
Your Solution To The Nursing Shortage
The United States is facing a serious nursing shortage which is having a cascading effect on the world of medicine, causing a nationwide crisis for many healthcare facilities. This serious issue is only expected to increase as the ripples spread outward and create more peripheral problems.
Why is there a nursing shortage?
Staff Turnover: Due to the pandemic and its stressful working environment, many healthcare workers have left the profession entirely. As a result, the remaining nurses are left to pick up the slack by taking on additional patients, often in ratios of 1:14. With so many top-tier nurses having left the field, new workers are not replacing those that left quickly enough, nor do they have the level of experience their predecessors had. Many new hires have less than two years experience in the industry, even in emergency room settings.
Workplace Competition: As a result of staff turnover in healthcare facilities, the workforce shrinks and makes facilities compete for the best talent. Many nurses have left the hospital setting to pursue more lucrative jobs as Travel Nurses for corporate wellness companies, doing on-site health screening and vaccine clinics. Travel Nurse pay and benefits are very appealing to many nurses, eclipsing the pay and benefits of resident nurses.
Retirement: Also crushed under the weight of the pandemic, many nurses took the opportunity to retire. The median age of nurses is 52 years old, meaning within the next decade, many of them will retire, leaving even more vacancies in the nursing shortage.
All of this culminates in a problem where more nurses are leaving the profession than are entering. This means that supply and demand are trending in opposite directions, with no sign of slowing down or reversing.
The good news is that a local laboratory is rising to the challenge and creating opportunities to fill in the gaps by adopting procedures to reduce burden and cost on facilities and make ease of comfort for patients that require service.
Premier Lab Solutions (PLS) is a local laboratory ready to reduce the burden and cost for skilled nursing, assisted living, and other in-need facilities. PLS has a mobile phlebotomy team able to conduct on-site blood draws 24/7. In current facilities, PLS has assisted with administrative and nursing obligations giving more time back to DONs and other staff members. Contact us to learn more. Our lab experts are standing by ready to assist.
