers and more difficult for workers. If we underpay nurses and make their work difficult, we jeopardize the quality of care they can provide.
Let’s make nursing attractive to Americans by not flooding the profession with immigrants. If we still have shortages, we can automate various functions of nursing. Interestingly, this article mentions in passing the concern that immigration will depress nurses’ wages and impair their working conditions. But without giving any reasons why, it claims that this concern is “self-defeating.” What is truly self-defeating is the mass immigration that harms American workers.