When it comes to essential employees, there are a lot of positions that come to mind.
During the pandemic, people came to realize how much they depend on grocery store stockers and fast food workers. Most parents came to look at teachers with new appreciation. Day care providers, bus drivers, police officers, firefighters. All of them are critical to our daily life.
But if there is one job that was put in the spotlight more than any other over the last year, it might just be that of nurse.
Nursing is more than a job. It’s an entire category of health care provider that frequently is balled up into one catchall without any realization of what it entails.
A nurse, in short, is the medical professional most likely to be there to hold your hand, soothe your fears, ease your pain and bandage your wound. A doctor orders care. A nurse provides it.
And that is why the nursing shortage gripping Western Pennsylvania is sending employers like UPMC and Allegheny Health Network scrambling to provide signing bonuses and referral incentives. Between the two, they advertised more than 2,200 positions last week.
Pennsylvania has about 193,000 nurses, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. That’s more than twice as many as New Jersey, so maybe that doesn’t sound half bad.
The problem is that Pennsylvania has 279 hospitals, about 700 nursing homes and even more assisted living facilities. Then there are the nurses who work at urgent cares, medical practices, schools, prisons and government offices like county Area on Aging offices.
With 12 million residents, that spreads nurses to about one for every 62 people in the state. No wonder an emergency room visit has such a long wait.
But it is more than just a shortage. It’s an aging population of nurses, too, meaning that despite high turnover in the positions to start, more is coming as nurses age into retirement.
AHN nurses at West Penn Hospital are seeking a new contract, but hospitals and nurses alike need to realize the greater problem isn’t just who is paid what today. The issue is far deeper and needs to be addressed from the perspective of both retention and future recruitment.
In addition to the irreplaceable service they play in keeping people healthy, nurses need to be respected and valued for the important role they play in multiple industries that contribute hundreds of billions of dollars to Pennsylvania’s economy.
— The Tribune-Review, Greensburg/TNS
