LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — As COVID-19 Public Health Emergency expires, hospitals around the country — and in the valley — are continuing to feel the effects of staffing shortages, particularly among their nursing personnel.
While health facilities nationwide recognize Nurses Appreciation Week, nurses want to see that appreciation reflected in their pay.
“We were revered as the ‘heroes on the frontlines,’ and we’re still there, but it feels like hospitals are scaling back on their staff,” said Adrian Martinez, an RN at Southern Hills Hospital and a member of the Service Employees International Union. “We love what we do. We’re passionate about treating our patients. But we’re not feeling that appreciation.”
Martinez is one of the thousands of nurses employed by HCA Healthcare. A corporation that operates 182 for-profit hospitals around the world. In Nevada, Southern Hills Hospital, Sunrise Hospital, and Mountain View Hospital are three medical facilities that function under the HCA Healthcare umbrella.
“If they compensate nurses properly, they’d have an easier time attracting more RNs to the field and retaining the nurses who are getting burned out,” said Angela Hill, an RN in Clark County and a member of SEIU.
Last year, HCA Healthcare generated more than $60 billion in annual revenue, a 2.5% increase from 2021 when its revenue totaled $58.7 billion, which was a 14 percent increase from 2020 when the pandemic began. While the hospital system saw a rise in profits, its staff continues to dwindle.
“It would help if we had the help,” said Jason Martin, an RN in Clark County and a member of SEIU. “It has gotten worse since the pandemic and it's not getting any better.”
Martin’s, Martinez’s, and Hill’s sentiments are shared nationwide. New data from Scholaroo, an educational research non-profit found, analyzed the current working conditions in each state and found that 46% of nurses say they plan to change careers because of the negative effect the job has on their health, including working long hours due to the lack of staff. About 31% of nurses reported that their financial condition is even worse than it was last year.
“It’s a constant struggle to get them [hospital executives] to not try to replace us [nurses] with non-registered nurse personnel,” said Jean Ross, President of National Nurses United. “But it isn’t going to help the situation that we’re in now: when there are enough registered nurses in this country, but they’re refusing to hire them because of their bottom line.
Nevada ranked fifth in Scholaroo’s analysis of states with the highest nursing shortage in the U.S. No hospital is immune to staffing shortages.
In a statement to KTNV, University Medical Center wrote, “UMC has experienced a modest increase in applications during the past few months. As UMC grows and introduces new services for our community, our team continues to focus on recruiting expertly trained health care professionals.”
