Literature Review

Labor activity in long-term care may be poised for ‘enormous’ growth in 2024McKnight’s Long Term Care NewsDecember 21, 2023Heightened union activity frequently made headlines this year, including among healthcare workers who loudly raised concerns about pay and staffing. Multiple factors make it likely that the trend of rising labor activity in long-term care will continue in 2024, experts say. 

OSHA, NAHCA alliance aims to protect CNAs from safety and health hazardsMcKnight’s Senior LivingDecember 21, 2023A new alliance between the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the National Association of Health Care Assistants aims to help protect certified nursing assistants in Missouri from exposure to safety and health hazards. The agreement, signed by OSHA’s regional office and NAHCA last month, provides the framework for a new alliance. 

Healthcare organizations hiring, retaining more employees—FitchModern HealthcareDecember 20, 2023Hospital employment numbers have increased, while healthcare job openings are on the decline—though the industry is still recovering from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. About 17.2 million individuals were on the payroll at healthcare organizations in November 2023, compared with 16.6 million in December 2022, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

San Diego County’s first class of physician assistants graduates, seen as key to easing staffing shortagesSan Diego Union-TribuneDecember 18, 2023... Point Loma Nazarene University minted its first 28 physician assistants Friday, injecting a fresh set of trained troops into an ongoing battle to keep up with the increased demands for health care caused by an aging population and an exodus of burnt-out medical providers in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was the first graduating class of the university’s new physician assistant program and the first crop of locally trained PAs for any institution in San Diego County. 

VITAS® Healthcare Wins Award for Best-in-Class Employee Experience Across Healthcare in North AmericaNews ReleaseDecember 18, 2023Miami, FL—VITAS Healthcare is once again setting the standard for employer excellence within the healthcare and hospice community. The nation’s leading provider of end-of-life care for 45 years achieved the Best-in-Class Award in the category of employee experience in healthcare for North America, presented at the 2023 HRO Today Association Conference on December 1, 2023. 

Berkshire VNA Nurses and Healthcare Professionals Reach Tentative Agreement on First MNA Contract to Stabilize Staffing and Improve Patient CarePRNewswireDecember 18, 2023Pittsfield, MA—The nurses and healthcare professionals of the Berkshire Visiting Nurse Association, represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association, reached a tentative agreement on December 15 with Berkshire Health Systems, agreeing on contract terms that give BVNA clinicians a wage step scale and tackle some productivity issues to help with recruitment and retention and address patient care access problems. 

Staffing issues continue to drive reduced admissions in SNFsMcKnight’s Senior LivingDecember 18, 2023Nursing home providers continue to struggle with staffing challenges as they aim to reboot admissions in the post-pandemic era, according to the newly released results of a recent Ziegler CFO Hotline survey. “The demand for our SNF services is rising at a rate significantly higher than our labor force allows,” said one respondent. ... Forty-six percent of the respondents to the November survey indicated that staffing issues have forced a reduction in SNF admissions. 

Greener nurses enter field as workforce demand continues to spikeMcKnight’s Home Care DailyDecember 15, 2023Job openings in healthcare and social services have risen sharply in the last several years, and healthcare providers are taking on less-experienced registered nurses to handle the pressure. At the beginning of 2018, the average nurse’s tenure was more than six years of experience, according to a recent workforce report by the ADP Research Institute. In the five years since, however, high turnover rates and a corresponding abundance of job opportunities deflated a nurse’s average tenure to about five years of experience. 

Boston VNA Nurses and Healthcare Professionals Cast a Unanimous Vote Authorizing a 14-day StrikePRNewswireDecember 13, 2023Boston, MA—In response to an increase in the complexity of care required for patients admitted for care at home, in conjunction with a lack of staff and resources to provide that level of care, the 60 registered nurses and healthcare professionals who work for the Visiting Nurses Association of Boston/VNA Care, cast a unanimous vote to authorize a 14-day strike in an effort to move their administration to provide the staffing and wage enhancements they need to provide the care their patients deserve. 

Demand for nurses continues to eclipse supply—reportMcKnight’s Senior LivingDecember 14, 2023Almost three years after the start of the pandemic, a shortage of registered nurses continues to eclipse the supply of qualified professionals. “The US shortage of registered nurses has been called a crisis. Burnout, staff turnover, a growing and aging baby-boomer population, and a lack of educators have contributed to high demand and undersupply, a longstanding problem aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic,” according to a new report from ADP Research Institute. 

Repositioning Nursing Homes For Acuity, More Closures, Less Deal Making Expected in 2024Skilled Nursing NewsDecember 12, 2023As the skilled nursing industry heads toward a new year with continued labor shortages and reimbursement gaps, service repositioning and closures among operators are expected trends for the space. And although there are signs of positivity in the form of increased Medicaid reimbursement in some states, extensive rural closures are creating “nursing home deserts” and up to 450,000 nursing home residents are still at risk of displacement without a sufficient workforce.  

Assaults on healthcare workers now carry enhanced criminal finesMcKnight’s Senior LivingDecember 12, 2023Michigan is the latest state to codify protections for healthcare workers assaulted on the job, which one senior living association said will positively impact the state’s workforce shortage problem. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) recently signed into law two bills that create enhanced criminal fines for assaults, aggravated assaults and assaults with a deadly weapon against health professionals or volunteers while on the job. ... In signing the bills, Whitmer said healthcare workers face “rising rates of bullying, viciousness and violence.”