A federal-state effort to address Vermont’s nursing shortage by training new nurses has drawn criticism from a major nurses union.
Monday’s proposal by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Republican Gov. Phil Scott and state Senate President Pro Tempore Becca Balint, D-Windham, would increase nurse educator salaries with the goal of attracting more of them. The idea is to expand the number of training slots for new nurses so more of them enter the workforce.
But the proposal focuses on the future and ignores workplace conditions that triggered the crisis, leaders of the Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, which represents some 2,000 nurses at the University of Vermont Medical Center, said this week.
Nurses today are “overworked, underpaid and leaving en masse” because they are upset with work conditions, union President Deb Snell wrote in an opinion column circulated to Vermont media outlets.
Jason Maulucci, Scott’s press secretary, said the governor shares the union’s frustrations and is open to additional proposals to address the crisis.
Pandemic-fueled burnout has resulted in a nursing staffing shortage that is affecting nearly every corner of Vermont’s health care system. UVM Medical Center, the largest hospital in the state, has upward of 300 vacant nursing jobs. At the Vermont Psychiatric Hospital in Berlin, roughly half the nursing slots are vacant, state officials told the Legislature this week. The situation is even more dire in long-term care facilities, where more than 400 skilled nursing beds were closed as of this week for lack of staff, lobbyist Laura Pelosi told lawmakers Thursday.
To cope with these vacancies, health systems and the state have increasingly relied on travel nurses, temporary workers with take-home pay that’s 2 or even 3 times higher than full-time nurses receive.
Snell said the pay gap has pushed nurses to leave their full-time jobs in favor of a lucrative travel assignment or to leave the field altogether.
“Policymakers must keep in mind that health care workers aren’t just numbers on a spreadsheet. We are people who deserve dignity and fairness as we put our lives on the line to keep our communities safe,” she wrote.
Maulucci said Scott discussed the issue with Sanders to explore whether the federal government could address the pay differential with legislation to control price-gouging.
In recent months, the Vermont Agency of Human Services has also helped hospitals, skilled nursing facilities and psychiatric hospitals cover the cost of hiring travel nurses to compensate for staff shortages.With the Legislature beginning its new session this week, lawmakers also have joined the fray with a proposal to extend a law that allows temporary health care staff practice in the state without a license.
