Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1491534
19 NURSING SPOTLIGHT these other pressing issues we need to get to and so we kind of forget about this. en we move on and the wheels fall off again. We're in this constant cycle. What I want to see is organizations continue this. is is just who you should be [as an organization]: focusing on the well-being of all your clinicians. We have known for decades, even if you're not a Magnet organization, you could still have those Magnet-like principles. We know that nurses like control over their practice, they like autonomy, they want to be involved in decisions. And so, how do we give them flexible scheduling and do all these other things but really [give] them a seat at the table where they haven't been in their practice? ey're looking at policies, making decisions on supplies, what new supplies or changes in supplies we're having, what that workflow should look like, as opposed to having individuals say, "Here's what you're gonna do now." We really need to embody it as a profession. For me, any discipline is being able to control their practice. It's not enough to do pizza parties or play recognition. I do also think, though, a lot of organizations during COVID-19, we were "rah, rah rah, the clinicians are amazing and wonderful." And then that support kind of died off again. Like I mentioned, we get really involved in something and then we move on to the next thing because we think it's fixed. So I would want organizations to make sure that they continue to make this. is is something that doesn't go away, and it's always important because the types of things that clinicians face, that nurses face, are hard. It's not just COVID, it's every day. Q: By the end of 2023, what progress do you hope to see in the nursing workforce? Are there any metrics or specific action items to point to? JMK: What I would like to see is that nurses feel less stress. What I'd like to see is a decrease in nurses feeling overwhelmed, a decrease in nurses looking to leave the profession, looking to leave their position. ose are some of the first metrics I would also like to see, and I don't know if we have too much data on this anywhere, but of nurses who did leave the profession or took a break, I'd like to know or see, I'd like to have people come back. I think nurses le during some very stressful and very hard times and we need to welcome them back. Organizations need to reach out to nurses and say, "We're going to welcome you back and we'd like you to come back." So I'd like to see organizations, a metric or something around nurses coming back in aer the break. I want to make sure that nurses don't feel that because they le or they felt like they needed to leave because they were a bad nurse or they couldn't make it or maybe because people thought they didn't have enough resiliency. Again, from a well-being perspective, it's OK to take breaks and to leave. You're not a bad nurse, and you need to do what you need to do for your person. I would like to see metrics of people who are coming back now into the profession aer taking a break. Q: What do you feel like healthcare settings can do to bring back those nurses? JMK: is might be from a unit and a department level, where when nurses le, what I heard from their system is that they feel like they failed their unit. Or that they le for more money or they le for personal reasons to go travel. I think the units and the managers need to reach out to those individuals, welcome them back and ask them to come back. e unit and departments need to be able to say, "We want you back, we don't harbor bad feelings." I think a lot of nurses who le are afraid to go back to their units or the hospitals that they used to work at because they're afraid they're going to be seen as a failure or being someone who le their team. I think the units or teams are really going to need to reach out and have some conversations amongst themselves to welcome those individuals back. Q: On the long-standing debate of whether to expand the role of APRNs, how do you think this debate or conversation will continue this year given ongoing primary care shortages and healthcare access issues? JMK: Oh my gosh. Yeah, I think APRNs should be able to practice at the full level of education. We have had research for decades that says that, for instance, a family nurse practitioner provides equal if not better care in hypertension. I think it's very important that we allow advanced practice registered nurses to practice to their full extent. Personally, when I moved to where I currently live, it has taken me over one year to get a new primary care provider because there were no APRNs and no physicians available in our very medium-sized town. e fact that we want to limit individuals from practicing really is a negative impact for the health of the community. We just see provider shortages growing, we see nursing shortages growing. We need to really work together to say, "We want patients to be able to get good quality patient care." ere are way more patients than there are providers. So, how do we make sure we move forward and allow patients to get care without burdens that are completely unnecessary? Q: Are you hoping for a national consensus on this or do you think it should continue to be a state-by-state decision? JMK: I would hope that each state would make the decision to allow full practice authority for all APRNs and just move that direction. I respect the rights but I also think that each state should move toward full practice authority with no restrictions and barriers for those advanced practice providers based on their education. Q: From your view, what are the top one, two or three solutions working to combat the nation's nursing shortage? JMK: First would be the work environment. Second would be enrollment faculty. We have way too many individuals trying to get into nursing school and there's not enough in the faculty. So the faculty shortage, you know, pay, compensation for faculty is important. For sure, those two. So the work environment includes staffing and all of those components, whatever setting that is and then the faculty piece. Q: You mentioned earlier you want to see nurses less stressed, less overwhelmed by the end of this year. How does the rise in workplace violence involving nurses kind of interplay with all this? JMK: We absolutely need to take care of this issue around workplace violence. You may or may not know, we had a home health nurse shot and killed in Spokane, Wash., in December. Shortly before that, at the end of November, we had a nurse practitioner stabbed to death by a patient outside the clinic. We really do need to have federal and state-level protections for clinicians to help and monitor the number of acts that are happening against clinicians. We really do need to focus on this. So not only [are] people taking care of very sick patients, but they have to worry about whether someone's going to bring a gun to work or stab someone. n