The following joint statement can be attributed to Brian Peters, CEO of the Michigan Health & Hospital Association, and Kim Meeker, RN, BSN, MBA, president of the Michigan Organization for Nursing Leadership (MONL).
Kim Meeker, RN, BSN, MBA, president of the Michigan Organization of Nurse Leaders.
A package of bills announced today in the Michigan Legislature has the potential to severely harm hospitals and access to important services for patients, if ultimately passed. Proponents of the legislation falsely claim this will address nursing shortages in Michigan, but those claims couldn’t be further from the truth. Michigan hospitals are trying to fill 8,500 job openings for nurses. Instituting a one-size-fits-all mandate requiring hospitals hire more nurses who do not currently exist will limit the services hospitals can offer to their communities, prolong the time it takes for a patient to receive care and hinder the ability of hospitals to respond to a crisis in fear of violating Michigan law.
Tangible, proven steps are needed to attract more nurses to Michigan. Those include passing legislation that allows Michigan to join the Nurse Licensure Compact, expanding Michigan Reconnect eligibility and increasing penalties for those who commit acts of violence against healthcare workers.
MHA CEO Brian Peters.
Michigan hospitals and health systems have been hard at work addressing nursing shortages over recent years. Those efforts include:
Obtaining a total of $300 million in state funding that has benefitted at least 69,000 healthcare workers for the purposes of the recruitment, retention and training through Public Act 9 of 2022 and Public Act 5 of 2023.
Securing additional nurse training opportunities including expanded state policy allowing four-year BSN programs at community colleges.
Expanding Michigan Reconnect to allow funds to support Michiganders moving from a licensed practice nurse (LPN) to a registered nurse, or from a patient care technician certificate to a LPN.
Modernizing the scope of practice for certified registered nurse anesthetists which allows flexibility for each hospital to choose the anesthesia care model that best fits its location, staffing and resources under Public Act 53 of 2021.
Providing emotional well-being support to healthcare workers through a partnership with the Duke Center for Healthcare Safety and Quality that has so far assisted 5,000 healthcare workers from 144 organizations throughout Michigan.
Nursing careers not only provide stable, well compensated jobs with a set of transferrable skills that rarely become obsolete, but in a rewarding environment that truly make a difference in the lives of the patients they serve. The MHA and our member hospitals and health systems, together with MONL, remain committed to focusing on effective solutions that support Michigan nurses and ensure safe patient care.
“Individual commitment to a group effort – that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.”— Vince Lombardi
Talent acquisition is always top of mind for all business leaders. Demand for workers now outpaces supply throughout the U.S., but particularly here in Michigan due to our demographic realities, including an aging baby-boom generation entering retirement in significant numbers. A recent presentation by Michigan Senate Fiscal Agency Chief Economist David Zin summarizes these challenges, as Michigan has the eleventh highest median age in the country, a metric which has been increasing rapidly in recent years.
This challenge is clearly felt by Michigan hospitals and health systems, as many retirement decisions made by healthcare workers accelerated during and because of the pandemic. The use of contract agencies for nurses exploded while hospitals also reduced the number of staffed beds in their facilities due to worker shortages. The financial repercussions of these shortages had Michigan hospitals spending more than $1 billion more on contract labor and recruitment and retention expenses in 2022 than in 2020, according to a MHA workforce report.
Although current staffing levels have stabilized somewhat in the state, the demand remains high. According to a March 2023 survey of 95% of the MHA membership, there were over 27,000 job openings in Michigan hospitals, including nearly 8,500 open nursing positions.
While the number of open positions may be surprising, healthcare is historically the largest private-sector employer in Michigan. The next iteration of the Economic Impact of Healthcare in Michigan report publishes May 2, which demonstrates the massive role healthcare plays in the state. Michigan healthcare organizations provided nearly 568,000 direct healthcare jobs in fiscal year 2021, with Michigan hospitals providing roughly 219,000 – or nearly 40% – of those jobs. Once wages, salaries and benefits and tax revenue are factored in, healthcare contributes nearly $100 billion to the state’s economy each year.
The value that our hospitals provide to the health and wellness of a community is obvious and is reason enough to warrant our strong support. But in addition, the magnitude to which our Michigan economy depends on healthcare can easily be overlooked. Hospitals are often the largest employer in their respective communities and serve as critical lynchpins of economic vibrancy. This is why it is so important for hospitals to engage with business and policy leaders to ensure alignment across the state in our efforts to attract and retain talent.
Healthcare careers are not only stable and well compensated, but also provide a set of transferrable skills which rarely become obsolete. We recognize that healthcare careers, particularly clinical positions, can be stressful and emotionally draining. We can’t sugarcoat the challenges associated with caring for all types of patients in organizations that operate 24/7/365.
But the MHA is here to help. In an effort to support the emotional well-being of healthcare workers, in 2021 the MHA Keystone Center launched a partnership with the Duke Center for Healthcare Safety and Quality team led by Bryan Sexton, PhD. More than 5,000 clinical and non-clinical staff from 144 organizations joined in the first 10-week Well-being Essentials for Learning Life-Balance cohort, and our work here is ongoing. We are also advocating for policy change at the state and federal level that would increase the penalties for those who commit acts of violence against our caregivers.
Through our successful advocacy work, the Michigan Legislature appropriated $75 million in funding for the recruitment, retention and training of hospital workers in Public Act 5 of 2023. This funding supplements an earlier $225 million appropriation made in Public Act 9 of 2022 and has played a large part in minimizing further losses to the healthcare workforce. The MHA was named as the fiduciary for both of these funding pools – evidence of the strong bipartisan trust in our association.
Allowing clinicians to work at the top of their license and removing administrative work is another tactic that can help attract healthcare talent. Enacting policy change that reduces rates of healthcare worker violence and expands access to behavioral health treatment are others. The work of the MHA and our members is to make sure healthcare workers have all the tools available to do their work improving and saving lives without unnecessary mandates and other interference that contributes to the challenges healthcare professionals experience.
These workforce challenges and the need for more workers also illustrates the need for local control for hospitals to determine staffing models that best represent the needs of their patients and communities. A one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work when comparing a rural critical access hospital to an urban Level I trauma center. Successful staffing models incorporate input and feedback from nursing teams and the unique needs of the local community.
There are also a variety of other approaches the MHA and our partners at the American Hospital Association are advocating for to attract healthcare talent. This ranges from increased investment in nursing schools, nurse faculty salaries and hospital training time; enacting protections for healthcare workers against violence and intimidation; supporting apprenticeship programs for nursing assistants; and supporting expedition of visas for foreign-trained nurses.
There is no silver bullet that will fix workforce shortages. The current issue facing hospitals, as well as many other industries, is the reality that the available supply of workers simply doesn’t meet the demand. Michigan continues to be aggressive in efforts to attract businesses to the state. We must recognize our state is in competition with others for a finite amount of available healthcare workers.
Yet things can be done to grow the pie and attract more students into the healthcare talent pipeline. For example, the MHA will be focused this summer on raising awareness about the variety of jobs and career pathways that exist within health systems, and encouraging future and existing workers to consider a career in healthcare where they can truly change lives, whether they’re at the bedside or behind a computer screen.
Healthcare is the ultimate team sport, with the utmost objective – saving lives, and preserving the health and welfare of people. I hope you will join us in this endeavor and invite as many people as you can to the party.
Through a partnership with the Duke Center for Healthcare Safety and Quality, the MHA Keystone Center is pleased to offer the second iteration of its WELL-B webinar series geared to support healthcare workers experiencing burnout.
Live courses will begin on Nov. 17 and take place monthly through Oct. 2023. Each one-hour session includes CME and ANCC credit. The 12 sessions are a continuation of the courses offered earlier this year. Members who did not participate in the spring cohort are encouraged to listen to the recordings to gain foundational knowledge. CME and ANCC credits are also available for the pre-recorded sessions.
Registration will remain open throughout the series.
Registration is also open for a 5-hour WELL-B Essentials cohort opportunity starting in Jan. 2023. The five interactive sessions will center around cultivating work-life balance, gratitude, self-compassion and awe.
Sessions for the WELL-B Essentials cohort are first come, first serve. Registrants will be assigned to the one-hour sessions from noon to 1 p.m. either Jan. 23 – 27 or Jan. 30 – Feb. 3.
The MHA Keystone Center Patient Safety Organization (PSO) Annual Meeting brings together national safety and clinical experts each year to discuss hot topics in healthcare. It will be held virtually from 9 a.m. to 3:10 p.m. March 9.
During the past several years, there has been an increasing prevalence of workplace violence in healthcare, and COVID-19 has contributed to violent behavior. That is why a key focus for the 2022 meeting is workplace violence and well-being.
Ken Smith, CHSP, CIE, CHCM, vice president at Healthcare Safety Services, will assist hospitals and health systems in complying with The Joint Commission’s new standards on workplace violence that took effect in January. Additionally, he will identify prevention strategies and action plans to assist health systems and hospitals with increasing workplace violence due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bryan Sexton, PhD, director of the Duke Center for Healthcare Safety and Quality, will outline the WELL-B webinar series that will begin March 29, demonstrating the efficacy of bite-sized interventions to sustain improvements in healthcare worker well-being.
Additional presentations will focus on anticoagulation-related adverse medication events and the intersection of health equity and safety.
Registration is free and available to MHA Keystone Center PSO members. Continuing education opportunities will be offered. Members with questions may contact the MHA Keystone Center PSO.
The 2022 MHA Keystone Center Patient Safety Organization (PSO) Annual Meeting will be held virtually from 9 a.m. to 3:10 p.m. March 9. Participants will hear about topics related to the intersection of health equity and safety, anticoagulation-related medication events, addressing violence in healthcare and improving resiliency and well-being across the healthcare workforce.
Featured speakers include Bryan Sexton, PhD, Duke Center for Healthcare Safety and Quality; Darren Triller, PharmD, Anticoagulation Forum; and Ken Smith, CHSP, CIE, CHCM, Healthcare Safety Services.
Physicians, safety and quality improvement staff, nurses, pharmacists and risk managers will especially benefit from participating in the meeting. PSO members may register for this free event online.
Well-being Essentials for Learning Life-Balance (WELL-B) is a behavioral health training program for the healthcare workforce that delivers weekly webinars on evidence-based well-being topics, including prevalence and severity of burnout, relationship resilience and being present. Compared to anxiety and depression, burnout is relatively easier to treat and prevent.
This free webinar series is a collaboration between the MHA Keystone Center and the Duke Center for Healthcare Safety and Quality, led by Bryan Sexton, PhD. WELL-B delivers “bite-sized” virtual learnings to train clinical and nonclinical staff on how they can support their colleagues. The WELL-B webinar series has a planned start date of March 1 and runs for 10 consecutive weeks at noon EST. Attendees may receive up to 11 hours of continuing medical education credit or American Nurse Credential Center credit. Recordings will be available to view and share after each live session.
