Trump Rules Bar Foreign Nurses Willing to Help U.S.

  • Agencies recruiting from Philippines can’t get visas processed
  • U.K. has severe shortage after nurses left because of Brexit
Nurses at Boston Medical Center’s Emergency Department Triage Area, on March 20.Photographer: David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
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As the coronavirus pandemic threatens to strain nursing staffs at hospitals across the U.S., Melanie N. Beckham knows where to find reinforcements. But first, the Trump administration needs to give its approval.

Beckham, president of Vintage Health Resources Inc. in Germantown, Tennessee, specializes in helping hospitals throughout the southeastern U.S. hire nurses from the Philippines, a country with a large population of English speakers and a long history of sending health-care workers abroad.