Becker's Hospital Review

43 CMO / CARE DELIVERY CHI Health creates traveling nurses system By Kelly Gooch O maha, Neb.-based CHI Health said it has launched an internal travel pro- gram for skilled clinicians in Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota and North Dakota. "It's no secret the past two years have put a strain on hospitals across the country," the health system said in an April 12 news release shared with Becker's. "The COVID-19 pan- demic made existing staffing issues worse. CHI Health, along with other hospitals, were forced to rely on third-party staffing agencies and travelers to fill gaps in the workforce." Now the health system, which is part of Chi- cago-based CommonSpirit Health, is address- ing its needs through a travel program for CHI Health employees and those interested in joining the organization. The CHI Health Midwest Internal Travel Pro- gram allows nurses, technicians, pharmacists and other workers to be full-time CHI Health employees, receiving full-time pay, a traveler rate, a stipend, vacation hours, insurance and a 401(k), the health system said. Under the program, workers would travel within CHI Health's 28 hospitals with six- to 12-week assignments, based on where the need is greatest. Timothy Plante, division vice president of pa- tient care at CHI Health, said the program in- volves one level for people who prefer to work solely in hospitals in Nebraska and southwest Iowa, and another for people willing to work at CHI Health hospitals in Minnesota and North Dakota, according to the Lincoln Journal Star. He also said CHI Health can provide staff trav- el nurses the same pay they would get from an agency but without having to pay staffing agency fees, according to the newspaper. In discussing plans for the program, CHI Health CEO E.J. Kuiper told Becker's in Febru- ary: "We need to make sure we have staffing available now, not just for COVID and Inten- sive Care Units but across the spectrum. Build- ing out an internal [staffing program] makes sense on a number of different levels." Mr. Plante estimated 40 to 50 employees are in the traveler pool. n The exodus of young nurses By Mackenzie Bean T he U.S. nursing workforce fell by more than 100,000 workers in 2021, primarily driven by nurses under age 35 leaving hospital-based jobs, according to an analysis published April 13 in Health Affairs. Researchers analyzed nursing workforce trends from 1982 to 2021 using data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Current Population Survey. e nursing workforce decreased 1.8 percent between 2019 and 2021, marking the largest drop seen in four decades. is decline stemmed primarily from younger nurses leaving the field, researchers found. e number of nurses younger than age 35 fell by 4 percent over this time period, compared to a 0.5 percent decline for nurses ages 35 to 49 and a 1 percent drop for nurses 50 and older. While more data is needed to confirm this trend, researchers said a sustained re- duction in the number of younger nurses would pose "ominous implications for the future workforce." Nurses typically remain in nursing for their entire career, which means a drop in younger nurses would create workforce issues felt over a generation, they said. A decline in older nurses who opt to retire early would have a more minor effect. Pandemic-related stressors and hospital workforce shortages may be causing young- er nurses to reevaluate their work environments and experiences, researchers said. "Significantly larger efforts to support and sustain early career nurses, who have had a trial by fire in their new profession, may be needed, along with more effec- tive strategies to reward those who remain at the front lines and those who are needed to return," researchers concluded. n Jury acquits Ohio physician accused of 14 patient deaths By Erica Carbajal W illiam Husel, a former physician at Columbus, Ohio-based Mount Carmel Health System, has been found not guilty of murder in a case where he was accused of prescribing ex- cessive painkiller doses to accelerate the death of critically ill patients, NBC News reported April 20. Mr. Husel was found not guilty on all 14 counts of murder after a two- month trial. The verdict came days after jurors said they hit an impasse, which led Franklin County (Ohio) Common Pleas Court Judge Michael Holbrook to urge them to continue deliberations. Mr. Husel was accused of ordering fatal painkiller doses for patients who were near death and in intensive care while practicing at the Ohio system between 2015 and 2018. Prosecutors alleged Mr. Husel inten- tionally prescribed excessive fentanyl doses to accelerate patients' deaths, while the defense argued prosecutors had not proved beyond a reasonable doubt the doses hastened patients' deaths or that the former physician ordered the medication intending to kill the patients. Mr. Husel did not take the stand in the case and has not spoken public- ly since the allegations arose in a series of lawsuits filed by families of the patients in 2019, according to NBC News. Mount Carmel fired Mr. Husel in 2019, the same year the State Medical Board of Ohio suspended his license. He let his license expire in 2021. n

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