AAIHR

06/12/2024

Breaking: The State Department just announced that no more immigrant visas would be granted to international nurses for the remainder of the fiscal year. Learn how this news will impact hospitals in your areas and how to take action to protect patient care. https://www.aaihr.org/aaihr-responds-to-visa-freeze-for-international-nurses-through-end-of-fiscal-year

01/23/2024

Don't miss the latest from Forbes on the growing challenges of healthcare staffing in the US: "Undoubtedly, our immigration system is broken. Removing the obstacles preventing skilled nurses from immigrating to the U.S. is one of them. Most nurses trying to immigrate to the U.S. compete for one of a limited number of EB-3 visas issued each year, which are not even reserved for nurses. ... Congress has consistently failed to pass legislation that would address this, but there is an opportunity for Congress to change that – the Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act." Read the rest here:

Increasing the number of skilled visas available will help alleviate the growing nursing shortage and significantly improve health outcomes for patients.

01/17/2024

Don’t miss AAIHR President Patty Jeffrey’s latest oped in NOLA.com, urging Gulf South lawmakers to take the region’s nursing shortage seriously before innocent patients pay the price of inaction.

The Gulf South has come a long way from the frightening height of the pandemic when emergency cardiac patients would be turned away from dozens of hospitals consecutively because the

12/21/2023

The Washington Post has a fascinating, 5,000-word deep dive today into the challenges international nurses face in emigrating to the US—and what those needless delays mean for American healthcare facilities and their patients. Read the story here:

One North Dakota hospital’s stalled pursuit of foreign-born nurses underscores how the legal immigration system is failing.

11/27/2023

AAIHR President Patty Jeffrey writes in The Hill that "it would be grossly irresponsible not to act" on the Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act as a rare bipartisan opportunity to address the nursing shortage crisis. Hospital administrators, nurses, healthcare groups, local elected officials, and patients support HWRA because they understand the relationship between nursing and quality healthcare.

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…

11/09/2023

Senators Dick Durbin and Kevin Cramer have introduced bipartisan legislation to address America's growing nursing shortage by recapturing unused green cards for qualified international nurses. Learn more about this important bill and how to get involved: https://www.aaihr.org/hwra-2023-emergency-nurse-shortage.../

09/12/2023

Iowa’s hospitals have turned the page on the pandemic, but the story of its nursing shortage is far from over—and it‘s only going to get worse unless Congress gets serious about patient care.

A Mount Mercy University nursing student performs a needle draw during a nursing simulation lab on Wednesday, March 9, 2022, …

06/06/2023

The recent visa freeze for new international nurses looking to emigrate to the US will mean poorer health outcomes for Americans. Former US HHS Secretaries Kathleen Sebelius (Pres. Obama) and Alex Azar (Pres. Trump) write about the terrifying consequences for patients in TTIME

Column: Two former U.S. Secretaries of Health argue that to address the nursing shortage crisis, we need to fix immigration.

05/03/2023

AAIHR Vice Chair Lesley Hamilton-Powers talks to USA TODAY about the nursing shortage and how a visa freeze for international clinicians will hurt bedside care for oridnary Americans.

Two reports show how nurses perceive their profession amid a staffing crisis, growing workloads and stressed hospitals.

04/25/2023

The retrogression of green cards for international nurses will devastate US patient care, as it throttles an essential talent pipeline for hospitals that are already stretched too thin.
The Hill has more:

Newly announced limits on visas for foreign nurses threatens to further a staffing strain on hospitals, nursing homes and other major health employers. The State Department in its May Visa Bulletin…

04/21/2023

Hospitals are facing added staffing pressures after the State Department announced that available green cards for foreign nurses this year have been nearly exhausted, Bloomberg reports. Here's what it means for patient care in your community (spoiler alert: bad things)

Hospitals and other health-care employers are facing added staffing pressures after the State Department announced that available green cards for foreign nurses this year have been nearly exhausted.

01/20/2023

"93% of nurses say hospitals are short-staffed — and their desire to stay is waning," writes Becker's Healthcare on the latest AAIHR nurse survey. Read more here:

The majority of nurses work at under-staffed hospitals — and it's causing them to rethink their careers as their stress extends beyond the hospital, a recent survey found.