The National Urgent Recruitment for Skilled Employees, or NURSE, Visa Act, introduced Monday, aims to allow some foreign nurses to work in the United States amid a labor shortage.
The NURSE Visa Act would create 20,000 nonimmigrant visas per fiscal year to employ nurses in areas where the US Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration has determined that a nursing workforce shortage exists.
“As our healthcare system grapples with an increasing number of retiring nurses and high demand for skilled nursing professionals, we are approaching a critical tipping point where acute nurse staffing shortages are driving burnout leading to a compounding cycle,” said the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA). The bill, he added, “would bolster the nursing workforce by allowing qualified foreign nurses to fill these gaps…”
According to a health workforce analysis published by the HRSA in March, a 10% shortage of registered nurses is projected between 2026 and 2031. By 2036, the shortage is projected to be 9%. That’s an anticipated shortage of 337,970 full-time-equivalent RNs by 2036.
“Non-metro areas are projected to have a higher shortage of RNs than metro areas in each of the three interval years: 14% vs 8% in 2036, 18% vs 9% in 2031, and 22% vs 8% in 2026,” according to the report.
Advocates for nursing homes and senior living communities consistently have pushed for more immigrant nurses to be granted the right to work in the United States, and already, around 25% of all US nursing home care workers are immigrants. They are far more likely to be retained by employers than US-born coworkers, according to the results of one study.
