Burlington Standard

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Carole Johnson, Administrator of the Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) met with health care leaders and educators from throughout Vermont at the University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine on Friday for a discussion that focused on the nursing workforce crisis.

Representatives from the University of Vermont, UVM College of Nursing and Health Sciences, Larner College of Medicine, University of Vermont Medical Center, Vermont Technical College, Castleton and Northern Vermont Universities, Norwich University, Norwich School of Nursing, Community Health Centers, Lamoille Health Partners, and Rutland Regional Medical Center joined Sen. Sanders and Johnson to share perspectives on the challenges behind the shortage of local nurses in the state.

“Many of the nursing schools who are represented here have all kinds of applicants - young people who want to become nurses,” said Sen. Sanders as he opened the discussion. “They don’t have the educators to train those nurses because the educators are inadequately funded. And they don’t have the resources to expand.”

Before the COVID-19 pandemic began, it was estimated Vermont needed to add approximately 9,000 nurses to the state’s workforce in the next seven years and provide 50 additional full-time nursing instructors. Vermont’s nursing schools are currently only able to graduate fewer than half of the number of nurses needed to keep up with retirements and those leaving the workforce.

“How do we bring more young people into nursing? How do we train them?” Sen. Sanders asked.

“We say constantly that we would like to increase our numbers of nursing students,” said UVM College of Nursing and Health Sciences Dean Noma Anderson. “But we can identify the challenges: we don’t have the space, we don’t have the faculty, we don’t have scholarships.”

“If HRSA has a way to help us, it will make a world of difference,” said Anderson.

Anderson’s comment echoed around the table in the perspectives of Vermont nursing program administrators.

An agency within the US Department of Health and Human Services, HRSA provides equitable health care to people who are geographically isolated and economically or medically vulnerable, and supports health infrastructure, including through training of health professionals and distributing them to areas where they are needed most, providing financial support to health care providers, and advancing telehealth.

Johnson acknowledged the recent impact of the American Rescue Plan Act, through which HRSA provided approximately $6.1 billion to Health Center Program recipients to enhance health care services and infrastructure, including resources for loan repayment and scholarship programs for health care workers to continue to invest in training programs. She praised Vermont for its partnership with HRSA in leveraging federal resources to improve health care delivery statewide.

Johnson also affirmed there are gaps to meet to improve future nurses’ ability to access training.

“We need to make sure that nurses on the frontline feel supported; that young people get into nurse training programs and that we have the faculty to support them; and that we're delivering the health care that people in Vermont and people across the country need,” Johnson said.

In closing, Johnson expressed her appreciation to Sen. Sanders for the opportunity to learn about the issue from Vermont health care leaders in order to understand what’s working and what needs to change to ensure a vital nursing workforce for the future.

“What we're working on right now - which in the long run will save substantial sums of money in health care in the State - is to be able to educate young people from Vermont to become nurses,” said Sen. Sanders.

The roundtable was part of a series of discussions that Sen. Sanders and Johnson held with health care administrators and educators in Vermont on issues that included the state’s Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) network and opportunities to support and strengthen primary health care.

Original source can be found here.