Students and faculty across the state have stepped up amid a nursing shortage during the COVID-19 pandemic thanks to a three-point plan established by the West Virginia University School of Nursing.
Larger patient to staff ratios, nurses contracting the virus themselves, and workforce burnout exacerbated an already existing nursing shortage. As the need in West Virginia grew, WVU School of Nursing Dean Tara Hulsey and her team quickly developed a plan to meet the state’s nursing demands — giving students and faculty the opportunity to put their skills to work.
An RN assigned to the emergency department who assumes patient care from the prehospital ambulance crew allows them a prompt return to service rather than waiting at the hospital to transfer care to the hospital staff.
After a nine-month strike, dozens of negotiating sessions and a day-long deliberation, nurses at Worcester's St. Vincent Hospital and the hospital's parent company, Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare, reached a tentative agreement on Friday — a peace treaty that nurses hope will set a higher bar for the treatment of essential workers across the country.
"The nursing field has been through so much in the last couple of years," nurse Dominique Muldoon told GBH News. "We went from being healthcare heroes, and then we struggled and started getting sick ourselves, and some of us even died during the pandemic. I would hope that some things, some attitudes change because of this strike."