COVID-19 and the Health Workforce 4/28-5/10

(04/26/22) COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Among Healthcare Provider
This new journal article published in Health Psychology Research examines “predictors of openness to vaccination among healthcare workers who choose not to be vaccinated against COVID-19 In order to explore potential solutions.” The study finds that the major reasons for vaccine hesitancy among health care workers are a fear of side effects in vaccines and a sense that vaccines “are inadequately studied.”

(04/22/22) Why Do Nearly 20K Nursing Home Workers Have Vaccine Medical Exemptions?
This article examines why 20,000 nursing home workers are seeking vaccine medical exemptions. Many of the nursing home workers with vaccine medical exemptions are in the same nursing home clusters. In Oklahoma, for example, 27 nursing home facilities have over 15 percent of the vaccine medical exemptions, a larger percentage than any other state.

How AI Is Helping to Address Staffing Shortages in Healthcare
Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to alleviate the burden on overworked health care providers. AI has shown its ability to improve productivity in a variety of domains. This article summarizes cases where hospitals improved their work processes and patient care by automating patient care, enabling predictive resource allocation, and triaging patients.

(04/28/22) Amid Shortages and Burnout, Could Adding More Men Ease the Nation’s Nursing Woes?
For 2021-2022 Federal data shows the number of registered nurses dropped by about 2%. Increasing the number of male nurses would offset workforce shortages and improve healthcare provider diversity. Despite nursing programs seeing a 3.3% increase in program enrollment in 2021; males account for 14% of students enrolled in nursing programs. In 2021 just 13.3% of registered nurses were male. During the pandemic the increased attention to nursing and its opportunities may result in more males pursuing nursing as a career but the stereotype of nurses being female is a challenge that must be overcome. While the data shows small gains, it is unclear if the interest in nursing by males will be enough to offset the losses that the pandemic dealt to the nursing workforce.

(05/05/22) COVID-19 Impact on the Nursing Workforce
Emory Healthcare’s Chief Nurse Executive Sharon Pappas and epidemiologist Jodie Guest discuss the impact of the pandemic on the nursing workforce in this video interview. They discuss strategies for nursing shortages and how to ensure patients access to care. This conversation is part of the online video series hosted by Guest discussing questions related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

(05/03/22) Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Hospital and Outpatient Clinician Workforce
This report from HHS Office of Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation which combines data from the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, spotlights how the COVID-19 pandemic has put “extreme stress on the healthcare workforce” in the US, leading to burnout, workforce shortages, and exhaustion and trauma. The report also looks at an overview of federal interventions during the pandemic to help support the healthcare workforce.

(05/03/22) New Report Reveals COVID’s Toll on the Mental Health of Frontline Doctors and Nurses
This All Things Considered NPR podcast discusses A new report by The Department of Health and Human Services which “reveals the depth of distress throughout the health care system.” The podcasts details how burnout, anxiety, and ptsd have taken a toll on health care workers during the pandemic.

(05/02/22) Putting Health Workers at the Centre of Health System Investments in COVID-19 and Beyond
Published in the Family Journal of Community Health this paper outlines recommendations for sustained health workforce development and optimization based on current health workforce research, policy, and lessons learned from the Covid-19 pandemic.

(04/29/22) Critical Care Nurse Burnout, Moral Distress, and Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A United States Survey
An article published in Family Medicine and Community Health (FMCH) studied 488 surveys of nurses who worked in intensive care units in the US during the Covid-19 pandemic between October 2020 and January 2021. The study found that workplace factors such as lack of PPE, excessive workloads, and perceived lack of administrative support were linked to higher risk of several types of mental distress and increased intent to leave practice.

(04/20/22) “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” Nurses’ Perspectives About Working During the Covid-19 Pandemic in the United States: A Summative Content Analysis Combined with Topic Modeling
This paper published in International Journal of Nursing Studies studied the perspective of the US nurses working in the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic ‘s first wave. They found that the retention rate of the nursing workforce can be used to measure the overall organizational performance. A good supportive organization usually performs well in following perspectives: communication, in-person contact quality with hospital administration, the frontline manager, the culture of the response as perceived by the nurse/midwife, and staff treatment during the first wave.