This is from the ANA (American Nurses Association).
...The groundbreaking (click here) Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) compels nurses to continue innovation, transformational leadership, and care coordination as major stakeholders in provision of the next generation of cost containment, quality advances, and patient access improvements....
The original Affordable Care Act that was passed by Congress had within it's provisions educational monies for nurses and general practitioner doctors (family doctors).
Nurses have been ready take on the demands of the profession. That was completely obvious during the first year of the global pandemic. President Vice President needs to review that provision in the Affordable Care Act and perhaps reinstate that initiative if it has run out of funds.
Staffing the floors with operating room nurses is not the best idea. Most nurses with expertise of higher demand hospital work do not want to return to bedside patient care on the floors. They have signed on to education that elevated their expertise and the pay differential. Using specialty nurses on the hospital floors because of poor staffing otherwise is not an effective solution. They will leave to go to work in their specialty.
There are plenty of hospitals that will give them sign-on bonuses and retention bonuses as well as higher pay. The hospitals must solve their short staffing needs, but, this is not the answer. OR Nurses do not want to work the floors.
By Jessica Bartlett
Depleted by two years of fighting a global pandemic, (click here) some of the state’s largest health systems have had to temporarily close their operating rooms due to staffing issues, exacerbating their financial troubles.
Many of the operating rooms have been shuttered off and on for months, due to unexpected staff absences and family leaves. An influx of sicker than expected patients onto hospital floors and into emergency rooms, many of whom delayed care during the pandemic, has also complicated staffing plans, as more specialized nurses or larger teams are needed to care for more complex patients.
“Across the health care system, closing ORs is a near daily event,” said Dr. Eric Dickson, chief executive of UMass Memorial Health. “Some procedural area or OR is not open, and we’ve had to adjust. cases because of our ability to staff.”...
