A Patient’s Dilemma
Suppose you’ve suffered an injury and need surgery. The surgery goes well. You spend a few days in the hospital and are then transferred to a rehab facility. During your weeks of recuperation, who spends the most time with you? Doctors, nurses, therapists, or nurse aides? If you guessed nurse aides, you’re right. Ding, ding, ding!
What you may not know — until confronted with the cold reality when you are at your most vulnerable — is that the US is experiencing severe shortage of nurse aides. And this shortage is getting worse. What does this mean for you when you are in rehab?
Long Wait Times
Plan to spend a lot of time waiting when you need assistance, whether using the bathroom, taking a shower, or getting dressed. With a high patient to staff ratio, caregivers are spread thin.
Staff Departures
Just as you learn the names of your caregivers and begin to build relationships with them, they are likely to move on for better pay, better benefits, or better working conditions.
Rotating Parade of People
With shortages on every shift and new people being hired to replace those that leave, you never know who you’ll see on a given day.
All this adds up to frustration, confusion, and potential problems. Who is going to spend enough time with you to notice when your behavior or physical condition changes? To address issues early, before they become serious. Your security, your well-being, and your quality of life have become dependent upon someone most people overlook: a nurse aide.
Nurse Aides – Forgotten Workers
Nurse aides are among the lowest paid workers in the US[1]. The are at the bottom of the totem pole in hospitals, nursing homes, rehab centers and senior facilities. Overlooked and overworked, nurse aides have more interaction with residents than anyone else and contribute directly to customer satisfaction.
It’s only a matter of time before you or one of your loved ones learns firsthand the importance of having a trained nurse aide spend quality time with them. And wishes that their facility provided better support, working conditions, and compensation for these critical workers who continually monitor their emotional and physical health. Nurse aides interact in a very intimate way with residents as they bathe them, clothe them, groom them, feed them and help them in the toilet.
Get Educated Now
Lee and Severt[2] observed that nurse assistants are the most frequent point of service delivery to Continuing Care Retirement Community residents. Two of the most important dimensions of service quality – responsiveness and reliability – are highly dependent upon the availability of trained staff in the moment of need.
Unfortunately, the US is experiencing a scarcity of nurse aides. Today there is a shortage of 50,000 with an expected shortage of 4 million by 2028. This shortage contributes to overwork, which in turn affects quality of care and job satisfaction. Many facilities experience a high turnover in nurse aides. With wages close $12/hour, these caregivers can be wooed away for a $1/hour increase.
Claim Your Stakeholder Role
We are all affected by this crisis, whether as future residents, family members, investors, or the wider community. Many states have laws mandating minimum staff to patient ratios. Adherence to legislation is not enough. Every one of us needs to ask questions and seek answers.
Questions:
- What is the planned staff to resident ratio at this facility?
- What is the actual ratio on third shift?
- How is customer satisfaction measured and monitored?
- How is employee satisfaction measured and monitored?
- How do compensation and benefits compare to other facilities in the area?
- What is the staff turnover for each position?
- What investments are planned to improve satisfaction?
- How will newer technologies being used in Senior Care sector be deployed to improve outcomes and communications with residents, families and staff?
Get proactive. Don’t wait until it’s too late.
[1]Rowan Moore Gerety, Pandemic exposes low pay and scant protections for nursing assistants and home-care aides, Los Angeles Times, April 4, 2020.
[2] Ji-Eun Lee & Denver Severt (2018) Diagnostic Assessments of Service Quality in a Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC): An Exploratory Study, Journal of Quality Assurance in Hospitality & Tourism
This is a very thoughtful post. I never knew that nurses aides were the main point of contact in hospital care and that they were paid so poorly. Raising the minimum. wage to $15 per hour could be a useful first step.
Sheila,
Thank you for bringing attention to these unsung heroes. I will never forget the loving care my Mother received from her attendants during her years in Assisted Living and Long-Term Care. I was fortunate to get to know these angels and some of their life stories.
Because of the low wages, most work two jobs to make ends meet but that’s just part of their struggle. Many suffer physical problems related to the strain of lifting invalid residents. They are frequently subjected to verbal and physical abuse from residents suffering from dementia. And, many are fearful of the anti-immigration sentiments arising in this country.
I advise your readers to pay attention to these ‘Forgotten Workers” because at some point they will become the most important people in their lives.