The national staffing shortage and successive patient surges – Delta and Omicron – have pushed hospitals to the limit. Still, the commitment to patient care has never wavered.
“Everyone that works here, I can safely say, shows up each day to serve our community and provide services despite the challenges,” said Amanda Kotler, a registered nurse and vice president of nursing at Asante Rogue and Asante Ashland. “So, what I have seen at the staff level and leadership level is just constant reoccurring dedication to try to give every patient their all.”
Still, Kotler said we should be clear: there has been massive strain on staff that will not be easily overcome. “How do you completely compensate for the trauma that they’ve experienced? That’s what keeps me up at night as a nursing leader.”
“Just the impact the Delta wave had and the severity of illness and the mortality and just the resources required to get through that and then to have it start happening. Staffing numbers aside, that’s deeply traumatic for our caregivers across the state who gave something all they had.”
When the public sees the number of hospitalized COVID patients, they may not understand the extra burden on staff. For example, at the peak of the Omicron surge, Asante had around 100 COVID positive patients every day. “There’s not another single diagnosis in the health system that requires that many resources,” said Kotler. “That’s close to 100 patients that have the same disease, we have to isolate for, we have to put precautions in place for, put them in special departments and make sure that everything is safe.”
The capacity pressures that intensified with the Delta wave never let up in the period before the Omicron wave. “As we decreased from the Delta wave, that’s a reason to celebrate, but then we had this whole other wave of patients that waited and now need care,” said Kotler. “So, the capacity constraints never really alleviated. It’s been this constant stream of trying to serve both patient populations.”
In response to the staffing shortage (including the difficulty in discharging patients into a more appropriate level of care) and the mission to always put patients first, hospitals have been forced to use contract nurses at unprecedented levels. Kotler says in addition to driving up labor costs, travel nurses present other challenges. “It has a tremendous impact on morale,” said Kotler.
“Here we are still here, and 40 percent of the workforce are people that are going to leave, and they’re making a tremendous hourly rate,” said Kotler. “What does that look like when I’m standing side by side with these people who don’t have the investment in our patients, in our community?”
For Kotler and others, the recent staffing and capacity crisis has driven home the need for real solutions. Everyone with experience in the field knows that creating them won’t come easily, but that we owe it to patients and staff to succeed.
“We recognize that this isn’t sustainable, and that we value their contributions so much,” she said.
“Hearing the gratitude over and over, it can be perceived as not enough. But it is truly there. What would we be without these people who have sacrificed for our state and our community?”