“ nurses have advocated since day one for multiple measures of infection control to be taken to stop the spread of COVID-19 . NNU agrees that vaccination is a critically important part of a comprehensive public health program for infection control . We strongly believe all eligible people should be vaccinated , while respecting the need for medical and religious accommodations … However , as advocates for public health , registered nurses want to be extremely clear : There is no such thing as a pandemic of only the unvaccinated . The science of epidemiology tells us there is just one deadly , global pandemic that has not yet ended , and we are all in it together . To get out of it , we must act together .”
NNU continues , “ Science shows that a multiple-measures approach to infection control is the most effective , and vaccination is just one , albeit critical , component . In addition to encouraging vaccination , from the very beginning of this pandemic NNU has called for proven and effective public and workplace infection control measures that the entire country must adopt now , including robust and routine testing and contact tracing , masking in all public settings ( no matter one ’ s vaccination status ), and social distancing . In addition , in hospitals and other healthcare facilities , nurses and other healthcare workers must be protected with optimal PPE , providing safe staffing levels , proper isolation , contact tracing and notification , proper quarantining , ventilation , universal masking , social distancing , and diligent hygiene .”
The pandemic ’ s impact on the state of nursing and the vaccine mandate are hitting rural healthcare facilities harder than their metropolitan counterparts , according to Weber ( 2021 ), who notes , “ The market for health care labor , strained by more than a year and a half of coping with the pandemic , continues to be pinched . While urban hospitals with deeper pockets for shoring up staff have implemented vaccine mandates and may even use them as a selling point to recruit staffers and patients , their rural and regional counterparts are left with hard choices as cases surge again .” Quoting Alan Morgan , head of the National Rural Health Association , Weber ( 2021 ) reports , “ Obviously , it ’ s going to be a real challenge for these small , rural hospitals to mandate a vaccine when they ’ re already facing such significant workforce shortages .”
Weber ( 2021 ) points to the lack of a vaccine mandate as a recruitment tool : “ In Nebraska , the state veterans affairs ’ agency prominently displays the lack of a vaccine requirement for nurses on its job site , the Associated Press reported .” Weber ( 2021 ) cites one expert who remarked that hospital administrators and lawmakers , who have “ zero COVID exposure ,” are the ones making difficult decisions : “ Hospitals across the country posted signs that said , ‘ Healthcare heroes work here .’ Where is the reward for our heroes ? Right now , the hospitals are telling us the reward for the heroes : ‘ If you don ’ t get the vaccine , you ’ re fired .’”
Houston Methodist Hospital , the health system sued by RN Jennifer Bridges , maintains the vaccination mandate did not exacerbate workforce shortages ; public relations director Stefanie Asin said that “ Of those who were terminated , only 26 were nurses , so it did not create a shortage here . We have 5,000 nurses .”
It was widely reported by the media that just 153 employees were terminated by the Houston healthcare system , a fact disputed by Bridges . “ They have been saying that only 153 employees got terminated but there were well over several hundred because with they ’ re only counting clinicians and not including everyone ,” Bridges alleges . “ The mandate not only affected all clinical staff , but even vendors were impacted and the Houston Police Department , as the healthcare system had a lot of police officers working security – so all these people got fired . If vendors refused the vaccine , the company they worked for fired them . Some of the companies were nice and would re-route them to other places that didn ’ t mandate the shot yet , but a lot of them were terminated . The mandate also impacted physicians . They ’ re not going to tell you this part , but many physicians either said ‘ No , I ’ m not taking the shot ,’ or they filed religious exemptions . Methodist denied a lot of these exemptions , which is discrimination because half our doctors are other ethnicities from other countries and have different religious beliefs . So , some of them quit . Many people in the system were older , so they retired so they didn ’ t have to deal with it , but the physicians whose exemptions were denied lost all their system privileges . Many of these physicians who had offices connected to the hospital were given one month ’ s notice to vacate ; that forced many of them to send letters to their patients suggesting they find new physicians . This is part of our lawsuit .”
Bridges continues , “ Thousands of patients cancelled appointments , or went elsewhere for their surgeries . Some of them bombarded Methodist phone lines , they emailed or sent them letters stating how upset they were for treating their staff that way . They thought everyone would side with them and yet so many turned against them and now they are so short-staffed they are not able to keep all areas of some of the hospitals open . They can ’ t fill open positions . People aren ’ t applying like they thought they were going to , and they ’ re even offering significant bonuses to work there . I have documentation that traveling nurse associations and nursing registries are paying nurses incredible amounts of money to help out at these hospitals , and the nurses don ’ t even have to prove they ’ re vaccinated ,” Bridges alleges . “ Facilities that mandate vaccines are losing nurses .”
One critical impact of unilateral mandatory vaccination is that aforementioned potential exodus of healthcare personnel which ultimately jeopardizes patient safety and creates a great margin for error in “ doing harm .”
There is no lack of evidence on the ongoing presence and ramifications of a shortage of professional , skilled nurses , and this was long before nurses and other healthcare professionals left over mandatory vaccination policies . According to the United States Registered Nurse Workforce Report Card and Shortage Forecast : A Revisit , a shortage of registered nurses is projected to spread across the country between 2016 and 2030 . Dr . Linda Aiken and her colleagues released findings from a study of acute-care facilities which found that a greater proportion of professional nurses at the bedside is associated with better outcomes for patients and nurses . Reducing nursing skill mix by adding assistive personnel without professional nurse qualifications may contribute to preventable deaths , erode care quality , and contribute to nurse shortages . Dr . Mary Blegen and her colleagues from UC San Francisco found that higher nurse staffing levels were associated with fewer deaths , lower failure-to-rescue incidents , lower rates of infection , and shorter hospital stays . Dr . Jack Needleman published findings in the New England Journal of Medicine which indicate that insufficient nurse staffing was related to higher patient mortality rates .
Americans are leaving jobs at record rates during the pandemic . Do healthcare employers face the possibility of losing even more workers who might leave their jobs because of the mandates ?
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