Nearly 500 nurses recently participated in a survey asking about their working conditions and why they may have left or thought about leaving the profession. The number one reason given was staffing.
While staffing remains a major issue for nurses in the state, several other factors continue to play a role in the issues nurses face, including stress, management, and poor working conditions.
During a roundtable discussion at the Capitol on Monday, nurses who have left their jobs shared what it was like, being overwhelmed with more patients than they could care for, and a management team they said was unresponsive.
“We’ve seen those new nurses say this is more than I thought it would be. We can work through that a lot but if we don’t have the resources and the people who can sit and teach them, then they leave,” Wendy Cassello said at the round table.
During the conversation Cassello expressed her worry about the profession, particularly new nurses who she says won’t stick with it if they don’t get support.
“They say, ‘This is too much, this isn’t what I thought it was,’” she said.
The nurses are asking lawmakers to pass a bill that would establish committees at hospitals to set safe staffing levels, including a limit on the number of patients that any one nurse should care for.
