VNSA Supported Policy Initiatives
October 2021: Nurse Staffing Crisis
According to the American Nurse Association (ANA), the dire nursing shortages are largely brought about by cost-cutting decisions, an aging population, increased patient complexity and need, and an aging workforce places stress on working conditions for nurses. Not to mention that the COVID-19 pandemic further worsened the chronic workforce challenges. On September 1, the ANA penned a letter to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra, urging the Administration to declare a national nurse staffing crisis and adopt new policies to mitigate the workforce shortage. “It is imperative that HHS acknowledge and take concrete steps to address a more dire shortage: a crisis-level human resource shortage of nurses that puts our ability to care for patients in jeopardy.” ANA President Ernest Grant said in the letter. Moreover, he also proposed measurements to tackle the issues of nurses’ mental wellbeing, workforce recruitment and retention, and persistent barriers that limit the number of qualified nursing students, among other issues.
For more information on the ANA letter, please visit:
https://www.nursingworld.org/~4a49e2/globalassets/rss-assets/analettertohhs_staffingconcerns_final-2021-09-01.pdf
More information about ANA’s policy statement, please visit:
https://www.nursingworld.org/practice-policy/nurse-staffing/nurse-staffing-crisis/
or contact Sylvia McKinney at contactvnsa@gmail.com.
For more information on the ANA letter, please visit:
https://www.nursingworld.org/~4a49e2/globalassets/rss-assets/analettertohhs_staffingconcerns_final-2021-09-01.pdf
More information about ANA’s policy statement, please visit:
https://www.nursingworld.org/practice-policy/nurse-staffing/nurse-staffing-crisis/
or contact Sylvia McKinney at contactvnsa@gmail.com.