Nurse Cafe

You just worked your 12-hour shift at Stanford Hospital. What is the first thing you think about doing on your day off? Picking up an 8-hour private duty per diem shift. That social event is just going to have to wait…

Please, we beg you - Take your days off! you deserve them.

In today’s email:

• New Staffing Minimums: The Federal government has increased the minimum staffing requirements for nursing homes.

• Increased Happiness: Nurses responded to being 44% more happy when compared to 2022.

• Tax Season Is Over: 2024 taxes is over. Are you writing off everything you can?

• Around The Web: Brave nurses in Taiwan step into action during an earthquake.

WHAT’S HAPPENING

The New Standard For Nursing Homes

On April 22, 2024, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released its final rule on Minimum Staffing Standards for Long-Term Care Facilities and Medicaid Institutional Payment Transparency Reporting.

There are roughly 1.2 million residents in nursing homes throughout the United States and these new staffing minimums are aimed at increasing patient safety. The new requirements increase the minimums for 79% of all facilities currently operating.

“Specifically, in the final rule, we are revising § 483.35(b) to require an RN to be on site 24 hours per day and 7 days per week (24/7 RN) to provide skilled nursing care to all residents in accordance with resident care plans, with an exemption from 8 hours per day of the onsite RN requirement under certain circumstances."

“Facilities must meet the minimum 3.48 total nurse staffing, 0.55 RN, and 2.45 NA HPRD standards regardless of the individual facility’s resident case-mix, as they are the minimum standard of staffing.”

This new minimum has been seen with praise from patient and nurse advocates, along with criticism from independent facilities that say they will not be able to keep up with the additional costs of staffing.

AROUND THE WEB

Nurses Jump Into Action: During a 7.4 earthquake that hit Taiwan in the early hours of the day on April 3rd. 4 nurses didn’t hesitate to protect newborns in their care. Video here

Fighting Burnout With Tech: Sentara Health team creates nursing tool to more evenly distribute the workload.

Per Diem Nurse Staffing Market Sees Rapid Expansion: The Per Diem Nurse Staffing Market Size is anticipated to reach approximately USD 16.4 billion by 2033

Tax Season Just Ended: Tax day was Apr 17th. We hope you filed everything on time. Check out these common tax write-offs for the 2024 tax year.

Things are looking good for nurses

Nurse.org has released its third annual report on the state of nursing in 2024, based on survey responses from over 2,400 nurses. Here are some key takeaways.

• 69% of nurses said they love being a nurse in 2023, up from 60% in 2022.

• 57% of nurses think that new nurses should join the profession in 2023, up from 50% in 2022.

• For nurses leaving their current position 8% were looking toward Per diem nursing.

• 55% said that increased wages would help improve the recruitment of new nurses.

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