AHA, AONL support bill to ease nurse shortage

The AONL and the American Hospital Association (AHA) have endorsed the Backlog Elimination, Legal Immigration, and Employment Visa Enhancement Act (S. 2091). The legislation would almost double the number of employment-based visas to 270,000 and ensure that critical health care workers needed in the United States would have access to employment-based visas. In a letter to the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., the organizations pointed out that hospitals and health systems, especially those in underserved areas, rely on immigrant nurses because the number of nurses graduating from U.S. nursing programs is inadequate to meet employer demand. “Foreign-trained nurses do not displace American workers; in fact, the demand for nurses continues to grow,” the authors wrote. “These nurses are required to meet rigid standards of equivalent education, English fluency and state licensure, and must have clean disciplinary records.” The letter stated that foreign-trained nurses make up less than 10% of the 160,000 new nurses licensed each year. (AHA News story, 7/26/29)