WVU in the News: Nursing homes face ongoing staff shortages, a problem that predates the pandemic
In the years before the COVID-19 pandemic swept through the nation’s long-term care facilities and overwhelmed healthcare workers, Maine nursing homes increasingly hired nurses and nursing assistants through outside agencies to prevent staffing shortages.
A four-month investigation by The Maine Monitor and Investigative Reporting Workshop found that contracted hours for certified nursing assistants in nursing homes across the state have nearly doubled since 2017. And agency staffing hours across all employee types rose 66% during that same period.
Facilities with more than 25% agency staff had higher percentages of residents with a number of health issues, including high levels of anxiety and depression, more bedsores and decreased mobility, according to a 2009 study conducted by Nicholas Castle, a national expert on patient-care and staffing ratios, and now department chair of Health Policy, Management and Leadership at West Virginia University’s School of Public Health.