As I surf the social networking of nurse and health care workers – one thing I keep hearing loud and clear, is how burnt out our health care workers are! Raw and personal stories!
I spoke with a Hospice RN who had just worked 16 hours and still had charting to complete off the clock at home. So many nurses saying how much at they love their jobs, love their patients, love being a nurse, but aren’t sure how much more of this they can endure.
How often do we get a new iPhone release? How often does fashion change? How frequently do gas prices change? Do cities and states have to install new traffic signals to accommodate greater traffic? Do we have to make bigger neighborhoods so that people can buy new homes? I mean, what all changes, yet we can’t put our heads together and fight “nursing shortages (aka: NURSING BURN OUT)”.
Nursing is awesome! I love my job! Finding a way to work independently and have autonomy over my schedule and location has given me the spark I needed to carry on. COVID was rough for many of us, long hours, time spent away from families because we felt guilty exposing them to our COVID germs. Many of us have found refuge in independent nursing through app programs that connect us to facilities and hospitals in need. Finding gig work has been fulfilling and a new speciality that has brought a better work life balance to my life and many other nurses and healthcare workers!
I am pleased to share this good news, I have been reading about and seeing on social media.
The government has intervened to create a plan to alleviate some nurses and CNAs! (And of course this greatly benefits patients which is the most important need above all!) From what I’ve read and watched, these changes will affect nursing homes and home health (presumingly hospice as well) health care workers. This includes nurses and CNAs, and it includes any business that provides care to patients who receive federal government health care services, medicaid/medicare (which we all know is most facilities!). Sounds like they still have some fine toothing to do, however this bill would create these facilities to need a certain # of aides and nurses per patient, per hour, per shift etc.
Facilities will have a year prior to bill goes in effect, to prepare staffing. Facilities are already saying, there’s a nursing shortage so how will we staff? You won’t have a problem staffing shifts with adequate and safe ratios. Nurses, CNAs and healthcare providers will run to these shifts if they are better staffed! This should create a better arena for agency, application and contract nursing presumably.
Does anyone have any insight on this? What do you think will happen? Do you see any issues with these new standards for care?
Here’s some quotes from Washington Post –
“If you’re claiming that you can’t find nurses, then explain to me how you’re running a nursing home.”
“An industry study last year, in response to the proposal, said nearly all nursing homes would not meet the new standards and would be required to hire more people. Nursing homes would need to hire more than 100,000 additional workers: 80,077 nurse aides and 22,077 registered nurses, the study said.“
“The pandemic exacerbated staffing shortages in nursing homes. Poor wages and grueling working conditions put large amounts of stress on a low-wage workforce, which is made up mostly of women, minorities and immigrants.”
“Advocates for the health and safety of nursing home residents say operators could attract workers if they pay more. Front-line workers in nursing homes are paid around $17 an hour, according to PHI, a nonprofit that tracks wage data for elder-care workers.”
YES! Patient AND Nursing advocation. I love it!
The article about brought tears to my eyes, honestly. It’s worth the read.
CREDIT:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/04/22/nursing-home-staff-minimum
