by Christina Morgan | Aug 13, 2018 | Massachusetts, News, Nurse Recruitment |
Earlier this year, the Massachusetts Nurses Association proposed a ballot initiative to mandate nurse staffing ratios in Massachusetts hospitals. The proposed mandate would lead to the reduction of 1,000 behavioral health beds, increase emergency room boarding for mental health patients, and decrease access to recovery services statewide according to a study by the Massachusetts Association of Behavioral Health Systems.
The mandate calls for one nurse to be responsible for no more than four typical medical or surgical patients at a given time. Different guidelines would apply for sicker patients and staffing ratios would differ by unit. Supporters of the initiative argue that legislating nurse-to-patient ratios will improve patient care. Nurses are currently overworked, which keeps them from doing their best and can lead to medical errors.
David Matteodo, executive director of the hospital association, tells BeckersHospitalReview.com, “If the initiative passes, it will result in a 38 percent decrease in patient volume. That’s the equivalent of removing roughly 1,000 behavioral health beds from service. This result would be devastating to both patients and the behavioral health system as a whole, as there would be no place for displaced patients to go when they are in acute distress and need immediate behavioral health services.”
The Coalition to Protect Patient Safety opposes the initiative and was assembled by the Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association, which argues that the proposal would negatively affect nurse care delivery.
Under the initiative, emergency departments at maximum nurse-to-patient ratios would have to turn away patients. Patients seeking inpatient psychiatric or substance abuse care in an emergency department would have to wait longer for a bed and mental health providers would face nurse recruitment challenges to meet staffing mandates.
To learn more about the Massachusetts Nurses Association proposed ballet initiative to mandate nurse staffing ratios in Massachusetts hospitals, visit here.
by Christina Morgan | May 7, 2018 | News |
Despite a nationwide nursing shortage that continues to worsen, schools across the country are being forced to turn away qualified applicants due to a lack of nursing educators who are available to teach. Unable to expand class sizes, helping bridge the nursing shortage remains a challenging endeavor for nursing schools.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that the US nursing field will have more than one million vacancies by 2022, leaving hospitals to implement strategies to recruit and retain nurses. According to BeckersHospitalReview.com, nursing schools rejected over 56,000 qualified applicants from undergraduate nursing programs in 2017. Community colleges, undergraduate, and graduate schools are all being forced to turn away prospective nursing students because they are unable to accommodate more students into their programs.
Class size in particular is a significant challenge for nursing schools that don’t have a sufficient number of nursing faculty or enough clinical space available to adequately train students. Another reason schools struggle to hire qualified nursing instructors is the high salaries being offered to working nurses. The US has an annual national nursing faculty vacancy rate of 7 percent, which is very high. The shortage amounts to over 1,500 nursing educators nationwide, about two teachers per school.
Despite the challenges, nursing schools are developing new strategies to allow them to accommodate more students. Many are addressing the nursing shortage by thinking out of the box with bridge programs like accelerated RN to BSN degree programs or programs for veterans with medical experience who want to pursue nursing careers. Many schools are also partnering with local hospitals so that hospital nursing staff can help teach and train students outside of the school setting.
To learn more about the reasons nursing schools are being forced to turn away qualified applicants despite being in the midst of a nationwide nursing shortage, visit here.
by Christina Morgan | Apr 26, 2018 | News, Nurse Recruitment |
A new survey conducted by AMN Healthcare, BE Smith, and The Center for the Advancement of Healthcare Professionals in 2017, surveyed 223 nurse leaders about the impact of the nationwide nursing shortage on their organizations. Survey participants included chief nursing officers (CNOs) and other nurse leaders like chief nurse executive, director of nursing, clinical nurse leader, etc.
According to Becker’s Hospital Review, 80% of CNOs believe nurse shortages are negatively affecting patient care and staff morale at their organizations. They also project that nursing shortages will worsen in the future.
In regards to the nursing shortage, the survey found that:
- 72 percent of CNOs described the nursing shortage at their organizations as moderate, signifiant, or severe. Only 7 percent said there was no shortage at all
- 30 percents of CNOs expect the nursing shortage at their organization to worsen in the next year
- The majority of CNOs don’t think their organization’s nursing shortage will change in one year
In regards to nurse recruitment, the survey found that:
- 80 percent of CNOs reported that their organization had moderate, significant, or severe difficulty in recruiting nurses
- CNOs said lack of access to high-quality talent and their organization’s location are primary contributing factors to difficulty in recruiting nurses
In regards to patient care and nurse morale, the survey found that:
- 80 percent of CNOs said staffing shortages at their organization have a slight, considerable, or great negative impact on patient care
To learn more about the survey results, visit here.
