Florida Would Be The Preferred Location For Majority Of Movers
When asked where they would consider moving to find a job in healthcare not requiring the vaccine, 31% of respondents said that Florida would be their state of choice, a much higher percentage than any other. Though Florida does require vaccinations for most healthcare workers, Governor DeSantis continues to fight mandates, making it a safer bet than many other states for healthcare workers resisting vaccines.
Though many are deciding to cut their losses, most healthcare workers who oppose vaccine mandates seem willing to take their chances elsewhere. The majority say theyve considered uprooting their lives and moving states to be able to find a job in their field that wont make them get vaccinated. This is especially true for the positions that require the most education, such as doctors and physician assistants. However, 25% plan to start fresh by switching industries and going back to school, though a notable percentage are worried that their skills wont transfer.
Nurses Union Receives ‘hate Mail’ Over Support For Vaccine Mandate
Mr Olsen said he continued to support the vaccine mandate, despite getting more “hate mail” over the topic in 23 years than over any other issue.
His response to critics was: “It’s not the policy that’s leaving the staff short.
“It’s the fact that we’ve got health professionals who should know better, who are ignoring the science and choosing not to get vaccinated.
“They’re the ones leaving their colleagues short.”
AMA WA president Dr Mark Duncan-Smith said the fact only a small number of staff had chosen not to get vaccinated was a positive sign.
“It should be reassuring to the general public that health care professionals overwhelmingly support vaccination and it should be a reason for the general public to go out and get vaccinated if they aren’t already,” he said.
“From a management point of view, if you’re running a tier 1 centre as such an emergency department or intensive care unit, the employer needs to provide a safe work environment and that means the staff need to be vaccinated.”
Rural Hospitals Ltc Fear Shutdowns
The CMS healthcare mandate has received close to 1,000 comments as this report was filed, many from rural healthcare facilities or nursing homes that said the vaccine mandate will create a loss of staff that will severely compromise care or even shut them down. The rule was open for comments until Jan. 4. While many commentors accused CMS and the Biden administration of constitutional overreach, others reminded that vaccines have always been required in healthcare.
Of course, all healthcare workers should have to be vaccinated for COVID-19, an unidentified physician from Ohio commented to CMS. This is a public health issue, not a personal rights issue. Just like we have to get a TB test, flu shot, etc., we need to protect ourselves and our patients. For those who do not want to be vaccinated, perhaps they do not belong in healthcare, because clearly they dont believe in the system or in science.1
But even healthcare workers who are voluntarily fully vaccinated against COVID-19 warn of the unintended consequences of the federal vaccine mandate, particularly to LTC and rural facilities already hit hard by the pandemic.
In comments submitted to CMS, an unidentified infection prevention nurse at an LTC facility in South Dakota said the mandate could compromise resident care and halt new admissions due to inadequate staffing.
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% Staying In The Industry Are Having Trouble Finding A New Job
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the number of states and healthcare systems instituting vaccine mandates, an overwhelming majority of respondents who plan to stay in the healthcare field say that they are having trouble finding a job that doesnt require them to be vaccinated.
Sixty-two percent even say that they have considered taking a lower-paying job in order to find employment in the field that will allow them to stay unvaccinated.
Health Care Workers Quitting Over Vaccine Mandates Adds To Staffing Crisis
Now, another issue has been added to list: vaccine mandates.
Since the summer, major health care networks and hospitals around the state have implemented requirements that all workers receive a vaccine against the coronavirus or face losing their jobs.
And in every health system, a handful of providers chose to quit rather than get the shot.
IU Health reported that 125 of its 35,800 employees resigned after refusing to get vaccinated. Community Health Network, which runs Community Howard Regional Health, said around 60 employees quit out of its 16,000 workers.
Eskenazi Health, which employs around 6,000, said less than 1% of its workforce chose not to get vaccinated. Ascension, which operates Ascension St. Vincent Kokomo, said most of its workers got the vaccine but wouldn’t provide specific data.
That puts the number of health care providers in Indiana choosing to quit rather than get vaccinated into the hundreds.
Brian Tabor, director of the Indiana Hospital Association, said that, on paper, the figure isn’t huge. But considering staffing levels have already become critically low at many hospitals and other health facilities, he said, the number can’t be ignored.
“No one is looking at that as inconsequential,” Tabor said. “Even though it’s less than 1%, we’re at an unprecedented level for staffing concerns and, in some cases, crisis. It’s not something any organization takes lightly.”
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‘AN INDIVIDUAL CHOICE’
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Hospitals Confront The Fallout From Supreme Court Ruling On Vaccine Mandate
They could face more staff shortages, and workers and facilities could feel caught between opposing state and federal policies.
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By Audra D. S. Burch and Reed Abelson
Just days after the Supreme Courts about requiring health care workers to be vaccinated, the nations health care systems braced for the possibility of some resistance and more staff shortages particularly in the states that banned mandates or had none.
The ruling lands not long after the one-year anniversary of widespread vaccine distribution in a country still largely split over how best to protect Americans during a pandemic that has produced multiple surges. In upholding the Biden administrations requirement for millions of health care workers, the decision could wedge health care workers between opposing state and federal policies.
Local and regional hospitals, as well as multistate hospital chains, have wrestled with the resistance among some nurses and other staff to the Covid vaccines. Many of the larger hospital groups, including the Cleveland Clinic and HCA Healthcare, suspended their own vaccination mandates last month while they awaited the Supreme Courts decision. And some are still assessing the conflict with murky anti-vaccine requirements imposed in Florida, Texas and some other states.
I think your own medical bodily autonomy is very important, she said. I dont think anyone should force you to do something against your will.
% Plan To Leave The Healthcare Field Entirely
Of the healthcare professionals we surveyed who have quit due to vaccine mandates, more than one in four say they plan to leave the healthcare field for what they believe to be greener pastures. Its worth noting that even professions requiring a major investment into education report leaving the field in striking numbers. 20% of respondents identifying as doctors, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants say they will leave the field, along with 25% of nurses, 38% of nursing assistants, 35% of home health aides, and 16% of lab technicians.
Forty-nine percent say theyve decided to leave because they are burned out from caring for patients during the pandemic, which is an interesting discrepancy in reasoning given that survey respondents are likely against vaccination. Forty-eight percent also stated that they are leaving the field because it is too difficult for them to find a job in healthcare that doesnt require the vaccine.
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Risk Of Nurses Leaving Too High To Mandate Vaccine Says Ballad Health Ceo
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Many healthcare workers are vaccinated against COVID-19, but others are refusing to do so as part of their employers’ requirements. As a result, hospitals and health systems have lost employees, and one healthcare executive said a mandate could cost his 21-hospital system too many nurses.
“We have about 6,000 nurses in our system,” Alan Levine, executive chair, president and CEO of Johnson City, Tenn.-based Ballad Health, told NPR. “If we are five or 10 nurses down in our system, we feel it. … I have to keep as many nurses as I can who are capable of taking care of our community.”
Mr. Levine’s concerns about staff quitting because of vaccine requirements are substantiated Lewis County Health System, a single-hospital system in Lowville, N.Y., said it will temporarily close its maternity unit after staff resigned over the state mandate. In South Carolina, Tidelands Health fired one of its employees for not complying with the Georgetown-based system’s vaccine mandate. Among the most recent examples: After a two-week unpaid suspension period ending Sept. 14, 125 employees at IU Health left the Indianapolis-based organization after choosing not to receive the vaccine.
Hospitals have expressed concerns about what a mandate could mean for facilities already grappling with staffing strain.
Mr. Levine told NPR that he’s uncertain how the federal mandate will affect his hospitals, but he also is concerned about the effect on rural healthcare providers.
Facing Vaccine Mandates Some Nurses Are Resigningor Getting Fired
Even as more hospital systems around the country enact Covid-19 vaccine requirements for their employees, some nurses still refuse to get vaccinatedchoosing instead to resign or be fired, Meagan Flynn reports for the Washington Post.
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Keep Tabs On The Latest California Policy And Politics News
In December, during the winter surge, emergency waivers for the ratios were granted to hospitals throughout the state, allowing ICU nurses to see three patients, for instance. Critics say the conditions threatened patient safety.
Newsoms order last week did not reinstate the waivers of the nurse-patient ratios, which expired on Feb. 8. Individual facilities, however, can still apply for them.
I would not be surprised if they reapply for waivers, union president Triunfo-Cortez said.
The state health department did not respond to requests seeking information on whether hospitals have applied for staffing waivers in response to the shortages.
How Many Workers Have Quit Over Vaccine Mandates
The share of workers saying their employer requires Covid-19 vaccinations has increased since June, and 5% of unvaccinated workersor 1% of all adultssay they’ve quit their job because of a vaccine mandate, according to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll.
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Losing Staff But No Regrets
Many nursing homes that adopted COVID-19 vaccine requirements are now reaping the rewards. Theyve lost workers, but their operators have no regrets.
The Jewish Home Family, a nonprofit long-term care provider with two campuses in New Jersey, is celebrating having more than 99 percent of its workforce fully vaccinated after mandating shots in summer. More than 99 percent of residents are also fully vaccinated. Since the July deadline, there have been no COVID-19 infections among residents and just one breakthrough case among workers.
Infection control protocols, such as social distancing and masking, are still in place, but life looks pretty normal around here, says Carol Silver Elliott, the Jewish Home Familys president and chief executive officer. Visitation, communal dining and a full calendar of activities, entertainment and exercise have all returned. Im even teaching them yoga twice a month, she says. Were doing it all.
While the company lost five of its 530 employees due to the requirement, its a small price to pay for a real sense of safety, says Silver Elliott. We prayed for a vaccine for months and months and months. So to not would be criminal its putting peoples lives at risk, and we exist to care for vulnerable elderly. We exist to protect them.
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Should You Mandate A Covid
Ask these 5 questions first.
Across the country, health care employers are facing a pressing question: How do you increase the number of staff vaccinated against Covid-19? Advisory Board’s Miriam Sznycer-Taub, Lauren Woodrow, and Heather Bell spoke with Kimberly Daniel, partner at the health care law firm Hancock, Daniel & Johnson, P.C about the implications of mandating Covid-19 vaccines for your employees.
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Some Central Texas Healthcare Workers Quit Fired As Vaccine Mandates Take Effect
WACO, Texas – Some Waco-area doctors and nurses are out of a job as COVID-19 vaccine mandates went into effect at two of the citys largest hospitals last week.
One of the casualties is Shannon Farmer, a local nurse of 20 years.
Why should I have to choose between a career that I love and taking a vaccine that I dont feel 100% comfortable taking? said Farmer. If they start forcing us to do things with our bodies that were not comfortable doing…where does that stop?
After being in healthcare for 21 years, Farmer has decided to leave the industry entirely in response to the pandemic-related mandates.
Im conflicted, obviously I went into nursing to help people, I believe the pandemic is real, Ive seen many, many people die from it, Ive taken care of many of them, but Im disheartened, thats the best work, she said. Patients have the right to refuse treatment by healthcare workers and providers, but then, if youre an employee, thats completely taken from you, theyre not allowing you to make those decisions for yourself.
She says shes not alone in getting out.
I personally have known about 15 nurses that have left healthcare completely because of this, said Farmer.
She says its a slap in the face to let go of the same people who worked tirelessly when the virus hit.
We were ok to work 12, 16, 18 hours when this all came out with no vaccines, and now these are the very people that are being let go, that are being fired, she said.
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‘this Is The Hill To Die On’
On July 19, Valley Health announced a Covid-19 vaccine mandate for 6,300 employees at six locations, including Winchester Medical Center and Warren Memorial Hospital, with religious and medical exemptions being offered for eligible applicants, Flynn reports. And for most of its employees, the mandate has not been an issuethe organization reported that around 75% were already fully vaccinated.
However, the mandate has also spurred numerous protestsmany of which have included nursesand pushback from local communities where vaccination rates are lower than those statewide.
According to Flynn, nurses protesting outside of Winchester Medical Center said they had weighed the risks of being unvaccinated, and considered vaccination the riskier option. Some cited rare but serious side effects, such as the risk of myocarditis linked to the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, or the blood clot risk linked to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Others cited misinformation about the vaccines’ potential effects on fertility, Flynn reports. And some said they already had natural immunity after being infected with the coronavirus last year.
Overall, the unvaccinated nurses described a “fear of the unknown,” Flynn writes. Many of them believe that the vaccines have not been out long enough to be safe, or they feel uncomfortable with the increased pressure toward unvaccinated people to get a shot.
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How Many Workers Have Quit To Avoid Vaccine Mandates
Just 5% of unvaccinated workersand 1% of all workers overallsaid they left a job because of a COVID-19 vaccine mandate from their employer, more evidence that a feared exodus of workers due to mandates isnt as severe as some predicted.
The statistic comes from a new survey released by the Kaiser Family Foundation, which found that one-quarter of workers surveyed in October said their employer has required them to get vaccinated, up from 9% in June and 19% last month. While about a quarter of all adults say they know someone who has left a job because of a vaccine requirement, just 5% of unvaccinated workers say they have personally done so. The nonpartisan organization surveyed 1,519 adults Oct. 14-24.
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The results come as more employers are requiring employees to get vaccinated against COVID. President Joe Biden in September announced his plan to require private employers with 100 or more employees to mandate their workers get vaccinated or undergo weekly COVID testing. The rulewhich is expected to be issued soon by the Department of Labors Occupational Safety and Health Administrationis spurring some organizations to initiate mandates in advance of the change.
The Kaiser survey asked only whether people have quit over a vaccine requirement. It did not pose the question of whether they have quit when faced with a vaccine requirement with a testing option.
Maine Hospitals Brace For Small Number Of Staff To Quit Over New Vaccine Mandate
Paramedic Corey Bonnevie must get the coronavirus vaccine or quit.
He is considering the latter after 20 years in a job he said he got into because he wanted to help people. He feels he has no choice after Gov. Janet Mills on Thursday made Maine one of the first states to require health care workers to be fully vaccinated by Oct. 1.
Bonnevie said he is not against vaccines, but he feels COVID-19 vaccines are unsafe, pointing to a friend who developed Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a rare neurological disorder, after getting one.
Because Bonnevie works for MaineHealths NorthStar Ambulance service in Farmington, he will be required to get a shot. But the mandate will lead to a bigger negative reaction from the health care workforce than public officials may think, he said.
Why are we, all of a sudden, being forced out? he said. It is the most illogical thing that we could be doing in the midst of a health crisis, and it is going to make it worse.
Maine hospitals are bracing for at least a small number of workers to quit over the requirement, which is one of the strongest in the country, though they back it as a matter of patient safety. Bonnevies frustration embodies a national backlash to mandates that are coming increasingly as a more contagious variant drives up new cases almost entirely among unvaccinated people.
We hate to see that, but keeping patients safe trumps that concern, he said.
Right now I dont feel appreciated, not by our government, he said.
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