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“It sounds heroic,” Atherton, of Singing River Ocean Springs Hospital, told CNN. “But that’s not what it is. It’s sweaty and hard and chaotic and bloody. And it’s hard to go through that every day and then come home and live a normal life.”
Mississippi now has at least 2,000 fewer nurses than it did at the start of the year, according to the Mississippi Hospital Association’s Center for Quality & Workforce. Staff shortages are adding to the growing pressure on the state’s hospital system – both due, in large part, to the Covid-19 pandemic.
When asked if the health care system is reaching a breaking point, Singing River Nursing Director for Personal Care Buddy Grager said, “I think we’ve already broken up.”
Singing River Hospital System Chief Lee Bond urges the state to use some of its $ 1.8 billion in Covid relief for retention bonuses in hopes of keeping some of the nurses who turn to departure.
“Do I think this will solve the problem?” Many nurses have told me it is not about the money at this point. Singing River Health System.
Saying goodbye to her colleagues, Atherton felt she couldn’t leave them in the depths of chaos and opted to withhold her resignation and cut her hours instead. But she’s not the only nurse considering leaving.
Melissa Davis worked as a nurse at the Singing River Pascagoula ICU for 17 years, but she told CNN she has never felt so exhausted as this from the Covid-19 pandemic. And as a result, the nurses leave, which she never would have thought.
“It’s hard to see a 34-year-old woman with a family not making it,” she said in tears. “You can’t describe it.”
For Atherton, fewer staff and more critical Covid-19 patients also mean more difficult decisions. There have been times when two critical patients are in crisis at the same time, and she has to decide which room to run in first, as there aren’t enough nurses and respiratory therapists to respond to both.
The Singing River health system currently has more than 160 vacant nursing positions, said Sarah Duffey, director of media relations. Since the start of the pandemic, 289 nurses have left.
Reinforcements are on the way. Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves said on Tuesday more than 1,000 health workers had arrived to help deal with hospital staff shortages across the state.
Reeves said 808 nurses, three certified nurse anesthetists, 22 nurse practitioners, 193 respiratory therapists and 20 paramedics were among the health workers deployed Tuesday morning to 50 hospitals.
“We have worked tirelessly to secure additional medical personnel through federal and private sources to address the staffing shortage our hospitals find themselves in. Putting boots on the ground so quickly is a step in the right direction.” , said Reeves. said at a press conference on Tuesday.
Duffey told CNN that the state has committed to sending 53 registered nurses 18 and respiratory therapists to its three Gulf Coast hospitals. She hopes the first will arrive by the end of the week.
CNN’s Gregory Lemos contributed to this report.
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