Advocates say home nursing care wages, often paid through Medicaid and set by the state, are just too low to keep nurses and nursing assistants in the profession.
Families with medically dependent children, and seniors who require care at home, are struggling to find home care nurses. Lower wages and burnout, however are making the nursing shortage worse.'It absolutely is a crisis:' nursing homes struggling to maintain staff looking to lawmakers"If I can somehow make their life a little better that day, that meant so much to me," said Stan Cheevers.
"There's Haley," Caroline Cheevers, tells us, "She was shaken repeatedly and thrown against a wall at four months old. She has a 90% brain matter loss.""She is total-care, does not regulate her blood pressure, heart rate, or body temperature," said Caroline Cheevers. Houston-area nurses experiencing 'compassion fatigue' amid spike in hospitalizations, staff shortages"He has over 200 seizures a day.
"The pandemic exponentially worsened the issue and accelerated the problem, such that the nurses are experiencing burnout. They’re experiencing higher pay in certain areas, like hospitals," said Rachel Hammon, Executive Director of the Texas Association for Home Care and Hospice.Texas is the second-hardest hit state by the nursing shortage. So HCA Houston Healthcare teamed up with the University of Houston to address the problem.