US Searches Across the Globe to Fill COVID-19-Related Nursing Shortage

More United States healthcare systems are looking beyond the nation’s borders as they struggle to provide care during a dire shortage of nurses. Recruits are arriving from the Philippines, Thailand, Kenya, Ghana, and Nigeria, to name a few, ready to fill open positions in places as remote as Montana and as populated as Los Angeles. Even before the pandemic began, the US had a shortage of nurses, but providing patient care in the era of COVID-19 has encouraged many nurses to hang up their scrubs for a different career. As healthcare systems have turned to traveling nurses to fill the gaps, the high cost of this effort makes this strategy unsustainable. American traveling nurses can earn several more times what a traditional nurse makes. When hired in the US, international nurses make the same amount as traditional nurses, although, the healthcare system pays a fee to the agency that brings them to the US. Currently, more than 5,000 international nurses are waiting to enter the US. Click here to read more.