Last year, as the California hospital where she worked was appeasing the Trump administration by erasing words like \u201cequity\u201d and \u201cdiversity\u201d from its paperwork, Brandy Frye had seen enough.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Frye, an emergency room nurse with 25 years of experience, felt that ignoring inequality\u2019s role in health and sickness was an affront to the compassionate soul of the nursing profession.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt like a step\u00a0against\u00a0everything I believe in,\u201d Frye said. \u201cAnd I didn\u2019t feel like I belonged there anymore.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now Frye has found a new place to belong. She is part of a surge of American nurses and other health care workers moving to Canada\u00a0\u2014\u00a0specifically,\u00a0British Columbia\u00a0\u2014\u00a0to escape the policies of President Donald Trump. Frye settled in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, where the local hospital has hired 20 American nurses in less than a year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are so many like-minded people out there,\u201d said Justin Miller, another American nurse who started at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital this month. \u201cYou\u00a0aren\u2019t\u00a0trapped. You\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0have to stay. Health care workers are welcomed with open arms around the world.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
More than 1,000 U.S.-trained nurses have been approved to work in British Columbia since April, when the province streamlined its licensing process for Americans, then launched an advertising campaign to take advantage of the \u201cchaos and uncertainty happening in the U.S.\u201d Nursing associations in Ontario and Alberta said they too have seen increased interest from American nurses in the past year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of them were living in fear of the administration, and they shared a sense of relief when crossing the border,\u201d said Angela Wignall, CEO of Nurses and Nurse Practitioners of British Columbia. \u201cAs a Canadian,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0heartbreaking. And\u00a0also\u00a0a joy to welcome them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Trump administration, for its part,\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0seem concerned. When asked to comment, the White House dismissed accounts of nurses moving to Canada as \u201canecdotes of individuals with severe cases of Trump derangement syndrome.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
This aligns with\u00a0an article\u00a0we reported last year that found\u00a0American doctors were also relocating north<\/a>\u00a0to get away from the Trump administration. According to the Medical Council of Canada, more than 1,200 American doctors created accounts on\u00a0physiciansapply.ca<\/a>\u00a0in 2025\u00a0\u2014\u00a0typically the first step to getting licensed in Canada\u00a0\u2014\u00a0compared\u00a0with\u00a0only about 300 in 2024.<\/p>\n KFF Health News<\/a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF\u2014an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF<\/a>.<\/p>\nUSE OUR CONTENT<\/h3>\n