The COVID-19 pandemic led to shortcomings in the medical field and a staffing shortage of nurses and doctors seen nationwide. More nurses are leaving the industry while the pipeline for additional nurses is insufficient to meet the growing demand of 2022 and beyond, according to the American Nurses Association.
“What we’ve seen during COVID[-19] and after is fatigue of health care staff in general,” said Dr. Matt Richardson, Denton County’s Public Health Department director.
Richardson reported in March to Denton County commissioners that county hospitals continue to see a staffing shortage.
Richardson refers to pandemic fatigue as a “hangover effect,” he said. Though intensive care units are no longer full of COVID-19 patients, its nurses are still affected by their recent patient losses and overtime hours.
County Judge Andy Eads said he is in continual contact with county hospital leaders, and they report a decline in the mental health of their nurses, which has attributed to the staffing shortage.
During the pandemic, doctors and nurses worked in extreme conditions, and they handled it with grace, professionalism and compassion, he said.
“The nurses and doctors across Denton County were our frontline heroes,” he said.
Because of the staffing shortages, education efforts are in full swing to help fill in the gaps seen locally. In Flower Mound, one college program looks to alleviate some of the industry staffing stresses with an accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree.
Nursing solution
Midwestern State University at Flower Mound is doing its part in supplying nurses by providing an accelerated bachelor’s degree in nursing.
The program allows students to attend a community college to earn an associate degree in nursing while simultaneously attending MSU bachelor’s degree classes. This allows the student to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in half the typical time, Program Coordinator Christy Bowen said.
An associate degree is focused on the clinical tasks that a nurse provides, such as monitoring patients, maintaining their records and performing other basic health care procedures. A bachelor’s degree incorporates other aspects of nursing, such as evidence-based practice, management and public health.
The program is creating nurses that are more qualified in a shorter amount of time, Bowen said.
“We’re sending nurses into the workforce to help with the downfall of the nursing shortage,” Bowen said.
The program now has about 400 students, Bowen said.
“Over the years, our program has drastically increased in size,” she said. “I feel this is a phenomenal achievement.”
Bowen serves on the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council and has heard positive feedback on the quality of nurses leaving the program, she said.
“[They are] so thankful for the new registered nurse graduates that are already more competent and higher educated,” she said.
Looking locally
Medical City Lewisville, Lewisville’s local hospital, tried to be proactive in hiring nurses to replace the outgoing workforce, said Janet St. James, assistant vice president of public relations and media communications, in an email.
Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Flower Mound is another local provider, but officials could not be reached for comment.
Medical City Lewisville saw a dip in staffing numbers in 2020 of about .51%.
Medical City Healthcare is working to address the nursing shortage in multiple ways. It recently saw a significant increase in hiring new graduate nurses coupled with nurse residency programs, St. James said.
“[Medical City] Healthcare’s parent company, HCA Healthcare, hires more new graduate nurses than any other health care provider in the U.S.,” St. James said.
Hospital officials even look to students before they get to college to help fill the nursing shortages through encouraging students to get into Pathways in Technology Early College High School (P-TECH) health care career tracks.
Earlier this year, Medical City Healthcare announced that the HCA Healthcare Foundation, through its Healthier Tomorrow Fund, donated $1.35 million to be disbursed over the next three years to Educate Texas, an initiative of the Communities Foundation of Texas, St. James said.
The grant is aimed at increasing student access to programs that enable fulfilling health care careers, including high schools in Texas that offer health care tracks, she said.
“Our nursing leaders in our hospitals speak to students at the high school level—and sometimes earlier—about careers in nursing and health care, to create initial information and establish an early positive role model,” St. James said.
