Mississippi is slated to soon lose about 900 state-funded nurses serving at hospitals, which could exacerbate the staffing crunch some organizations are experiencing, according to Mississippi Today.
The state funded the extra nurses to help hospitals during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic wave fueled by the delta variant, but their contracts end Oct. 31, the publication reported.
Hospitals facing COVID-19 surges and staffing strain have relied on contract workers from agencies to help fill workforce gaps. At the same time, many nurses in the U.S. are opting to leave their full-time positions at hospitals to take more lucrative temporary travel roles. Nurses are also leaving the profession altogether amid pandemic-related fatigue and stress.
Mississippi is no exception. In a statement shared with Becker's Aug. 26, Kim Hoover, PhD, RN, COO of the Mississippi Hospital Association, reported a decrease of 2,000 actively licensed registered nurses in the state in the first seven months of 2021. She said 80 percent of nursing leaders nationwide have reported an increase in nurse turnover because of the pandemic.
The rate of stress and burnout facing healthcare workers during the public health crisis is a contributing factor to the turnover, according to Dr. Hoover.
Now, hundreds of temporary nurses from agencies are slated to leave hospitals, which primarily are community owned or nonprofits, according to Mississippi Today.
"Our hospitals have a lot of uncompensated care," Dr. Hoover told the publication. "They’re not always in the best financial position to begin with. It's difficult to weather a storm if you haven't been able to bolster what you need to bolster."
Healthcare leaders are asking state lawmakers to create a new program that uses federal COVID-19 money to cover bonus checks to entice nurses to stay at hospitals, according to Mississippi Today.
Read the full report here.