The governor’s office says the most job openings in Louisiana right now are for nurses with over 6,000 positions available on the Louisiana Workforce Commission’s website. Dean of LSU Health Sciences Center School of Medicine in New Orleans Steve Nelson said the need for nurses will only increase.
“Within the next three to fours years, there’s going to be about a shortage of two to three thousand burses in the hospitals so this pandemic has just accentuated this problem,” Nelson said.
The pandemic has highlighted the shortage of nurses since patients affected by the virus require intensive care both from nurses and respiratory therapists. Nelson said the health care professionals who have been in the trenches for over a year are feeling burned out.
“When this first came around no one knew what was happening, how best to treat these patients. In Louisiana, we always step up when there’s a crisis, and now a lot of them are just exhausted and have low morale,” Nelson said.
Nearly 14-hundred patients in Louisiana are hospitalized with COVID. Nelson said the risks associated with being a healthcare worker have also played a role in the shortage.
“They’re wondering how long do I take this risk. I go into the hospital, take care of these patients, and then I have to go home to my family and I have little children or elderly parents that I’m taking care of and what risk do I pose to them,” Nelson said.
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