Trump Rules Bar Thousands of Foreign Nurses Willing to Help U.S.
As the coronavirus pandemic threatens to strain nursing staffs at hospitals across the U.S., Melanie N. Beckham knows where to find reinforcements. But first, the Trump administration needs to give its approval. Beckham, president of Vintage Health Resources Inc. in Germantown, Tennessee, specializes in helping hospitals throughout the southeastern U.S. hire nurses from the Philippines, a country with a large population of English speakers and a long history of sending health-care workers abroad.
Of the several hundred Philippine recruits now in Vintage’s application process, more than 100 nurses have passed the licensing and language exams. They’ve completed background checks and are ready to head to the U.S. Yet they are stuck because they can’t get their visas processed. “They could come tomorrow,” Beckham said. “The demand is overwhelming right now.”
One staffing company has received a request for 5,000 nurses in New York, according to Shari Dingle Costantini, president of the American Association of International Healthcare Recruitment. Members of her association have as many as 12,000 nurses from the Philippines and other countries who could fill those jobs, if only they could enter the U.S., she said.
Since President Donald Trump took office on a promise to crack down on immigration, nurses from the Philippines have faced more red tape. Officials return about 50% of Vintage’s applications and demand additional paperwork, up from just 5% of applications during the Obama administration, Beckham said.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-28/trump-rules-bar-thousands-of-foreign-nurses-willing-to-help-u-s?srnd=politics-vp
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