CANTON, Ohio — It was a looming problem before COVID-19 came to town, then the pandemic made the nursing shortage even worse with stress and staffing shortages forcing many nurses to leave the profession. The Bureau of Labor Statistics expects the nursing workforce in the U.S. to grow by nearly 200,000 between 2021 and 2031.
In that same time, more than 2 million nurses are expected to retire or resign, meaning we'll be left with two and a quarter million nursing positions to fill. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing said nursing school enrollment is not growing fast enough to keep up.
The workforce shortage has forced Aultman Hospital to reconfigure operations. The health care system is ending some services at Aultman Woodlawn in Canton and their hospice facility in Alliance, which leaves some employees in limbo.
“It's always a difficult decision when you're closing services,” said Anne Gunther, COO of Aultman Health Delivery System and president of Aultman Hospital. "We continue to have challenges with assuring safe staffing levels.”
Aultman hospitals submitted WARN notices at the beginning of February, notifying Ohio Jobs and Family Services that 187 employees will be laid off in April, but not all the affected people will lose their jobs as Aultman has almost 1,000 open positions.
“We have over 600 open positions and so we were able to take those staff that was impacted in the closure of our skilled nursing,” said Gunther. “Based on their interest and their skill level and competency level, they were able to place 89% of that staff into open positions around Aultman."
The remaining 11% of employees leftover are still deciding if they want to continue their employment at Aultman or leave.
“So, if they chose to take one of those positions, we welcome them,” Gunther added. “If not, we will certainly work with them to transition in the next 60 days.”
Gunther said the new care models are needed to ensure safe staffing because of the employee shortage. As a result, two locations are losing some services. They are Aultman Woodlawn and Aultman Alliance, but the hospital is planning to expand its alliance location.
“Alliance inpatient hospice will expand, but we are also looking for additional opportunities at that space,” Gunther added.
This highlights the need for area colleges that are getting caught in the middle of a high demand, yet what appears to also be a dying profession. The University of Akron School of Nursing said it's seen an 18% decline in enrollment.
“It's causing a lot of trouble for the hospitals to fill the staffing needs,” said Timothy Meyers, executive director of nursing at the University of Akron.
Kent State University said it's seen an overall decline in enrollment, not just in nursing. Students want more work-life balance.
“This different generation of nurses that are coming at the bedside, they want that more normal Monday through Friday, 8 to 5, no weekends, they want holidays off, which is a stretch,” said Versie Johnson-Mallard, dean of the College of Nursing at Kent State University. “Which is a challenge for our clinical partners because our hospitals are open 24 hours.”
Aultman has adjusted wages this past year to help with turnover rates and new hire efforts, but low reimbursement versus the cost of care at facilities continues to burden an already stressed medical system. Maintaining patient care will remain an uphill battle as the number of patients isn't going down and jobs remain vacant.
“We are incentivizing our own staff to pick up additional hours safely so we can meet those staffing standards, that we know our patients need to receive safe care,” Gunther said.
Cleveland Clinic has nearly 1,500 job openings for registered nurses in Ohio. University Hospitals has more than 1,100 RN positions to fill.
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