Hello. I'm Brett Kelman, a KFF Health News correspondent in Nashville, Tennessee. I investigate medical devices, dentistry, flood risk, health care fraud, imposter therapists, anti-vax dogs, and the occasional pharmacy monkey. Send me tips at brettk@kff.org.
By Brett Kelman
Last year, as the California hospital where she worked was appeasing the Trump administration by erasing words like "equity" and "diversity" from its paperwork, Brandy Frye had seen enough.
Frye, an emergency room nurse with 25 years of experience, felt that ignoring inequality's role in health and sickness was an affront to the compassionate soul of the nursing profession.
"It felt like a step against everything I believe in," Frye said. "And I didn't feel like I belonged there anymore."
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 — specifically, British Columbia — to 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.
"There are so many like-minded people out there," said Justin Miller, another American nurse who started at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital this month. "You aren't trapped. You don't have to stay. Health care workers are welcomed with open arms around the world."
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 "chaos and uncertainty happening in the U.S." Nursing associations in Ontario and Alberta said they too have seen increased interest from American nurses in the past year.
"Some of them were living in fear of the administration, and they shared a sense of relief when crossing the border," said Angela Wignall, CEO of Nurses and Nurse Practitioners of British Columbia. "As a Canadian, it's heartbreaking. And also a joy to welcome them."
The Trump administration, for its part, doesn't seem concerned. When asked to comment, the White House dismissed accounts of nurses moving to Canada as "anecdotes of individuals with severe cases of Trump derangement syndrome."
This aligns with an article we reported last year that found American doctors were also relocating north to get away from the Trump administration. According to the Medical Council of Canada, more than 1,200 American doctors created accounts on physiciansapply.ca in 2025 — typically the first step to getting licensed in Canada — compared with only about 300 in 2024.
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