Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1468749
55 NURSING SPOTLIGHT Ms. Brewer of Trinity Health, who works mainly in surgery, said she would volunteer on the floor to help nurses prioritize tasks. "A lot of them on the floors are younger nurses," she said, adding that they had to manage many different tasks when caring for COVID-19 patients. "If [patients] were having trouble breathing and in and out of isolation … trying to help [nurses] get through their day and stay organized is most- ly what I did — mentoring them to learn 'this is important, let's work on this first and then maybe we can work on something else later.'" She also stood in as a listening ear for patients when they weren't allowed to have family members visit. "e new nurses that were actually scheduled for those patients didn't actually have time to sit there and do that. So just [being] that extra person up there to assist them with their duties and say, 'Hey I can sit here a minute and just stand at the doorway even.' Sometimes, you didn't even go in because of COVID-19, but you could just stand right there at the doorway and be a listening ear," Ms. Brewer said. At Mount Carmel, added support has come partially through a centralized labor manage- ment pool. Dr. Mansfield said the pool allowed clinical and nonclinical colleagues to volunteer into the pool and receive training for a variety of tasks that could include environmental services or outpatient areas and weren't as familiar to a worker who typically works on the acute care side. "ere was a real sense of camaraderie and folks working together to deal with these [COVID-19] waves, these surges that just kept coming when we already were short to deal with the volume we were experiencing," he said. "Our nurse managers, our clinical managers, directors of nursing stepped in to help with staffing as well. at's not ideal, but that's what we had to do to serve the patients who needed to be served." Mount Carmel is also revamping its nurs- ing residency program to include more role-playing and simulation experiences so new nurses gain insights into problem-solv- ing within the clinical setting. at process began in January. Additionally, the health system is recruiting for a critical care internship for the summer and a critical care fellowship. Dr. Mansfield said the internship is for nurses who are in nursing school between junior and senior year to spend time in the Mount Carmel critical care units, while the fellow- ship is a much more concentrated experience where nurses spend 24 weeks in a structured orientation. e fellowship, which is open to college graduates, involves didactic learning, as well as training on how to work within a professional team. "We're hopeful all programs will result in good first-year experience for nurses and then they'll stay," Dr. Mansfield said. Outside of those programs, Mount Carmel is lowering its hiring age to 16 to work in either a nonclinical role or clinical support role. At CommonSpirit, experienced nurses told Dr. Sanford they always try to be support- ive to new nurses, but couldn't always give them the support they needed during surges because of how sick the patients were and because they didn't have the staff they would have liked to have or normally would have had. Overall, the health system's turnover rate about doubled among new nurses during the pandemic. "I asked a few nurses about it, and they said the new grads because of COVID didn't get to do their clinicals in the hospital like they had," Dr. Sanford said. "ey [new nurses] did their training in simulation labs, but that's not the same. So when they came out, they were not as prepared as new grads in the past. … Anytime you have new grads, they start as novices and it takes time for them to become an expert. We had these novice nurses coming out with the nurses on the floor taking care of patients at the height of when we had most COVID patients, so there wasn't a lot of time to spend with them." As a result, CommonSpirit is accelerating plans in its five-year nursing strategy. is in- cludes starting a national one-year residency program that incorporates virtual preceptors for new nurses to call and get support any time of the day, Dr. Sanford said. at pro- gram is starting this spring. "We're excited about that because we also understand it's not just about getting out of school where in school you take care of one patient and have an extensive care plan for that patient," she said. "Out of school, you'll have four or five patients and you'll have people to supervise and you'll be coming into a new culture." Dr. Sanford said CommonSpirit also began virtually integrated care this year so more experienced nurses can help less experi- enced nurses on the unit. e health system is forecasting that some nurses who might have retired because of being physically tired might want to stay with the health system through virtual nursing. CommonSpirit is a 140-hospital system with more than 1,000 care sites in 21 states. n Number of nurse practitioners licensed in US hits new record By Kelly Gooch M ore than 355,000 nurse practitioners are licensed to practice in the U.S., up 9 percent from the estimated 325,000 reported in May 2021, according to an estimate the American Associa- tion of Nurse Practitioners released April 7. This figure marks a new record. A total of 290,000 licensed NPs were estimated to be practicing in 2020, and 270,000 were estimated to be in the workforce the year prior. For its workforce estimates, the American Association of Nurse Prac- titioners examines data from state nursing boards. "Nurse practitioners are answering the call to provide vital healthcare services to all Americans," American Association of Nurse Practitioners President April Kapu, DNP, APRN, said in a news release. "With the challenges of the pandemic and the demand for more accessible and equitable care, NPs continue to enhance healthcare delivery across all settings. Today's nurse practi- tioner count indicates that demand for these highly-qualified clinicians continues to be on the rise — and for good reason." In January, U.S. News & World Report ranked nurse practitioner as the best healthcare job for 2022. Nurse practitioners in the U.S. make an average of $118,040 annually, according to the latest data re- leased March 31 by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. n