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HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | October 24, 2022 19 You don't just want a loan. You want solid advice from an experienced business banker. You want a fair rate, flexible terms, and local decisions by a bank that's invested in your community and your success. That, plus a whole lot more, is what you can expect from Westfield Bank. How can we help your business? Call 860.265.3920. That's better. Having a vision for your business is great. Adding our insight? Commercial Lending Term Loans n Lines of Credit n Commercial Real Estate Loans n Letters of Credit n SBA Loans westfieldbank.com Member FDIC Compounding the hospital shortage is the nature of the work: long hours, heavy demands and sometimes belligerent patients. "The work in a hospital is really hard," Haeckel said. "It's grueling. Our patients are more sick. The hours are difficult. You have to work weekends, they work holidays, we work off-shifts. That is what is expected of a registered nurse. It is a lot and we need them. It's one portion of our workforce that's critical in order to care for patients." To attract and retain nurses — or in some cases to lure them back from an agency — hospitals are offering perks like flexible schedules, unlim- ited overtime and more vacation. Middlesex Health, which has about 3,000 employees across its system, has roughly 300 open positions — about double the average number of openings prior to the pandemic, Capece said. The labor shortage spans all sectors of the hospital industry, from doctors to receptionists, but is most pronounced among nurses because they make up the highest percentage of the hospital workforce, he said. The General Assembly also took action last session, placing restrictions on staffing agencies that provide nurses. Public Act 22-57 requires tempo- rary nursing service agencies to: register annually with the state Department of Public Health; enter into written agreements with health- care facilities to which they assign personnel; and report their costs, among other things. In addition, it requires the state Department of Social Services and DPH to evaluate the rates agencies charge nursing homes. Those requirements go into effect next year. The legislation had support from nursing homes as well as nursing labor unions. The American Staffing Associ- ation, which represents the state's healthcare staffing firms, opposed the legislation. In written testimony from Toby Malara, vice president of government relations, the group said temporary nursing is an "attrac- tive option" and keeps nurses who would otherwise leave the industry because they can receive competi- tive wages with greater scheduling flexibility, which helps to mitigate the nursing shortage. In the testimony, Malara said the cost of nurse staffing services has risen as a result of a supply-demand imbalance that required staffing agencies to offer higher wages to attract and retain nurses. "History shows that price controls always distort markets, and caps on staffing agency bill rates would mean that agencies could not economically afford to pay market wages — forcing nurses to work in other states or leave the profession entirely, to the detriment of patients," Malara wrote. • Eastern graduates have the ethics, problem-solving and communication skills, and ability to work in teams that you need in your organization. • 41 majors — including Accounting, Data Science, Economics, Business Information Systems, Finance, Health Sciences and more. Eastern Grads . . . www.easternct.edu Job Ready! HBJ Ad 22.indd 1 HBJ Ad 22.indd 1 9/6/22 12:42 PM 9/6/22 12:42 PM