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Tennessee nurse shortages: ‘We are definitely probably at a point of calling it a crisis’

From NewsChannel 9: Staffers with Hospital Corporation of America, HCA, from all different states let people people know exactly what the nurse sh

From NewsChannel 9: Staffers with Hospital Corporation of America, HCA, from all different states let people people know exactly what the nurse shortage looks like in Nashville on Wednesday.

 

Penny Ceasar works on the surgical floor as a secretary in an HCA hospital in Florida and she said some patients have to wait long periods of time for care.

 

“The nurses have to help you to the bathroom or the PCTs, they can’t come to your call light because it’s so short staffed, they have so many patients that they can’t get to that patient,” Ceasar said.

 

Kirk Lawson is the executive director of the Tennessee Nurses Association, and he said the shortage is not a new situation and it’s been going on for decades.

 

We are definitely probably at a point of calling it a crisis, not only in Tennessee, but throughout the country,” Lawson said.

Lawson says nurses are doing the best they can, with hospitals adding some incentives to fill the gaps.

 

“They’re doing it with added shifts. They’re providing bonuses for people to take on an extra day, tack on an extra three or four hours,” he said, adding with any profession long hours leads to burnout.

 

Lawson also said the short-term solution is travel nurses or temporary nurse, but this only puts a band-aid on the problem

 

“The only way you can fight this is to build up the pipeline of students and work them through the system, from being students to being certified nurse assistants to LPNs, to RNs to APRNs”

 

He said it’s going to take years to fill this pipeline.

 

Lawson and other people who have insight into this field say it’s important if you know someone in the healthcare field to let them know you have their support because it’s a tough time and this issue he said will not go away anytime soon.