nursing shortage

The House voted 80-31 to approve the measure. The Senate also took up the bill and could pass it as soon as Monday.

The president wants to set minimum staffing levels for the beleaguered nursing home industry. But, given a lack of transparency surrounding industry’s finances, it’s a mystery how facilities will shoulder the costs.

The House Health & Human Services Committee approved the proposal, which came as nursing homes say they are grappling with staffing shortages that, in some cases, have forced them to leave beds unused.

Hundreds of thousands of nursing home workers have quit since the pandemic began, and the ones still working suffer from burnout. Industry leaders worry the system is fracturing.

The House Health Care Appropriations Subcommittee approved an industry-backed bill that would reduce from 2.5 hours to 2 hours the minimum direct care that CNAs must provide per resident per day.

The amended version of the bill reduces -- but does not eliminate -- the care that residents must get from certified nursing assistants. Those nursing hours would drop from 2½ to 2 hours a day.

Missouri has the worst COVID vaccination rate for nursing home workers in the nation. There, the federal mandate for workers to get vaccinated reveals the problems that operators have hiring staff, keeping them, and providing decent care.

Chris Setzer, an ICU nurse at Osceola Regional Medical Center, says it’s not a nursing shortage, just a shortage of nurses willing to work under current conditions.

A bill being considered by legislators would cut the required time that a nurse or CNA spends with a patient in a long-term care facility from 3.6 hours to one hour. It would also permit nonmedical staff to replace CNAs for 2.5 hours every day.

Many hospitals are dealing with a flood of people with COVID, including those primarily admitted for other reasons. These infections still drain the workforce and can put health workers and other patients at higher risk for contracting the virus.