DC Nurses Say Staffing Shortages a Major Issue

Nurses in Washington, D.C., are elevating considerations about staffing shortages amid a nationwide pressure on well being care methods.

The District of Columbia Nurses Affiliation, a labor union, launched a survey of its nurses by which greater than 95% of them stated staffing shortages are a serious problem within the office.

Nurses who took the survey additionally reported that their items had nursing shortages for a couple of shift per week.

“Going to work day-after-day on a 12-hour shift with not sufficient coworkers is a recipe for catastrophe for the sufferers,” stated Edward Smith, with the DC Nurses Affiliation.

Smith stated whereas it is not a brand new downside, it is getting worse.

“COVID definitely exacerbated the issue, but it surely’s been an ongoing downside for years and years. Lack of recruitment … lack of correct retention,” he stated.

D.C. is not alone in these points.

A report the Maryland Hospital Affiliation launched in August warned of a vital scarcity of nurses, citing that one out of each 4 hospital nursing positions is vacant. The Virginia Nurses Affiliation has additionally referred to as it a disaster.

“My two largest considerations are affected person security, but in addition is the wellbeing of our nurses and our colleagues as a result of there’s, like, burnout and folks get drained and pissed off working generally actually lengthy hours and the demand and the stress of the job always working in an atmosphere the place we’re short-staffed,” stated Erika Ventura Castellon, a nurse at MedStar Georgetown.

In an announcement to News4, the District of Columbia Hospital Affiliation acknowledged the scarcity of nurses, saying:

“Hospitals throughout the nation are reporting nursing shortages and DC isn’t any completely different. DC hospitals are implementing aggressive retention and recruitment methods to make sure the wanted nurses are on the bedside. Retention and recruitment initiatives embrace compensation critiques, signing bonuses, and different advantages. When native recruitment efforts should not enough to satisfy staffing wants, hospitals and different well being care suppliers could use staffing companies to complement present staffing to make sure that we’re adequately ready to care for everybody who walks by our doorways. Affected person security and high quality care are on the forefront of all our staffing and recruitment initiatives. DCHA and its member hospitals are lively members of the Mayor’s Healthcare Workforce Taskforce and are collaborating to make sure there’s a pipeline of nursing and allied well being professionals within the District to satisfy our well being care wants.”