Mainebiz

W O R K F O R M E / S P R I N G 2 0 2 3 26 M a i n e h e a l t h c a r e providers and their higher-education partners have been working non- stop to reduce the state's short- age of nurses and other health care professionals. And while the bright red bleeding appears to have stopped, many more younger workers are still needed. MaineHealth, the state's largest health care system, had about 700 openings for regis- tered nurses systemwide as of March, says Clayton Holtzman, its vice president of communica- tions and public affairs. Most of those positions were being filled by travel nurses, which Holtzman says is not fi- nancially sustainable. Travel RNs in Maine earned an average of $3,374 per week as of May 2021, about 238% of the $1,416 per week earned by regular RNs, according to health care industry publica- tion Becker's Hospital Review. "Here in Maine, the good news side of things is that we've in- creased the degree-production for RNs," Holtzman says. "However, we've lost a lot of nurses, either because of retirements, early retirements, or people leaving for the traveling industry, which has taken away a lot of nurses." Health care providers say there also remains a tremendous demand for physician assistants, physical therapists, radiologists, phlebotomists and a wide variety of other medical jobs in the state. To help close the gap, employers and educators have increased class sizes, opened up new loca- tions for clinical training and hired more instructors. "There are a large number of roles that you could walk into with job security for life," Holtzman says. "There are so many health care fields now it's unbelievable." Passion for healing University of New England nurs- ing major Matthew McDonald says he has been interested in medicine and science since middle school. He took a high school health science class in his home state of New Hampshire, and from that point on, his mind was made up. "I knew that this was some- thing I wanted to do, and that nursing was where I wanted to do it," McDonald says. The high school class, taught by an emergency medical tech- nician, sparked a particular in- terest in critical care nursing. McDonald took a second class his senior year that allowed him to earn a certified nursing assistant (CNA) license. He worked a few years in a long-term care facility but ul- timately decided to pursue a nursing degree. McDonald re- membered someone from UNE visiting his class in high school, which prompted him to enroll in nursing school at its Westbrook College of Health Professions, where he's now in his senior year. H e a lt h C a r e FOR JOBS LIFE Maine's health care industry steps up effort to recruit and retain workers B Y J . C R A I G A N D E R S O N P H O T O / T I M G R E E N W A Y Nursing student Sarah Lucas works with a virtual reality simulator in the Interprofessional Simulation and Innovation Center at UNE's Portland campus.

• Cover