Springfield, Ill (WICS) – Nurses and lawmakers alike have spoken out about the lack of staffing in nursing homes…
They say that despite the ongoing shortage,
Nursing facilities do not do enough to support nurses…
Nurses met at Capitol on Tuesday to seek transparency in the nursing home industry… They say they are struggling… Nursing homes are profitable.
The nurses and lawmakers spoke at the Capitol on Tuesday… They say the lack of nursing homes has not yet been improved.
Lakesia Collins said despite the state funding of nursing homes, nurses have not seen money head towards a better staff ratio.
“So they have money on the Union Bus, they have money saying no, we don't want to be held accountable. They have money to stop all sorts of lawsuits against them… This industry won't change unless they stop doing this type of abuse to our loved ones,” Rep. Collins said.
The nurse said the staffing shortage continues to hurt patients…and the nurse.
“It's impossible to bear to do short staff jobs. It's impossible to bear to provide proper care to residents who work short staff. Someone is going to be shorter. That's not going to avoid that.”
The nurse said the more patients they have, the less attention each one has…
“There was an incident where there were only two CNAs of 60. That's 30 per CNA. You can't provide quality care for each of those kinds. Someone is going to be left behind, someone is going to crack and fall,” Cna Vicky Herrera said.
When the incident occurred, the nurse said the blame was on them.
“There's a big picture there. It's not the workers who create the schedule. It's not the workers who sign the check. It's not the workers who decide how many of the employees will show up. It's the boss,” Rep. Collins said.
On Tuesday, several nurses shared stories about nurses leaving their profession due to stress. They said it wasn't sustainable.
Some people said there wasn't enough CNA or nurses to fill the nursing home… But nurses said nurses would return to the scene if they improved wages, hours and workplace stress.
The nurse said nursing home owners need to improve their status, staffing ratios and state-funded transparency.
The nurse said it wasn't just medical professionals who lacked it.
However, they said the nursing homes don't have enough cleaning and cooking staff.
