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Provinces are turning to U.S. health-care workers to help with shortages. And it’s working

Recruitment can help fill gaps, but experts say Canada needs to do more to retain its own health-care workers

Registered nurse Shane Tyson was done with the U.S.

He was working in Minnesota at the not-for-profit Mayo Clinic Health System and the Olmsted Medical Center. But in 2025, Tyson says he became increasingly concerned about the deterioration of health care, as well as tighter immigration enforcement.

Then ICE agents arrested a patient as they were leaving a primary care appointment where he worked, Tyson says.

“That was definitely a wake-up call,” he said. “And I am married to a U.S. permanent resident that was born in Bolivia … and it scared the crap out of me for him and for the others in that situation,” Tyson told Dr. Brian Goldman, host of CBC’s White Coat, Black Art.