SEPTEMBER 15, 2021—The frontline in the fight against the coronavirus is crumbling, and Washington is unfazed.
Traumatized and overburdened nurses in every corner of the country are eying the exits. Many have already vacated the bedside for early retirement or careers outside of healthcare. And who can blame them?
But America’s nursing shortage has become so acute that hospitals—large and small, rural and urban—are being forced to ration medical care. We’ll say it louder for those in the back: the United States is rationing healthcare because it has too few nurses to provision it.
When hospitals are understaffed, patients die avoidable deaths.
Despite the bleak staffing outlook for hospitals across the United States, there remain thousands of qualified international nurses who are stuck in bureaucratic limbo.
Last month, the Department of State updated its visa processing protocols to provide a possible pathway for emergency visa processing of foreign healthcare workers. As it turns out, though, that pathway isn’t much of one at all.
The Department of State must prescribe a clear, actionable path for U.S. embassies and consulates to finalize the processing of nurse visas.
The Department of State isn’t to blame for America’s nursing shortage—the shortage has existed for decades. But at some point, it begins to own an increasing share of the blame for un-American medical rationing when it fails to expedite green card processing for qualified healthcare workers.