Buried down in hospital and medical news articles across mainstream media are significant concerns of nursing shortages across America.
Nurses and other healthcare professionals have left the profession due to various reasons, including:
🔹Hospital administration incompetence, dishonesty and lack of support
🔹Mixed messages and mandates from federal government entities such as CDC, FDA, NIH; state and local officials regarding instructions, lockdowns, mask requirements, etc.
🔹Job-related stress: working multiple shifts, extended hours, extreme workloads
A report from McKinsey found 32 percent of Registered Nurses surveyed in November 2021 indicated they would likely leave their current role soon, up from 22 percent in February 2021.
Hospitals and health systems across the nation are scurrying to fill workforce gaps, but amid shortages, new nurses are waiting months for licenses from states so they can begin treating patients.
Several large states have refused to join an interstate agreement that allows nurses to use licenses across state lines (much like a driver’s license lets you drive across borders). One reason is that nursing boards make most of their money, sometimes tens of millions of dollars, from licensing fees.
An NPR analysis of licensing records from 32 states looked at nursing board records for more than 226,000 registered nurses and licensed practical nurses issued new, permanent licenses last year.
Overall, 1 in 10 nurses who received new licenses from nursing boards in 2021 waited six months or longer, researchers found. More than one-third of the nurses waited at least three months.
“[Nurses are] emotionally exhausted. They’re physically exhausted. We add to that the frustration of not being able to get your license,” Betsy Snook, BSN, RN, who is CEO of the Pennsylvania State Nurses Association, told NPR. “Your mother, your father, your grandmother, your grandfather are not going to get the level of care that they should have if staffing were appropriate.”
“Nursing boards, meant as a safeguard, have become an obstacle, preventing qualified nurses from getting into the workforce for months when basic vetting should take only weeks,” NPR reported.
The NPR analysis comes as hospitals are facing staffing shortages and rising labor costs as they vie for talent. It’s a concern the American Hospital Association has urged Congress to address, calling workforce challenges facing hospitals a national emergency.
Although departures are contributing to staffing shortages, backlogged license applications, which may stem from misplaced files, communication issues between states and other factors, can exacerbate the issue, according to NPR.
The media organization reports that some states issue temporary licenses at an additional cost so nurses can begin working while their permanent license application is processed, but many nurses do not try to get a temporary license. Meanwhile, the Nurse Licensure Compact allows more flexibility for nurses to practice in states that are part of the compact. Not all states take part in the agreement, however.
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A few months ago, before Christmas I think, my old place of employment asked me to come back. This was Home Instead Senior Care and I quit back in October 2019 because of stress, not knowing COVID was about to strike. I know they’re short staffed, they were when I quit, but I didn’t even respond bc I know I will have to wear a mask and get vaccinated, neither of which I am willing to do.
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Would you return if you didn’t have to be vaccinated or masked?
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Probably not. The seniors were nice enough, but the company wasn’t the best.
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Totally understand. Maybe one of the benefits of the pandemic was to correct some attitudes and mismanagement supposed leaders had regarding their employees. Thanks.
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The Nursing Issue, well covered by your article, was compounded (as someone already commented) by the idiotic vaccine policy. If Healthcare Workers, Airline Workers, EMTs, could be exposed to known or possible covid patients since they (the workers and patients and passengers) were wearing Masks, how was it essential to be vaccinated? I believe in Following the Science, but when do they intend to start doing so?
One Doctor suggested that for Vulnerable Groups, such as in a Nursing Home, that the Home Employs Staff that have had covid and recovered, as they would have sterilizing immunity, something that the vaccine is not providing, so they could safely work around these patients.
There must be a way to look at the global picture of Nurses and Patients and to better utilize the Staff based on various factors and to use Nurses that have not been vaccinated at least with exposure to Low Risk Patients. The suppression of symptoms in vaccinated nurses by the Genetic Therapy that the vaccine manufacturers rather misleadingly referred to as a vaccine is a problem for the transmission of covid to patients, likely more so than non-vaccinated Nurses would. I took a Webinar on Elevated Body Temperature Measurements and if a Non-Vaccinated person is infected with covid, you’d expect to see an increase in Body Temperature as the person becomes infectious, and been able to screen for that situation.
I am not a Doctor, the Screen Name is a Character in a 2001 Movie, I’ve used it for years.
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That is right. There are several big nurses unions preparing for the end of contracts & renegotiating this spring & summer. Many in the membership are expressing similar thoughts. It should be interesting to see how these pan out.
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