The Bedside Nurse Protection Act: a simple fix with a huge outcome

America’s nursing crisis is both chronic and acute, and remains one of the nation’s most intractable public policy challenges.

Even as the healthcare labor force surges, hospitals are struggling to meet skyrocketing demand for access.

This year, one-in-eight nursing jobs will go unfilled. All told, 1.6 million new nursing positions will be opened this year but at least 200,000 will remain vacant.

Owing in part to a faculty shortage, already-strained US schools of nursing can’t produce enough new nurses and regularly deny applicants because of limited capacity.

The Bedside Nurse Protection Act would make it easier to recruit and hire qualified international nurses.

This bipartisan proposal would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to provide for up to 8,000 employment-based visas each year for qualifying nurses, physical therapists, and other health care workers.