Recruitment campaign sees success in enticing doctors, nurses, health workers
Five months ago, a mass shooting at a Tulsa, Okla., hospital convinced Dr. Anne Herdman Royal that the United States was no longer where she wanted to live or work.
"I was horrified," she told CBC News, recalling the day four people were killed, including two fellow physicians. "I came home from the lockdown and told my husband, 'We have to get out of here.'"
Within a day, she had applied for a job in British Columbia. By last fall, she had moved her family to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, joining what CBC describes as a growing wave of U.S. health‑care workers heading north.
Recruitment campaign sees results
Government figures provided to CBC show B.C. has hired 414 health‑care professionals from the U.S. since launching a recruitment campaign one year ago. Between March 2025 and January 2026, 89 doctors, 42 nurse practitioners, 260 nurses and 23 allied health workers accepted jobs across the province, according to B.C.’s Ministry of Health.
"This makes a real impact," Health Minister Josie Osborne told CBC. "Even if half [of the 89 physicians] are family doctors, and they attach a full panel of patients, that’s more than 50,000 British Columbians who will have access to primary care. And that’s just huge."
The campaign began with video ads and a truck parked outside Seattle hospitals handing out free coffee and tea to staff. Social media and word-of-mouth have since amplified the pitch, drawing interest well beyond the U.S. Pacific Northwest.
Herdman Royal told CBC she now hears from U.S. doctors and nurses about once a week, many disillusioned by the direction of the American system and politics under the Trump administration.
"‘One of us is getting out!’ is how it feels to friends and family," she said. "I know several [other doctors] who’ve gone to Ontario and Nova Scotia. I think Canada is very much going to benefit from the brain-drain [in the U.S.]"
Other provinces are also moving. CBC reports Manitoba has hired 13 American doctors, while Nova Scotia has licensed 19 U.S. physicians. Faster licensing pathways are helping: the Canadian Medical Association told CBC that U.S.-trained, board‑certified doctors can now start independent practice in Canada without extra exams.
To make the transition smoother for American physicians, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of B.C. is developing a direct pathway for U.S.-trained doctors who hold certification from the American Board of Medical Specialties.
Supporting new doctors in B.C.
Still, experts warn recruitment isn’t a cure‑all.
"We’re headed in the right direction, but it’s not the full answer to the problem that we have," said Dr. Rita McCracken, a Simon Fraser University researcher who studies Canada’s doctor shortage, in an interview with CBC. She argued that governments must invest not just in hiring, but in the infrastructure and teams needed to support new arrivals.
In Nanaimo, Herdman Royal has begun applying for permanent residency and told CBC she finally feels at home.
"I’ve started enjoying my job again; I have a life here," she said. "The true, elusive work-life balance — I guess it’s been on Vancouver Island the whole time."
