SAVANNAH, Ga. (WSAV) — Nurses have been called the backbone of the medical profession, but a shortage of nurses has been an ongoing problem since before the pandemic.
The Bureau of Health Workforce says Georgia ranks sixth in a nationwide nurse shortage and they say it’s affecting rural areas the most.
Marie Burdett of East Georgia Regional Medical Center in Statesboro says they’re seeing less staff in all different areas.
“There’s a lot of sacrifices that our staff has had to make to be here and take care of our patients,” Marie Burdett said. “And I think with COVID it really caused us to look within.”
Currently, East Georgia has enough staff to keep from closing beds and increasing emergency room wait times.
Burdett says that the pandemic really shed a light on poor work-life balance which they’ve been working to curb.
“I’ve been a nurse 33 years and since COVID it has changed and I think as a profession we have to adapt, and what adapting looks like, I don’t know.”
Burdett says they also do recruiting incentives like student loan forgiveness, referral and signing bonuses as well as scholarships.
Georgia Southern’s Chair of Nursing, Melissa Garno, said they’re seeing fewer applications into the program.
“It’s a difficult time to be in healthcare. It’s a challenge to be in healthcare. So we’re admitting as many students as we can teach on a quality level.”
Garno told us that the university has adjusted the curriculum to make the program faster to get through with their accelerated program, someone with a bachelor’s could complete it in just one year.
“We’re trying to modify our approach to meet as many students’ needs as possible.”
Since most nurses in the field are older, they say they’re doing everything they can to fill hospitals with new nurses as those retire.