Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1398595
55 NURSING SPOTLIGHT 'We're expendable': Michigan nurses say PPE still stretched thin, staffing shortages affecting care By Gabrielle Masson M any nurses at Michigan hospitals say some personal protective equipment is still in short supply and inade- quate staffing is hindering best care practices, CBS affiliate WWMT reported June 3. Nurses at more than half a dozen Michigan hospitals told WWMT that access to N95 masks was still very limited. "We get one mask per day for COVID patients and then we get one mask per day for regular patient care," said Jamie Brown, RN, critical care nurse at Kalamazoo-based Ascension Borgess Hospital and president of the Michigan Nurses Association. In summer 2020, the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration implement- ed a program to boost medical personnel's access to PPE, which Ms. Brown said added accountability but still isn't sufficient. Ms. Brown said hospitals across the state are experiencing staffing shortages, lack of preemptive COVID-19 testing and limit- ed PPE, affecting the safety of nurses and patients alike. "It just goes to show you how the hospitals view their front-line workers, and we're expendable employees," Ms. Brown told WWMT. "The health and safety of our patients and associates remain our top priorities," a spokesperson for Ascension Borgess Hospital said in a statement cited by WWMT. "We have no issues with PPE and continue to take proactive steps with our distributors and suppliers to ensure access to personal protective equipment and supplies, as we have throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. We are experienc- ing the same staffing challenges that are impacting our national industry, but our associates are strong and determined, and continue to safely fulfill our mission of caring for those most in need." Michigan has a shortage of more than 7,000 nurses, a number experts believe has risen amid the pandemic, according to state reports cited by WWMT. "We've got a lot of nurses looking at their ca- reer choice right now because this is not why we got into nursing," Ms. Brown said. n Ochsner, Terrebonne General invest $2M in Louisiana nursing school By Gabrielle Masson O chsner Health and Terrebonne Gen- eral Health System are each investing $1 million in the expansion of nursing and other health programs at Schriever, La.- based Fletcher Technical Community Col- lege, The Lafourche Gazette reported June 1. The investment from New Orleans-based Ochsner Health and Houma, La.-based Ter- rebonne General will go toward the con- struction of a new, state-of-the-art facility. The partnership will also allow the school to more than triple the nursing and allied health pro- gram's enrollment capacity, as well as double its faculty size. The new 10,750-square-foot training facility is set to open for classes in the spring of 2023. Across the country, states are facing nursing shortages that are expected to intensify, with the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimating an average of 175,900 national registered nurse openings each year for the next decade. n How one organization aims to use texting to keep nurses from leaving the field By Hannah Mitchell T he American Nurses Foundation is launching a program to send text messages to offer nurses resources and support in 17 states to combat the mass exodus of nurses from the profession. Nurses can sign up for texts using an online forum. The texts feature words of affirmation or resources related to managing grief and loss, breathing and mindfulness, going home checklists, moral distress in- formation, sleeping and eating well, and self-compassion breaks, ac- cording to a May 13 news release. "Nurses are leaving the profession. They are experiencing psycholog- ical distress from watching their patients die day after day," Dawna Cato, PhD, RN, CEO of the Arizona Nurses Association, said. "It's im- portant for these nurses to know that we and other nursing associa- tions care about them and understand what they're going through. We are out there providing resources." The Nurses Foundation launched a pilot program in Arizona that sent text messages to 4,000 of the 95,000 nurses who opted to receive messages. More than 86 percent of nurses strongly agreed or agreed they found the text resources useful for improving their well-being, and 91 percent of nurses said the number of texts they received were the right amount, the release said. n