Bipartisan Efforts Underway to Alleviate National Nursing Crisis

By: YS Gold 

There has been a crisis-level shortage in nurses at hospitals even before the Covid-19 epidemic—and the pandemic has made the crisis even worse. Training in new nurses is a costly endeavor, and low-income hospitals are finding it especially difficult to bring in new staff. Post-pandemic, hospitals and nursing homes are also having to pay healthcare workers more. 

The crisis has propelled a bi-partisan group of senators to work together to alleviate the crisis.  

The senators sent a letter to the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare asking them to extend a program that awards low-income hospitals with funds to boost pay so they can retain workers.  

Advocates also point out that the Federal Government has a number of tools at its disposal to help ease this crisis. These include funding, granting visas for nurses to enter the country, and expanding educational opportunities for future nurses.