疫情加剧护士短缺 美国农村急需人手

JUDY WOODRUFF: we look at how the shortage of nurses is affecting health care workers and hospitals. In just the past few days, nurses and other workers in Southern California and Oregon authorized a potential strike against Kaiser Permanente, and understaffing is part of those disputes. John Yang is back with a report from South Florida on how shortages are affecting hospitals there.

DAKOTA REDD, Chief Nursing Officer, Hendry Regional Medical Center: And then, tomorrow, we're down midshift again.

JOHN YANG: Every morning, chief nursing officer Dakota Redd sits at his desk and plugs holes, moving nurses around on the schedule for the next several days to meet his hospital's daily needs.

DAKOTA REDD: If you move Bret to -- back to 11:11, at least you're covered until 11:00, and then we can try to see what we can do at 11:00 to get you some help.

JOHN YANG: It's a constant struggle for Redd at Hendry Regional Medical Center. The public hospital serves the largely rural agricultural population around Clewiston, Florida, a small city on the southwestern shore of Lake Okeechobee, nicknamed America's Sweetest Town for its location in the heart of Florida's sugar industry.The medical center is a major employer in Clewiston and, with 25 beds, the biggest hospital for more than 20 miles.

DAKOTA REDD: We provide primary health care for this community. And so, if we can't provide that care, that means that you may have to travel an additional 30 to 45 minutes to get that care, to seek that care, which is why it's so important that we manage better for rural hospitals, so that we don't lose that.

JOHN YANG: Many hospitals serving rural communities like this one were already facing a shortage of nurses before the pandemic. But the past 18 months have put this problem into sharp relief.Mary Mayhew is president of the Florida Hospital Association.

MARY MAYHEW, President, Florida Hospital Association: And, certainly, before the pandemic, we were facing a nursing work force shortage. The pandemic was like a gasoline can over the fire.

JOHN YANG: A recent study commissioned by the group found that, before the latest Delta surge, the state had an 11 percent vacancy rate for registered nurses, roughly the same as the national rate. It also found that a quarter of Florida's registered nurses and a third of critical care nurses left positions in the last year, citing job dissatisfaction, burnout, or other opportunities in health care. And it projected that, if current trends remain the same, by 2035, there would be a shortage of nearly 60,000 nurses.

MARY MAYHEW: We have nurses that are retiring at younger ages. We have nurses who have left the intense 24/7 environment of the hospital for other opportunities in the community. And then, certainly, we have nurses that have pursued opportunities with staffing agencies around the country.

JOHN YANG: After his morning huddle, Dakota Redd makes his rounds, checking in on his staff to see how they're doing and what they need.

JOHN YANG: The worst of the Delta spike here came over six weeks from August to September. At one point, the 10-bed emergency department had seven patients on ventilators. The day we visited was the first since July without a hospitalized COVID patient.But Redd says his staff is emotionally and physically drained, and with eight vacancies in the emergency department, about half what he needs, stretched very thin.