2020 the year of the COVID-19 pandemic has also become the year of nurses. When the whole world is fighting against the deadly Coronavirus, health workers are the most appreciated, “especially nurses”. The disease caused by the Novel Coronavirus has left us with an alarming shortage of doctors, nurses, and other health care professionals. The nursing workforce has been central to COVID-19 response effectiveness in all countries. Every nation ramped up with excessive demand for nurses for quality treatment. Most of the health workers were not able to show up as they contract the virus or they have to be in self-quarantine. The only solution to make it easier is to bring in doctors and nurses from abroad.
The US health system already relies heavily on immigrants, who make up 17% of all health care workers and more than one in four doctors. At a time when coronavirus is pushing states like Washington and New York to the limits of their resources, those health care workers will be all the more critical. Many states are also projected to face significant nursing shortages in the coming years, particularly California and Texas. To deal with the nursing shortage, meanwhile, US Citizenship and Immigration Services — the agency that administers work visas — could change its policies to give nurses more pathways to come to the US. It could allow nurses with bachelor’s degrees to apply for H-1B skilled worker visas, which are not currently available to them.
An already impending shortage of nurses in Canada has aggravated a lot more because of the COVID-19 situation. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there is an increased need for human resources within the existing healthcare settings and in alternate care facilities as well. In these requirements, the most important one is that of the nurses. The Canadian government is also doing all that is possible to bring more overseas nurses. Health care workforce diversity is being considered as one of the most effective pandemic planning and responsive measures, which essentially means more hiring of international nurses. The future of nursing in Canada amidst the Corona Virus pandemic and staff shortages will be nothing less than bright with immense professional development opportunities, frequent recruitment drives, better pay rates, support, and allowances.
Nurses have a huge role to play in ensuring the health and well-being of the citizens and therefore, they are in high demand at present. As difficult as the times might be for healthcare workers as they fight the ongoing pandemic but the future of nursing in Canada looks promising. This is because Canada will be recruiting more nurses while giving them exceptional job opportunities and career development in the future.
The major reason for these developments is that governments all over the world are realizing the importance of nurses and giving them what they owed.