Congress must act to address mounting health care workforce shortage

America’s health care workforce shortage has posed a threat to patient care for many years, particularly in medically underserved communities, both rural and urban. After more than three years of a global pandemic, the U.S. health care workforce shortage has spiraled to dangerously new levels, threatening the quality of care clinicians in our health care settings can provide.

Due in large part to increased economic pressures brought on by rising inflation and an alarmingly high rate of burnout, all health care settings across the country are finding it increasingly more difficult to recruit and retain qualified health care staff, particularly skilled nurses and physicians. Today, 78 percent of registered nurses (RNs) in the United States say staffing has “reached unsafe levels.”

Moreover, according to data from the Association of American Medical Colleges, the United States will face a shortage of up to 124,000 physicians by 2034. Meanwhile, a study by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing found that roughly 100,000 RNs have left the health care workforce over the past two years — while more than 610,000 RNs have signaled their intent to exit the workforce by 2027.

With the need for skilled health care professionals on the rise, the United States needs a sustainable solution to address this growing shortage. For more than 70 years, we have relied on foreign skilled health care professionals to fill critical gaps in our health care workforce. However, a recent green card freeze by the U.S. State Department for international nurses is stymieing efforts to recruit much-needed, practice-ready health care professionals who could help treat patients and increase capacity at hospitals and health systems nationwide.

Due to the freeze on processing EB-3 visa applications, thousands of international nurses — all of whom have passed background checks as well as U.S. licensure and English language exams — cannot complete their visa applications to enter the country. Despite America’s escalating nursing workforce crisis, our health care system is unable to tap into this international pool of talented and essential professionals.

While health care delivery struggles under the strain of this workforce shortage, other countries like Canada continue to recruit thousands of highly skilled nurses and other health care professionals — both from overseas as well as from the United States — by offering attractive incentives. As a result, other countries’ health care systems are growing stronger while ours continues to crumble under the strain of ongoing staffing challenges.

Congress must act to counter the ongoing State Department freeze on EB-3 visa applications. In response, Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) and Reps. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) and Brad Schneider (D-Ill.) recently reintroduced bipartisan legislation called the Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act (HWRA). This legislation would provide a stopgap solution to recapture and reallocate 25,000 previously unused EB-3 visas for qualified international nurses — and another 15,000 for doctors — to help fill expanding gaps in our health care workforce.

Originally introduced in 2021 by a bipartisan coalition of senators, the HRWA would expedite the visa application and authorization process for highly trained nurses and doctors who can support understaffed hospitals to ensure timely access to care. These men and women are highly skilled, trained, and vetted professionals who are only being shut out of the opportunity to strengthen America’s health care system due to flawed policy that creates unnecessary barriers for their legal entry into the United States.

It is well past time for Congress to embrace solutions that immediately ease the health care workforce shortage. This policy alone can restore confidence in the quality and timeliness of health care delivery and lessen the burden of our current workforce steeped in stress and frustration. Here, we have part of a solution to a severe crisis, and it would be grossly irresponsible not to act on it.

We urge Congress to open the way to recruit international health care professionals who will help treat U.S. patients, contribute to local economies, and strengthen our entire health care system.

Patty Jeffrey, RN is founder and president of the American Association of International Healthcare Recruitment and executive vice president of International Operations for MedPro International, a member of the Healthcare Workforce Coalition.