Editor’s note: This commentary is by Deb Snell, who works as an RN in the Medical Intensive Care Unit at UVM Medical Center and is president of AFT Vermont, which represents more than 5,000 health care and higher education professionals in Vermont.
As a nurse in the Medical Intensive Care unit at UVM Medical Center, I’ve seen firsthand the devastation to the human body that a small, new virus can cause, and how woefully unprepared we were for the first phase of this pandemic.
As the number of Covid hospitalizations decreases (for now), we have the opportunity to prepare for the next round of Covid-19 — and to make long-term plans to deal with the nursing shortage in Vermont.
One of the short-sighted solutions to the nursing shortage is the proposal for Vermont to join the multi-state nurse licensure compact. This plan makes it easier for nurses to travel from state to state but does nothing to address the underlying shortage of nurses and the costs to our health care system.
One of the major drivers of hospital costs is the reliance on expensive, out-of-state traveling nurses instead of training and retaining nurses in our communities.
Instead of joining the multi-state nurse licensure compact, which encourages Vermont nurses to travel to Texas, Texas nurses to travel to California and California nurses to Vermont, we could invest in educating and graduating nurses in Vermont.
In Vermont, we graduate fewer than 300 nurses every year from Castleton University, Vermont Technical College and the University of Vermont. We need about 10 times that number to replace nurses who are leaving the profession due to retirement and burnout. Because we have so few educational slots, many Vermont students have to leave the state to get their nursing degrees — and once they leave, they are less likely to return.
As we look to the future, we could double, triple or quadruple the number of nurses that Vermont graduates from its public institutions of higher education if the Legislature and the governor choose to make the investment.
These investments could include expanding the existing programs at Castleton University, Vermont Technical College and the University of Vermont.
- Opening nursing programs at NVU-Lyndon and NVU-Johnson.
- Giving tax credits or state-funded grants to nursing faculty (nurses are paid more to be at the bedside than they are to teach).
- Making tuition free for nursing students, like we do for members of the Vermont Guard.
We have the ability to act now to expand our nursing programs at the Vermont State Colleges and UVM to bring down health care costs statewide, to attract and keep young people in our state and for the health of all of Vermont’s communities.
