A Canadian Hospital Scoops Up Nurses Who No Longer Feel Safe in Trump’s America

Last year, as the California hospital where she worked appeased the Trump administration by erasing words like “equity” and “diversity” from its documents, Brandy Frye had seen enough.

Frye, an emergency room nurse with 25 years of experience, felt that ignoring the role of inequities in health and disease 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.”

Frye has now found a new place to belong. She’s part of an influx of American nurses and other health-care workers moving to Canada — specifically British Columbia — to escape President Donald Trump’s policies. Frye settled in Nanaimo, on Vancouver Island, where the local hospital hired 20 American nurses in less than a year.

“There are so many like-minded people,” said Justin Miller, another American nurse who started this month at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital. “You’re not trapped. You don’t have to stay. Healthcare workers are welcomed with open arms everywhere.”

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 and then launched an advertising campaign to take advantage of the “chaos and uncertainty in the United States.” The Ontario and Alberta nursing associations said they, too, have seen increased interest from U.S. nurses over the past year.

“Some of them lived in fear of the administration and shared a sense of relief when they crossed 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, does not seem to care. When asked for comment, the White House dismissed accounts of nurses moving to Canada, calling them “anecdotes of individuals suffering from severe cases of Trump Derangement Syndrome.”

This is consistent with an article we published last year that revealed that American doctors were also moving north to escape the Trump administration. According to the Medical Council of Canada, more than 1,200 U.S. doctors created an account on nursingapply.ca in 2025 – usually the first step in becoming licensed in Canada – compared to only about 300 in 2024.