Amid continued risk of hospital closures - report: 38% of Mississippi’s rural hospitals - there's an increasingly critical piece of staff missing: Nurses. Many state hospitals are emptying. Service lines discontinued. Full floors shuttered - either to preserve costs or the increasingly lack the staff. Mississippi Hospital Association data shows RN vacancies and turnover rates skyrocketed to their highest numbers in a decade. Kim Hoover, an RN who serves as the MHA’s Education Foundation CEO, said the pandemic took an unprecedented toll. Nurse departures, fueled by burnout and higher pay elsewhere, have put Mississippi’s hospitals in peril. Mississippi hospitals reported 3,038 open RN positions in 2022. Hospitals were missing 21.4% of their LPNs and 21.3% of their certified nursing assistants. RN vacancies were most evident in central and SW Mississippi, including the Jackson metro area. While Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann’s plan to address the hospital crisis includes millions for a nurse loan repayment program and for a grant that would use federal funds to help community college nursing programs is in motion, those solutions might not make a difference for months. Hospital administrators and advocates say they need help now. (Mississippi Today 03/08/23) ‘Leaving for greener pastures’: Mississippi’s nurse vacancy rates are their highest in at least a decade (wdam.com)
UPDATE: Guv signs nursing bill
JACKSON, Miss. - Gov. Tate Reeves has signed a bill in hopes of attracting new nurses and curbing the nursing shortage in Mississippi. Reeves said Senate Bill 2373 will create the “Skilled Nursing Home and Hospital Nurses Retention Loan Repayment Program.” (WLBT 03/09/23) Reeves signs bill to incentivize nurses, curb shortage (wlbt.com)
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