As a servant both in the clinical and operations capacity to this industry for over 15 years, I am saddened that we are unable to find common ground or a reasonable plan to address the staffing crisis we face.
Exceptional operators, and human beings, like Sarah Schumann, do strive to provide the best care and quality of life to the aging population. I have had the privilege to know Sarah through the years and she is an incredible person, and amazing advocate for our industry.
Some operators do not have the same level of care and compassion and operational health that Sarah Schumann and her organization hold.
These operators are generally negligent (yes, I will say it)and manipulate staffing ratios to the bare minimum as an effort to increase their bottom line and to recoup poor financial management choices. They demonstrate behavior that aligns with an attention to bonus structures rather than with how many CNA‘s they are staffing or willing to staff on a night shift on their dementia/memory care neighborhood.
When the corporate structure includes vendors who are all related to the owners, more vice presidents for “every position you can think of” and a large and growing home office that is working virtually to “support” communities- and I struggle to get an additional CNA to provide direct resident care, I have a problem with that.
We need to make nursing programs affordable and incorporate more clinical time along with schooling, such as the models our unions and technical programs demonstrate. These are similar to the approach Florence Nightingale and early schools of nursing demonstrated. We need to make the work environment safe and fulfilling so staff want to continue coming back. We struggle with that today.
We must address and hold accountable negligent operators, who are intentionally short staffing their communities placing residents and staff at extraordinary risk for harm and causing actual harm.
I believe these negligent operators are the catalyst of the staffing mandate.
We have two groups of operators functioning in our communities today. Operator such a Sarah Schumann who are doing everything in their power to create a pipeline for staffing to care for our residents. Then we have a large group of operators who are intentionally staffing at an unacceptable ratio, causing harm to our resident and burn out among our staff.
Create pipelines for reasonable or free healthcare education for nurses, CNAs and other healthcare professionals, provide livable wages, ensure safe staffing ratios. Hold negligent operators responsible and remove them from the industry.
🎥: Sarah Schumann, Vice President of Operations for Brookside Inn and Brookside Rehabilitation & Wellness in Castle Rock, Colorado, says the staffing mandate will “disproportionately impact underprivileged seniors and underserved communities” in her testimony before the U.S. Health Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Health.
Listen to her testimony here:
