Four American nurses left the U.S. healthcare system for Nanaimo after a TikTok campaign by local influencer Tod Maffin helped recruit over 40 medical workers to Vancouver Island. They cite racism and burnout as reasons for leaving, and are now pursuing permanent residency in a community that applauds them in grocery stores.
Chapters
This is a very unlikely group of co-workers. 4 Vancouver Island nurses who a few months ago lived thousands of kilometers apart in the United States.
I never imagined that I would ever leave.
But the women from Arizona, Michigan, and California each hit their own breaking point with the current U.S. climate.
If you're a nurse, you can't support what's going on down there. We all take an oath, you know, to care for the poor and vulnerable, and that's not what's happening.
You face racism, right, in the U.S. It's almost like you can't miss it.
So belongings were packed up or sold off, and with partners, children, pets, or all alone, they crossed the border to start new lives in Nanaimo, BC.
It's beautiful here. There's so many beautiful hikes and waterfalls.
And they've been blown away by the reception from the community, including applause at the grocery store.
Somebody's like, where'd you come from? Like, oh, from the U.S. He's like, are you one of our nurses? I'm like, yeah. And then, like, you know, just a bunch of people started clapping.
Not surprising considering B.C. is short thousands of nurses. The B.C. government has been actively advertising in the U.S. to recruit healthcare workers, but 3 of the 4 nurses we spoke to now caring for patients here were enticed by a grassroots social media campaign they saw on TikTok. What if we picked a day in like a month and a half or so where all of you come up That's Nanaimo's Tod Maffin, a part-time influencer who on a lark invited Americans to visit the city during the tariff dispute. And among the hundreds who actually showed up were a few healthcare workers considering making a move.
So my wife and I kind of repositioned the whole thing as a healthcare recruitment project, and I think we're past 40 nurses and doctors now that have passed through that program that are moving here or have already moved.
His social media-based healthcare infusion movement has now expanded to cities across the country. In search of more people like this.
Oh, I'm already working on permanent residency.
I belong to you guys now. My boys are old enough they can hop on a plane and come see me.
