Consultant/Advisor | Preparedness Proponent | Workforce Advocate | Life Sciences & Research |
Healthcare Workforce Carisis - Mandatory Staffing Ratios Won't help - IF there are NO workers to fill the slots! In this Axios article by Caitlin Owens, she reviews some of the issues causing doctors and nurses to continue to EXIT healthcare (or UNIONIZE), and how resultant exit-related understaffing is increasingly undercutting patient care delivery and safety. She goes on to discuss the concept of mandatory staffing rations. My Take: · Over 20% of all U.S. healthcare worker left healthcare in the last 2-3 years. · 10% of practicing U.S. physicians quit in one year alone (2021) · Almost 25% of surveyed current medical students say that they plan to quit and 61% of medical and nursing students say that they will complete their degree programs - but will NOT see patients. · A vast majority of all health workers report that the various unaddressed aspects of their disrupted, toxic workplaces - violence and assaults, impossible-to-complete workloads, oppositional goals between workers and management (suits vs scrubs), and multiple other factors, have created these conditions that have caused and are continuing to cause workers to increasingly abandon healthcare. THUS - this article-discussed “staffing ratios” mandates will be of no value – IF there are NO workers to fill these “mandated” positions. Until the underlying DISRUPTIVE condtions in our nation’s healthcare workplaces are addressed - condtions will just continue to WORSEN - as more and more workers leave healthcare. I thumbnail 18 of these critical disruptors: Link – part 1 - https://lnkd.in/ex_wBN6j Link -part 2 - https://lnkd.in/eNaCR8gz American Medical Association Tennessee Medical Association American College of Emergency Physicians U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions Donna Brazile Lynn Cook Bowen Garrett Jeffrey Lyles Kelley Kramer Katie Johnston Peter Stavros Larry Beresford Erika Thomas Mitch Kayle RN, PHN Margaret Maddox Nalani Tarrant PMP, MPH Gillian Schmitz Michael Arroyo Lara Vanyo Rita Manfredi Herman McKenzie Aria Bendix Linda Restrepo Linda Lawrence Jesse Ehrenfeld MD MPH Larry Bucshon, M.D. Sarah Owermohle Lee Katherine Moore, MD FACEP Aja Whitaker-Moorev Alison Snyder Mike Allen Peter Sullivan Victoria Knight Erin Brodwin Bill Siwicki
That same argument was given when California passed its ratio law--by the hospital industry. That it would be a disaster. Well guess what, hospitals were able to staff just fine as nurses came back to work when presented with decent staffing. The same thing will happen now. You need to have the ratio laws in place before you can expect to hire nurses or that they would be willing to return to working in a hospital. Once the laws are in place--surprise! Nurses who have left the profession and/or hospitals may be willing to return to work under more humane circumstances. There are a million nurses with active licenses in the US not working in healthcare--because they would never return to work in the current conditions. The healthcare worker crisis is not going to disappear as long as there is no change in the system. There are also plenty of nursing students and new grads, and ratios may keep them from exiting the field within 5 minutes of getting a license.
My friend waited 8 hours in the ER yesterday for kidney stone pain diagnosis and said there were 2 md’s for 45 patients (the nurse told him). He said patients were shouting at the nurse (tired of waiting) and he was afraid to be in ER. This was at a major magnet medical center in upstate NY. 2 MDs for all those patients in acute distress simultaneously certainly seems “leaned down” to me. Is that the definition of a robust teaching hospital? He said it took 6 hours to get into CAT Scan (and that there were 15 people ahead of him waiting), then the additional 2 hours till he was diagnosed after the Scan.
Mark Moore
3w
Tell me something I don't know about this. Also in our state hospital systems keep building new competing structures without enough staff. Pretty soon she'll all be Doctors Without Borders here too..
EDITOR | PUBLISHER Inner Sanctum Vector N360™
1moMandatory staffing ratios can't resolve the healthcare crisis if there aren't enough workers to fill the positions. The exodus of healthcare professionals is driven by unaddressed toxic workplace conditions. Without tackling these underlying issues, staffing mandates will be ineffective and the crisis will only deepen. Comprehensive reform is needed to improve workplace conditions and retain healthcare professionals.