Oregon’s largest nurses union said the nursing profession needs bold action from hospitals and lawmakers to address a workforce shortage, and there is worry about what inaction would do to the number of people who provide care if you go to the hospital. It's not a new concern, but there are new solutions being discussed.
It’s no secret that the ongoing pandemic continues to push nurses off the job.
“We’re relying on travelers and the National Guard to provide basic levels of care. That shows that there’s an overall shortage,” Kevin Mealy, a spokesperson for Oregon Nurses Association, said.
Mealy said the demands of providing frontline care to so many critically ill patients and seeing death every day have been too much for so many people. He said retention is the most pressing problem.
“If we don’t retain the nurses we have today, there’s no way we can recover,” Mealy said.
In the short term, Mealy said hospitals can help with things like retention bonuses, hazard pay, and a better emphasis on mental health, while long term, the profession needs help from state lawmakers.
“Recruitment and rebuilding the education pipeline for nurses -- that’s a place where the state can have a real big effect,” Mealy said.
Rep. Rachel Pruzak, a Tigard Democrat, is leading that discussion in Oregon. This fall, she hosted a series of meetings with stakeholders about how the state can address the problems through legislation. Their early ideas for retention and recruitment included expanding access to the state’s mental health care system for workers, subsidizing child care for nurses, tax credits and bonuses through the state for nurses, and updating the state’s licensing process.
Pruzak also wants to make it more lucrative to teach nursing school to address the shortage of nurse faculty members. That's perhaps one of the biggest ways the state can help rebuild the pipeline. The lawmaker and nurse practitioner said the state can make a real impact.
“I think that the crisis is large, and it's been exacerbated by the pandemic. Therefore, we can't solve it overnight and alone,” Pruzak said. “It could potentially get worse and worse, and we need to make sure we act now.”
Pruzak said it will take the help of hospitals and universities and other schools as well. The plan is to address some of these topics in February’s short session, while realizing it will take longer to address the more complex problems.
“The issue is important to me because I’ve been a nurse for over 20 years, and I have been on the frontlines during the pandemic,” Pruzak said. “I have watched. I've witnessed. I have seen, and I know how important this is not just to not lose more nurses, but so that we can care for our communities throughout the state.”