Germany has a history of hiring nurses from abroad when they are in short supply at home, recruiting South Korean nurses as far back as the 1960s, for example.

Figures from the German Federal Employment Agency show there were 759,245 nurses employed in Germany by June 2011, of which 26,959 were foreigners.

In the US, there are 2.5 million registered nurses, according to US Labor Department data. It is estimated that the country has a shortage of 120,000 full-time registered nurses each year, and this figure is forecast to grow to 500,000 by 2020.