She said even with four years to add to the workforce and meet minimum ratios, hospitals need more solutions to address the workforce shortage, such as more nursing faculty, an easier path for out-of-state nurses to get licensed, student loan repayment and tuition assistance. Lundstrom doesn’t dispute the short-staffing that multiple nurses have described recently to The Herald. We’re not following it ever anymore, no matter what unit I go to,” Roth said. “We have a staffing matrix or staffing plan that had been submitted to the Department of Health. Roth said since the pandemic, nurses have left due to compassion fatigue, ethical and emotional burnout, and overall mental health strain. She loves the variety of work as she covers shifts across many units.īut this last year has pushed her to consider leaving. She has worked at Providence hospitals in Washington state for 18 years, most recently nine years in the float pool in Everett. Roth chose to be a nurse after being inspired by the way nurses took care of her grandmother at the end of life. For the Snohomish County residents who needed hospital care in 2021, just under half received care at Providence. Providence Everett is the largest hospital in Snohomish County, accounting for nearly 75% of non-psychiatric discharges in 2021, according to state Department of Health data. What that does for our patients - it reduces access to care.” “And if we were to implement this bill tomorrow, with the workforce that we have today, we would have to close even more beds. “In Snohomish County, we are severely under-bedded for both acute care and post-acute care,” Lundstrom said. Michelle Lundstrom, chief nursing officer at Providence in Everett, said Friday she worries about the lack of available nurses and the loss of flexibility. The bill had 5,700 signatures in support, with 1,000 opposed. On Thursday, 13 frontline nurses testified in support, including several from Providence Regional Medical Center Everett. Frontline workers and their administrators are largely divided on minimum staffing levels - often called ratios - as an effective approach to solving the staffing crisis.

Everett daily herald