Becker's Clinical Quality & Infection Control

33 NURSING SPOTLIGHT salaries and benefits make up about half of a health system's entire operating expenses. "If you were to double a good portion of that — the nursing salaries — you'd completely wipe out any operating margin. en you wouldn't be able to invest in anything to keep the hospitals going," he said. Flexible scheduling In addition to better pay, travel nurses say hospitals would need to promise greater schedule flexibility to get them back. "With travel nursing, I have found that compensation is much higher, and I have more control over my schedule," Yasmine Seidu, BSN, RN, told Becker's. "I can get time off when needed aer each contract and vacation with my family as long as I want to." Ms. Seidu had a pregnancy complication and said she only had six weeks with her newborn before returning to her staff nursing role. "If my baby was born when I was working as a travel nurse, I could take all the time I needed to bond with my child with no restrictions and fear of losing my job if I stayed longer," she said. Jennifer Zahourek, RN, began travel nursing a year into her career. She enjoyed the flexibility the work had to offer and was able to start her own business aer three years. "Now I randomly go back into travel assignments," she told Becker's. "I only look for assignments where [the administration] is willing to work with my schedule and has great teamwork." Guaranteed nurse-patient ratios e travel nurses that spoke with Becker's also noted safety as a concern, namely the lack of nurse-to-patient ratios in traditional healthcare settings. Amid chronic workforce shortages, caring for too many patients at once is commonplace and can pose risks to patient safety, they say. "Most staff nurses are taking 5 or 6 patients in med-surg units, which is understandable given the nursing shortage, but it means that staff nurses are oen working long hours without any breaks," Ms. Painter said. "It also means that in some cases, patients are not receiving the adequate time with their nurses that they deserve." California is currently the only state to have successfully legislated nurse-to-patient ratios, requiring hospital wards to maintain a ratio of 1 nurse for every 5 patients, while intensive care units must maintain a 1:2 ratio. "Travel nurses are oen assigned fewer patients," Ms. Painter said. "So as a traveler, I am able to focus more on the patient than the traditional staff nurse who is overextended." e length of travel nursing contracts — typically 13 weeks — allows for more flexibility in deciding what environments are best, Ms. Seidu said. "If I walk into a contract that I feel is unsafe, I know at least I only have to endure it for a short period," she said. "Whereas, in a traditional setting, I would be stuck in an unsafe work environment with high work ratios for an indeterminate amount of time unless I decide I want to leave and start over at a new facility, which can oen be just as short-staffed." n Labor Department invests $80M into nursing workforce By Cailey Gleeson T he U.S. Labor Department invested $80 million of funding in support of nursing training programs Oct. 3. The funding comes from the agency's Nursing Expansion Grant Program. The investment is designed to expand the pipeline of nurses "while advancing equity and creating pathways for workers to fill these jobs and improve the nation's healthcare system." "Many healthcare workers, nurses among them, have worked around the clock throughout the pandemic to care for those in need and save countless lives, often while risking their own health and well-being" said Marty Walsh, secretary of labor. "Today, they face diminished ranks of colleagues to help shoulder these burdens as patients continue to depend on them. The funding opportunity announced today will support training and other programs to help advance workforce equity while bringing more nurses into the industry." n UPMC to offer loan forgiveness program for nursing students By Mackenzie Bean P ittsburgh, Pa.-based UPMC will offer nursing students financial assistance through a new loan forgiveness program set to launch in January. Through the program, UPMC School of Nursing students who commit to work at the health system for three years after graduation can qualify for up to $7,000 of tuition loan forgiveness per semester. Nurses must have at least one full semester under their belt and meet academic requirements to be eligible. "The UPMC Schools of Nursing allow future nurses to learn alongside the best of the best, and this program will help remove some of the financial obstacles future nurses face," Maribeth McLaughlin, BSN, RN, UPMC's chief nurse executive, said in an Oct. 17 news release. UPMC has six hospital-based nursing schools in Pennsylvania. n

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