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V O L . X X X N O. X V J U LY 8 , 2 0 2 4 16 H E A LT H C A R E / W E L L N E S S F O C U S Maine's nursing shortage After the continual demands of the pan- demic, some nurses in Maine stepped aside and took a break from nursing, according to Deanna Orfanidis, the chief nursing officer at Franklin Memorial. "It was very unprecedented in regards to patients and all the requirements related to isolation," says Orfanidis. "It was in that factor that the nurses chose to step away. ere was a percentage of nurses and other employees that, when we moved to our mandated vac- cination, people chose not to continue employment because of not wanting to receive the vaccination. "Primarily what increased was the demand in our community, which then required us to bring travel nurses in," she says. Franklin Memorial's parent com- pany, MaineHealth, was able to mobilize through its nursing agency to get nurses in Maine and throughout the system, Orfanidis says. e challenge for the hospital was the cost of care. e amount more than doubled due to demand. According to published reports by the American Hospital Association, hospitals spent about 4.7% of their nurse labor expenses on travel nurses in January 2019, while in January 2022, that average reached 38.6%. "Typically, a nurse that costs, let's say, $100 would cost $250 that puts added pressure on organizations related to cost," says Orfanidis. When Orfanidis started at MaineHealth at the end of the pandemic in December 2022, she saw a high num- ber of travel nurses. She has been work- ing on reducing travel and has reduced the number by more than 50%. While the demand for nurses in Maine and across the country has never been greater, MaineHealth is working to provide help to their nurses with a scholarship program. "We help and support nurses that are in the school program and on the back- end support them with regards to a three year commitment," says Orfanidis. "is is for our own employees and we call it an RN Pathway Scholarship Program, which has been a really nice recruitment strategy and retention strategy to help and support those RNs. "In terms of our nursing assistant, we have an apprentice program," she con- tinues. "We help and support them by paying for their education and training and then on the back end, they guar- antee an interview for the organization and we bring folks in that way." e hospital has also been working on its nursing leadership team. ey have introduced engagement tactics and recognition, such as the Daisy Award, which is an international national recog- nition for care team members. "e nursing leadership team at Franklin Memorial called folks who may have resigned their positions during the pandemic of what I call a boomerang program, you know, 'come back work for us,' and we are a small community. [We] really just have that conversation that we want them to come back. at definitely was suc- cessful with helping and supporting [recruiting]," says Orfanidis. What it is like to be a travel nurse Since moving to New England, Orvis has worked in five different emergency departments in Maine and New Hampshire. Once she got enough experience as an ER nurse, she saw all the needs at different hospitals. With the money that travel nurses were making, she also saw that she could travel locally as a nurse. "We were still caring for COVID-19 patients, but it wasn't during the peak of the pandemic," says Orvis. "It was definitely dying down, but still, there was a big need for nurses. I would say that post-COVID is when they need the help. It was good money and I took the opportunity." When Orvis decided that this was the career path she wanted to take, there were several steps to getting started. She began looking for a nursing agency that would help recruit her to FREE DELIVERY WITHIN STOREWIDE DELIVERY AREA FOR EVERY WATERFRONT 22 LOCATIONS ACROSS MAINE & NEW HAMPSHIRE LARGEST SHOREMASTER DISTRIBUTOR IN THE COUNTRY WWW.HAMMONDLUMBER.COM/SHOREMASTER 2021 2022 2023 EXPECT to learn at your pace Financial aid available for qualified students. at the UNIVERSITY of MAINE at PRESQUE ISLE YO U R J O U R N E Y. YO U R PAC E . affordability EXTREME UNPARALLELED EXCEPTIONAL support personal academic success coach flexibility 100% online & fully asynchronous Flat tuition rate per 8 week session— $1,700 for bachelor's, $2,350 for master's umpi.edu/yourpace | umpi-yourpace@maine.edu Looking for a degree completion program that's both affordable and designed to meet the needs of working professionals? UMPI-ad-qrtr-06-2024-v02.pdf 1 6/10/2024 11:03:55 AM » C O N T I N U E D F RO M P R E V I O U S PA G E A nurse is a nurse is a nurse, so you just know what you are doing and can be a nurse anywhere. — Bailey Orvis MaineHealth Maine Medical Center Biddeford

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