RICHLAND, Wash. –
Kadlec Regional Medical center is reporting beds are filling up once again.
RSV, Covid, and the Flu, The tripledemic along with staffing shortages affected the hospital hard.
Kadlec’ Chief Medical Officer Dr. Kevin Pieper says the hospital is at full capacity.
Dr. Pieper says the Emergency Department is seeing numbers they’ve not seen since pre-pandemic levels.
“People are definitely stressed. I think overall the morale is lower than pre-pandemic levels, but people have really rallied to provide care and be at work,” said Dr. Pieper. Dr. Pieper said there just hasn’t been a break for caregivers. They hoped going into 2022 things would’ve calmed down. Another factor is a staffing crisis, which made things more difficult as people are taking extra shifts. Dr. Pieper says it’s an all-hands-on-deck scenario, even managers and directors are taking on the caregiver roles. Nurses are at the forefront of our healthcare system. They are putting in long hours taking care of their patients. The United States has seen its fair share of nursing shortages in the past, but this time it’s as severe as it’s ever been. According to nursingworld.org, nurses are the largest staffing group at almost 40% of hospital operating costs. This makes nurses an easy target for both reduced hours and other cutbacks. Washington State Tri-Cities Academic director and assistant clinical director Bevan Briggs also a Nurse Practitioner says one reason for the shortage of nurses is the lack of nursing educators. “I believe it was in 2021, there were 90,000 qualified nursing school applicants who were not given admission to nursing school programs because they didn’t have the capacity,” said Briggs. Briggs says the pay gap is substantial between a practicing nurse and a nurse educator. This issue is being looked into. WSU Tri-Cities accepts 54 applicants into their program a year, 27 in the fall and 27 in the spring. Briggs says all of the recent graduates this year have either had a job lined up before graduation or were interviewing for one.
