The United States has been suffering a nursing shortage since 2012, a shortage that began as baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) started hitting “elderly” status. About 21 percent of American adults are baby boomers, and approximately 71 million will be 65 or older by 2029. With more than half of all Americans over age 65 having two or more chronic health conditions, things were already looking rough.
When the pandemic struck, that shortage became more immediate and drastic, and with the declining number of nurses came an increase in the number and severity of patients, leaving remaining nurses in distress.
Some nurses left because they caught the virus, others out of fear of catching it while working impossible hours with inadequate personal protective equipment (PPE).
Others are afraid of bringing the virus home to family members, but many are simply burning out and seeking other jobs. Many describe symptoms of anxiety, depression, PTSD and/or substance abuse.
A recent Washington Post/Kaiser Family Foundation Poll found 3 of 10 healthcare workers have considered leaving their profession, and 6 in 10 blame the pandemic for burning them out. A 2010 study by the International Council of Nurses found that nurse burnout and fatigue is associated with chart errors, incorrect dosing, and treating the wrong patient.
What is burnout? In healthcare it’s the reaction to severe stress on a repeated basis. This includes moral distress, such as arises when the nurse cannot provide the best care, situations where care may be too aggressive at the end of life, or when the provider is concerned about the care provided by another provider. It can also include working without sufficient resources and an inability to comfort the dying and their families.
Frustration among nurses is mounting. Now that there are vaccines available, many providers are angry with the low rates of vaccination and its impact on healthcare in general.
Donna Foster, RN, Eureka Springs resident and travelling nurse currently working in Texas, says, “Unvaccinated people have sole blame for this recent health crisis. They ignored the pleas of healthcare workers to get vaccinated due to some insane rhetoric of their choosing. Now, they demand our help, take our beds, and use up our resources.
“Many wait hours, even days in the ER for an available bed. ICU patients stay in the ER as well. With ER beds being held up, the waiting room becomes backed up. Forty-to-fifty people in the waiting room used to be a nightmare scenario, now it’s a daily thing.
“Healthcare workers are under siege… nurses have always given the best care to their patients, but… if the public does not do their part to rid ourselves of Covid-19, the health system will be permanently damaged,” Foster, who said she is in favor of mandatory vaccination of healthcare workers.
Everett Fountain, RN, works as a hospice nurse for Circle of Life Hospice. Fountain began by quoting from a centuries-old nursery rhyme, “Ashes, ashes, we all fall down,” referring to the Black Plague.
“Healthcare workers are burning out and falling down each day longer that the Covid pandemic is allowed to persist,” Fountain said. “It’s being fueled by inadequate public compliance with basic ways of preventing spread of the virus. This is to the frustration and dismay of providers of care who ongoingly serve and sacrifice to protect and preserve our communities’ health and wellbeing.
“As a nurse I empathize with the medical professionals who go to work daily fearing, ‘Will I get it?’ and return home fretting ‘Will I give it?’ and while on the job relentlessly shouldering mentally draining, physically exhausting, and soul-wrenching care of the critically ill and dying of all ages.
“For those of us not in acute care hospitals, our service is roulette: taking a chance with the spin of every patient encounter – unnerving. We wear uncomfortable PPE and implement inconvenient protective protocols in our work routines. In doing so we make a statement that being proactive against the chance of transmission is very important. In contrast I often see an obvious disparity in public places: little or no effort to thwart those microscopic Covid particles.”’ Everett favors mandated vaccines for healthcare workers.
Not all nurses agree, but unvaccinated nurses declined to give a statement.
A survey of healthcare workers by the University of Michigan’s Michigan Medicine found 8.4 percent of respondents reporting they would not be getting the vaccine for now. And 3.2 percent of survey participants said they would “not ever” receive it.
Nurses were more likely than other healthcare workers to be vaccine hesitant. Reasons given mirrored those of others who refuse the vaccine, including how quickly the vaccine was developed, perceived insufficient safety and effectiveness data, a disbelief that the vaccine is effective, and concerns about long-term side effects.
The online group Nurses Against Mandatory Vaccines regularly support those who refuse annual flu shots. Heather Knapp, 35, a registered home health nurse in Riverside, Calif., said “I’m not an anti-vaxxer. Our organization is anti-mandate.”