NORFOLK, Va. — If you're looking for an assisted care facility or a retirement home you might be waiting for a while.
A number of facilities in Virginia are having trouble filling nursing positions, especially after the pandemic. Some have even limited the number of new patients or residents they'll take in.
"There is an aging population here [in Hampton Roads] in need of supervised care whether its an assisted living, retirement center, or a nursing home," said Thomas Orsini, CEO at Lake Taylor Transitional Care Hospital. "When we grew up it wasn't unusual to have maybe two or three generations in one house, nowadays we don't see it as much. It's just kind of the evolution of society."
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As the population ages they'll have needs.
"It takes a village to take care of someone," said Amanda Lee, director of nursing at Lake Taylor. "These residents need quality nurses just like the hospitals do."
But what if there is more need than nurses?
"It can increase their patient load," added Lee. She said those at Lake Taylor have been lucky to have a great staff in times of need. "If needed, they'll pick up overtime, shifts when we need them to, stay late."
To make sure each patient gets proper care, some facilities who don't have enough workers have to temporarily limit admissions.
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In Virginia, 44% of 170 facilities had a hold on admissions at least once since June, according to a survey by The Virginia Health Care Association-Virginia Center for Assisted Living, a state organization that represents the interest of the long-term care industry. That survey also found 39% had waiting lists for new admissions, and more than 90% of facilities had employees work overtime or take extra shifts.
"The consequence there is that the hospital then can't discharge the patients to a post-acute facility [like Lake Taylor] therefore the patients end up staying in the hospital longer or have to go somewhere else other than the nursing home," said Orsini.
He said shortages are due in part to limited budgets and folks choosing jobs outside of the healthcare industry.
"We're worried there's not anybody out there, there's not enough people in the pipeline coming into healthcare," said Orsini.
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Nurses said the work will always be important.
"We're all going to be a part of that aging population too, right, so it's important to me that we love them just as much as we love our own family members, our own moms our own dads," said Lee. "Working in this setting, I think sometimes, nurses may shun it. They may prefer to go to the acute care hospital settings versus this setting. But there's a lot of rewarding aspects working in a setting like this."
Those at Lake Taylor said they, like others, have felt some strain, but they've had success building their nursing staff up by leaning on the medical schools in the area.
