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NURSING SHORTAGES AND LOW PAY ARE FOCUS OF
YOUNTVILLE VETERANS HOME MEETING -- "Here in
Napa Valley the higher cost of living and the
lower
salary structure has been a challenge."
State veterans home at Yountville, CA.
For more about the investigation into problems
at the Yountville veterans home, use the VA Watchdog search
engine...click here...
http://www.yourvabenefits.org/ses
search.php?q=yountville&op=and
Story here...
http://www.napavalley
register.com/articles/2007/09/1
4/news/local/doc46ea0fe2
6a7c6833227010.txt
Story below:
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Nursing shortages, low pay focus of Vets Home
meeting
By DAVID RYAN
Register Staff Writer
Every health facility in the nation has had to deal with a shortage of
nurses in recent years, but the Veterans Home of California at
Yountville has faced a double whammy: The high cost of Napa Valley
living and low state salaries for nurses.
“Here in Napa Valley the higher cost of living and the lower salary
structure has been a challenge,” Thomas Johnson, secretary of the
California Department of Veterans Affairs, told a gathering of veterans
at the home Wednesday.
Johnson was on hand this week to answer questions from veterans about
the state of affairs at the home. The facility is preparing for a
$290,000, top-to-bottom review from the California state auditor after
allegations by veterans and some medical personnel of inadequate
staffing levels and slip-ups in care.
The home avoided serious penalties from state regulators in recent years
and enjoys high satisfaction rates among its residents — a recent survey
showed 83 percent of residents even liked the food.
Indeed, many at a recent meeting of the Allied Council — the group
representing veterans at the home — applauded home administrator
Marcella McCormack for a job well done.
Plus, despite what home officials admit is a manpower shortage in some
areas, the home manages to maintain a state-mandated 3.4 hours of
nursing care per patient per day, a key indicator of quality at health
facilities.
But Johnson’s talk highlighted issues that may come to the forefront
during the state review: Salaries for nurses at veterans homes pale in
comparison to salaries for nurses at state prisons. Prisoners enjoy
constitutionally-guaranteed health care, but veterans do not.
Why the gap? A recent high-profile crisis in prison health care prompted
judges to set salaries higher for correctional nurses in an effort to
combat nursing shortages. A registered nurse at the Veterans Home can
earn up to $62,388 per year, while the same nurse at a correctional
facility can earn up to $101,172, according to the state Department of
Veterans Affairs.
Johnson said that factor hits the veterans home hard when it tries to
both recruit and retain nurses, and even specialists like respiratory
therapists. Home officials recently said they have 25 registered nurse
vacancies. About 950 employees work at the home taking care — in some
way — of 1,100 residents.
“There’s a certain logic that it’s a little more dangerous to work in a
prison,” Johnson said, adding judges were likely to increase the gap if
the state tries to bump up pay for veterans home staff. “A lot of people
are willing to accept that gap because they don’t want to work in a
prison; they’d rather take care of our nation’s heroes.”
But prison salaries aren’t all the veterans home has to compete with —
the private sector pays better, too. According to Edward Beanes, a
specialist in the Napa Valley College career center, nurses in the
private sector can earn up to $70,000 per year, especially if they carry
master’s degrees.
The problem is not likely to end anytime soon, a January report in the
issue of Health Affairs indicated. According to the report, the U.S.
shortage of nurses is likely to increase to three times what it is over
the next 13 years, as baby boomers grow older and require more care.
According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, nursing
schools are struggling to expand enrollment to deal with the nursing
shortage.
At Napa Valley College, which runs a nursing program, Beanes said
finding students isn’t the problem — it’s holding enough classes, with
enough instructors to fit them all.
“We have waiting lists across the board,” Beanes said, adding Napa
Valley College has its own recruiting problem with the nursing shortage:
Nursing instructors at private colleges make much more money than
instructors in the public system.
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Larry Scott --
