Becker's Clinical Quality & Infection Control

61 NURSING SPOTLIGHT Staffing problems, workplace violence on the rise, more than 2,500 nurses say By Kelly Gooch A mid the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, inadequate staffing, workplace violence and moral and mental distress are increasingly challenges for nurses, according to a nation- al survey released April 14. e National Nurses United's survey is based on responses from 2,575 NNU union nurses and nonunion nurses across the U.S. e results cover the period of Feb. 2 to March 20. Ten findings, according to the union: 1. Sixty-nine percent of respondents said staffing is slightly worse or much worse recently, up 20.2 percent from NNU's September 2021 survey and a 47.8 percent increase from the union's March 2021 survey. 2. More than one-fourth of respondents (26.5 percent) said they were "floated" or reassigned to a clinical care area that required new skills or was not within their competency. at's compared to 17.8 percent reported in September. 3. Nearly half of respondents (46 percent) said they were floated to units outside their expertise without getting any education or prepa- ration. at's compared to 44.3 percent reported in September. 4. Nearly 65 percent of nurses said their hospitals are using excessive overtime to staff units, an increase from 49.3 percent in September. 5. Nearly half of hospital nurses (48 percent) reported rising work- place violence. at's compared to 30.6 percent in September and 21.9 percent in March 2021. 6. Nearly 67 percent of respondents are afraid they will contract COVID-19, up from 42 percent in September. 7. Nearly 84 percent of respondents said they feel stressed more oen than before the pandemic, up from 53.5 percent in September. 8. Only 32 percent of respondents said their hospital has sufficient personal protective equipment stock to protect workers from a rapid surge of the virus. 9. Twenty-four percent of respondents said their hospital notifies them of COVID-19 exposures in a timely manner. 10. Twenty-three percent of respondents said they sought treat- ment for a mental health condition related to caring for patients during the pandemic. NNU represents more than 175,000 members nationwide, according to the union's website. e survey findings come aer the American Hospital Association called healthcare workforce challenges a national emergency in March. Health system CEOs have also cited workforce resiliency as one of their top growth strategies in 2022. n Hospital robots bolstering nurse's energy, time By Naomi Diaz H ospital robots have been developed to carry out certain tasks that have saved nurses time, Wired reported April 19. According to the report, two Moxi robots, designed to transport medications, bed linens, food and laboratory specimens from floor to floor, began operating in the halls of Fredericksburg, Va.-based Mary Washington Hospital in February, and they've given workers back about 600 hours of time. Moxi, which can be hailed by nurses from kiosks at nurs- ing stations or sent a task via text message, has helped nurses save time by fetching or transporting items that are too big to fit into a tube system, like IV pumps. The American Nurses Association supported a case study that assessed Moxi trials at Texas hospitals. Afterward, nurs- es were surveyed about their experience with the robot. The study found that a majority of nurses said Moxi gave them more time to talk with patients being discharged from the hospital, saved them energy, brought joy to pa- tients and their families and ensured patients always had water when it was time for them to take their medication. "I could do it faster, but it's better for Moxi to do it so I can do something else more useful," said one of the nurses surveyed in the case study. But not all feedback was positive. Some nurses com- plained that Moxi had trouble maneuvering through cramped halls during the morning rush or anticipating needs by accessing EHRs. The creator of Moxi, Diligent Robotics, announced that it is working to integrate Moxi's software with EHRs so the robots can carry out tasks without the need for a nurse or physician to make a request. About 15 Moxi robots are now operational in U.S. hos- pitals, including two at Cedars-Sinai, with another 60 scheduled to deploy in 2022. n

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