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INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – A nursing shortage is becoming a growing problem across the country and in Indiana, as hospitals continue to see more COVID-19 patients with the Delta surge.
The Indiana State Nursing Association said there are several reasons more healthcare workers are leaving full-time jobs. Nurses are exhausted by the pandemic, a large portion are retired nurses, and due to their pay, many healthcare workers are leaving for travel positions.
According to some healthcare workers, this trend may have an impact on patient safety.
“We don’t want to be exhausted, cry in the bathroom, call our families and say ‘I can’t keep doing this.’ This is not how you treat your heroes in this pandemic, ”said Lexi Morey.
Morey is a registered nurse from Indiana. She and her boyfriend, Jacob Lesage – who is a respiratory therapist, both worked at the IU Health Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis when the pandemic began.
“So there is a shortage of sufficiently paid nurses. There is a shortage of well-treated nurses, given the proper protective equipment, ”Morey said. “We are not paid enough to be treated the way we are treated at the bedside. “
Now the couple are working for AYA Health, a travel health care company. Currently, they care for patients in Washington, but travel across the country to wherever needed for short periods.
“So we get a higher rate every week instead of a lower rate every two weeks,” Lesage said. “So that’s a great incentive for people to go out, to start getting paid what they think they’re worth.”
The money is sometimes double what healthcare workers earned as full-time hospital staff. The higher pay rates are even seen if they are hired as travel employees in Indiana.
“I could drive a little further and earn about three times as much as I earned in other job,” Morey said.
“It really has become a wage war, to be honest,” said Emily Sego, president of Indiana State Nursing Association.
Sego said the higher salary for traveling is part of the reason Hoosiers in healthcare are quitting full-time jobs. However, money alone does not convince all nurses to stay.
“The nurses are exhausted. They are tired. Mentally exhausted, ”Sego said. “We have received a lot of phone calls regarding mental health and PTSD issues. So this is a long term problem, it will not go away. He’s going to be there for a while.
Sego said that 10 years ago, due to age, they expected a lot of nurses to retire in 2020. Then COVID-19 hit and things only happened. ‘to get worse.
“People leave earlier than expected due to retirement and then also with, you know, burnout of staff and nurses who decide to take another career path or join a travel agency – working from home. . It really created this more staff shortage than we ever anticipated, ”Sego said.
These are all factors that healthcare workers believe can impact patients. Sego then said that there are many open beds in Indiana hospitals, there have been times when patients have been turned away due to understaffing. Additionally, she points out that Indiana does not have a defined patient-nurse ratio.
“Obviously, security is always a risk when you don’t have enough staff and we take that very seriously,” Sego said.
“I originally looked after four patients for one of me. And then they turned us into a model of team nursing, so it’s like two nurses, 10 patients, ”Morey said.
IU Health said in an email that “Like other hospitals, IU Health is facing a staffing shortage, but our inpatient and outpatient units are staffed and functioning.”
Community Health Network said in an email that:
the pandemic has made us all rethink our priorities, and caregivers are no exception. We know that there has been a shift in recent months towards the departure of caregivers for personal reasons rather than traditional reasons such as pay or hours. But even before the pandemic, the demand for nurses exceeded the supply. Over time, we have developed relationships with high schools and colleges in the region to create a diverse labor pool. We have also incorporated signing bonuses for nurses as a recruiting tool. We have a collaborative culture which we believe is attractive to those seeking careers in medicine and nursing.
More and more hospitals are offering increased salary incentives, such as signing bonuses, to motivate healthcare workers to stay. However, Sego said money was not the only answer.
“You can spend a lot of money on nurses right now, but they’re so tired and exhausted that the money doesn’t even allow them to work extra shifts,” Sego said.
The Indiana State Nursing Association said fewer nurses are also entering the workforce. Additionally, with COVID-19, many students have missed hands-on learning. Therefore, as new nurses are hired outside of school, their integration is taking longer than before the pandemic.
So what’s the solution to this nursing shortage? Sego said hospitals will need to think outside the box and use more virtual options. In the meantime, the health heroes plan to continue saving lives but are hoping for a solution before it’s too late.
“At the end of the day, patients don’t go home if we don’t do our job well,” Lesage said.
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