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* KHQA…
Nurses employed by Quincy Veterans Home protested on Tuesday over their concerns with what they call unfair labor and unsafe work conditions. […]
The INA president Tori Dameron said nurses working at the Quincy Veterans home are frustrated with what they call the overuse of agency or substitute nurses rather than hiring full-time nurses. There are currently 30 nurse positions open at Quincy Veterans Home.
“We are continuously being mandated to work overtime and extra shifts creating an unsafe environment for staff or patients,” Dameron said.
Dameron, who is also a nurse, said the INA has raised concerns before over staffing at the VA home.
* WGEM…
Worker shortages. Since the pandemic, businesses of all kinds have faced the,, and some still are. At the Illinois Veterans Home in Quincy, workers report the problem persists and they said it’s the worst they’ve seen. […]
“We’ve been in bargaining for a couple months now and basically the ‘fair’ part is that management is not coming back to us with what we would consider reasonable offers for the nurses,” Dameron said.
Dameron believes better benefits could fill the roughly 20 open RN positions at the IVH. She said the shortage has led to unsafe working conditions, and it’s made it difficult to provide care for her patients. […]
Dameron said she is assigned to 26 patients and most days she is the only nurse taking care of that unit. […]
A nurse of seven years at the IVH, Brian Myers, claims the state isn’t doing the best it can to solve the worker shortage. […]
Instead of hiring full-time help, Myers said the State is bringing in contracted labor, or substitute nurses to help out.
* Response from IDVA Director Terry Prince…
The dedicated staff, including nurses at the Veterans’ Home at Quincy, provide the highest level of care and are critical to the quality of life for Veterans in our care. We continue to nurture our partnership with the union to ensure the nursing staff is supported and valued. The Home’s leadership consistently works with our nursing team to understand and address concerns as they are brought forward. IDVA is mandated by the state and federal government to maintain a minimum standard for hours of care for each Veteran, and IDVA exceeds those requirements. IDVA is proud that the Veterans’ needs are met in a timely manner. The Home’s census is aligned with its current staffing to ensure safety for both residents and staff.
In order to meet and exceed staffing requirements, the IVHQ team has been working hard over the past several months to recruit, hire, and train skilled professionals to join the nursing staff. These efforts include widespread postings, job fairs, and marketing in the deeply competitive post-pandemic healthcare workforce. While there is a nation-wide hiring crisis in health care and other industries, IDVA will continue an aggressive hiring campaign to ensure we can serve Veterans seeking care, especially as our $230 million new building is slated to open in 2024.
posted by Isabel Miller
Wednesday, Jun 28, 23 @ 10:39 am
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Stop taking 6-9 months to fill a position and offer increased pay and benefits. That would really help. Hospitals and other nursing homes are offering better pay. The State needs to step up if it is serious about hiring.
Comment by Appears Wednesday, Jun 28, 23 @ 10:46 am
I am a member of a coalition working on addressing the shortage of healthcare workers. This is beyond just that facility. Hospitals are even utilizing “boot camps” to qualify people to be certified nurses assistants in as few as 8 weeks. The title varies but the function is standard. They are essentially looking under rocks to find people. The next phase which takes time is to help them advance to higher levels. It should also be noted that they can pay much higher salaries and on-board people a lot faster than the Quincy home probably can. Harsh, ugly reality.
Comment by levivotedforjudy Wednesday, Jun 28, 23 @ 11:04 am
Are there 30 sufficiently credentialed people looking for these kinds of jobs within reasonable commuting distance of the facility? I don’t know why we’re just assuming that there are.
Comment by Larry Bowa Jr. Wednesday, Jun 28, 23 @ 11:15 am
= Are there 30 sufficiently credentialed people looking for these kinds of jobs within reasonable commuting distance of the facility? I don’t know why we’re just assuming that there are. =
This is always going to be an issue at the Quincy home. Maybe the state should consider recruiting nurses from other states, especially healthcare professionals looking to escape red states. In addition, Quincy could be attractive to Californians (for example) due to the city’s much more modest cost of living and reasonable commute times, even if the state’s salary structure isn’t that great.
Comment by cover Wednesday, Jun 28, 23 @ 11:47 am
== Maybe the state should consider recruiting nurses from other states, especially healthcare professionals looking to escape red states. ==
It’s called travel nursing, and if you can deal with the lifestyle, it pays very well.
Comment by OneMan Wednesday, Jun 28, 23 @ 11:53 am
==It’s called travel nursing, and if you can deal with the lifestyle, it pays very well.==
Does it for the state, tho? This is the problem, in a booming economy, workers have choices and the state has to keep up.
Comment by Arsenal Wednesday, Jun 28, 23 @ 11:55 am
The crisis has been caused in a large part due to the State not keeping up to date
Comment by Appears Wednesday, Jun 28, 23 @ 12:18 pm
===In addition, Quincy could be attractive to Californians ===
Been to Quincy? I have a love for central Illinois, having been born and raised here, but most of it is not attractive to anyone who currently has a higher standard of living, nor anyone wanting a blue state lifestyle.
Comment by Jibba Wednesday, Jun 28, 23 @ 12:59 pm
This is rich–the INA has blocked the nurse compact legislation for years. 2 million nurses able to work in 38 states under one license. 20,000 out of state nurses worked in Illinois under the temporary COVID reciprocity rules. Now it takes months to get a nurse licensed in Illinois. Until the INA and IDFPR get their collective acts together the shortage will continue.
Comment by ANON Wednesday, Jun 28, 23 @ 1:42 pm
” …offer increased pay and benefits”
And better treatment of staff and better working conditions.
That would solve a bunch of it.
Comment by btowntruth from forgottonia Wednesday, Jun 28, 23 @ 2:29 pm
“…most of it is not attractive to anyone who currently has a higher standard of living, nor anyone wanting a blue state lifestyle.”
More correct that at least some of us in Forgottonia like to admit.
Comment by btowntruth from forgottonia Wednesday, Jun 28, 23 @ 2:30 pm
Private and nonprofit facilities are in just as bad a spot as the state run facilities. Would you rather clean up bed pans in a nursing home or move some boxes for Amazon? Work in the hot bed of COVID or flip some burgers for McDonald’s? I don’t blame them. Unless they are offering wages significantly above minimum wage, which the Medicaid system won’t fund, then it will be hard to staff up.
Comment by Truthiness Wednesday, Jun 28, 23 @ 2:38 pm
Quincy just can’t catch a break. Legionnaire’s, then Covid, they finally are getting a full new facility scheduled for completion soon and now they can’t staff it adequately.
Tough to get people to move to Quincy. Another issue of folks moving to urban centers as Main Street towns decline all over the country.
Comment by Frida's boss Wednesday, Jun 28, 23 @ 2:57 pm
Frida’s boss,
But there are people still livning in Quincy who could be trained? I like the idea of 8 weeks of bootcamp to get them to nurses assistant idea. And if they show reliability train them to a LPN then if they show capability train them to get an RN. With distance learning the course work could be incorporated into the daily work hours for the non-practicum stuff.
Comment by cermak_rd Wednesday, Jun 28, 23 @ 4:10 pm
Healthcare roles (as well as teaching, social work, transit operators, etc) are all underpaid for what they have to put up with in terms of work environment or qualifications. No one has yet to grapple with this basic reality.
Comment by Homebody Wednesday, Jun 28, 23 @ 4:53 pm
One of the first things I’d do as President is take about $30B away from the current military/pentagon monies and move it to help veterans. The way we treat them when sick, either mentally or physically, angers me.
Comment by Lurker Wednesday, Jun 28, 23 @ 6:19 pm