CBS News reported that the COVID-19 pandemic is severely understaffed in the US healthcare system. Statistics show that nearly 400,000 medical workers in the US have left their jobs due to the pandemic. Eighteen American states had severe shortages of health care workers last month.
At the University of Louisville Hospital, one of the largest in Louisville, Kentucky. Many doctors and nurses say the continuing severity of the epidemic has caused much medical staff to leave their jobs or fall ill, and the shortage of staff is serious. They are exhausted by overwork, and hospitals and staff have been pushed to the breaking point.
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare leaders warned that hospitals faced a shortage of nurses. Repeated surges of COVID-19 have made the situation grim, in part because of nurse burnout and ethical confusion. In a survey of more than 6,500 intensive care nurses released by the American Association of Intensive Care Nurses in September 2021, 92% of respondents said the pandemic “depleted their hospital staff and, as a result, their careers would be shortened more than they expected.” 66% said they were considering leaving the industry because of their COVID-19 experience; Seventy-six percent said unvaccinated patients “threaten the physical and mental health of nurses.”
Solving the nurse shortage will not be easy. Studies over the past 30 years have shown that hospital nurse understaffing is associated with increased patient morbidity and mortality. As a result, in August 2021, 47% of nursing executives identified employee retention, furloughs, and layoffs as major chchallengeThe pandemic has already cost hospitals about $24 billion to ease staffing shortages.
In a survey, last fall by the Kentucky Nurses Association, one in four nurses said they would probably quit their jobs. The head of the association said there was a shortage of nurses before the pandemic, and the epidemic has exacerbated the problem. There is also a shortage of nursing and cleaning staff at hospitals, forcing nurses to take on extra work, including bathing patients, mopping floors, and emptying rubbish.
Hospitals are also understaffed, and the negative impact could be worse, the report said. Because of the shortage of teachers, nursing school graduates have declined significantly, while schools have had to turn away new students. Last year, Kentucky had 1,700 qualified applicants who could not enroll because of a lack of teachers.