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Us hospitals seek foreign nurses as pandemic strains health department amid visa windfall

Many hospitals in the United States are searching abroad for health care employees as a result of a critical shortage of nurses caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

This year, there are twice as many green cards available for foreign professionals, including nurses, who wish to relocate to the United States as there were just a few years ago. This is because during the coronavirus outbreak, US consulates were not issuing visas to relatives of American citizens, and these unused seats are being transferred to eligible workers.

In the last two years, Amy L. Erlbacher-Anderson, an immigration attorney in Omaha, Nebraska, has seen more demand for foreign nurses than she has in her entire 18-year career. And this year, she said, it’s more probable that they’ll be granted permission to visit, as long as US consular officials can complete all of the applications.

“We now have twice the number of visas available as we had in decades,” she remarked. “That’s creating a really open situation for the time being.”

Hospitals in the United States are dealing with a nursing shortage that has exacerbated as a result of pandemic burnout, which has caused many to resign or leave their positions. Meanwhile, the number of coronavirus cases continues to fluctuate, putting a strain on the health-care system.

According to a recent analysis from the University of California, San Francisco, there is a projected shortage of 40,000 nurses in California, or 14% of the workforce.

Hospitals are replacing the void by employing travelling nurses, but this is costly. In addition, hospital executives claim that not enough nurses are graduating from American nursing schools each year to meet demand.

Nurses from the Philippines, Jamaica, and other English-speaking nations have long been employed in some hospitals, and more are currently doing so. Long-time recruiters as well as newbies are attempting to capitalise on the green card windfall before the fiscal year ends in September.

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