Facts about the Ohio Board of Nursing:
The mission of the Ohio Board of Nursing is to actively safeguard the health of the public through effective regulation of nursing care.” (page 1, para. 1 of the 2017 Registered Nurse Ohio Workforce Data Summary Report)
According to the 2017 RN Workforce Data Summary Report for Ohio:
As of 2017, there is a total of 198,052 registered nurses who hold an active license in the State of Ohio, of which 71% (139, 677) are between the ages of 18 and 55 years old, while 29% (58, 375) are over the age of 55 years old. However, only 129,499 of the former group and 40,002 of the latter group are currently employed. The majority of nurses are employed by hospitals. Among the unemployed nurses, many have either reported difficulty finding nursing jobs or had to take time off from work to care for home or family.
The World Health Statistics Report (WHO, 2013) indicates that there are 3.9 million nurses and midwives in the United States. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (2018), 1.1 million additional nurses are projected to be in need to avoid a further shortage. As of 2013, about 54% of Ohio’s nurses held Bachelors degrees or higher. However, several reasons for those nurses who do not hold Bachelors degrees or higher are due to age or stage in career, currently satisfied with their level of practice, financial barriers, personal and/or work schedules, family obligations, plan to leave/retire from/no longer desire to work in nursing, out of school for a prolonged period and find difficulty going back to school, and lack of accessible program. Not all nurses work full-time. According to the 2017 RN Workforce Data Summary Report, 135,358 registered nurses worked full-time, while 24,147 registered nurses worked part-time and 9,868 registered nurses worked per diem. The number of registered nurses working in primary practice settings in 2017 in Ohio were 68,567 worked at in-patient hospital settings (this data excludes those registered nurses working in hospital emergency departments, operating rooms and hospital out-patient settings) while 10,602 worked at nursing homes/extended care facilities/assisted living centers, for example. Per the American Nurses Association, the nursing profession continues to face shortages due to issues with high turnover, a lack of potential educators and an inequitable distribution of the workforce pertaining to an aging population, family, regions within the U.S., violence in the health care settings, technological advancements, and staffing ratios. In turn, nursing shortages lead to errors, higher morbidity and mortality rates, dissatisfaction and experiencing burnout from high patient-to-nurse ratios.
Goals for Carolyn’s Law:
Enable nursing homes and/or long-term care facilities to seek after Magnet Certification in order to provide superior nursing processes and high levels of safety, patient satisfaction and quality care.
Provide/offer more appropriate training and hiring of nurse aides to balance and maximize individuals in the nursing workforce in long-term care facilities.
Reduce the nurse-to-patient ratios and nurse aide-to-patient ratios to 5-6/8-10 within nursing homes and/or long-term care facilities
2014 LPN Workforce Data Summary Report for Ohio:
In 2014, there was a total of 52,838 licensed practical nurses (LPNs) who remained actively licensed in the State of Ohio, however, about 40,212 (81%) were actually employed, one-fourth of LPNs were over the age of 55 years old and 13.2% were over the age of 60 years old. Not all LPNs are both PN-IV certified and PN-Meds certified. Most LPNs are either IV-certified while others are only medication-certified. However, the majority of LPNs, regardless of IV or medication certified work in nursing homes/extended care facilities/assisted living centers (50.2% PN-IV and 45.3% PN-Med).
Ohio Nurses.org:
According to the minimum staffing level requirements for nursing homes, California requires 3.2 nursing hours of direct care per patient on a daily basis whereas Ohio requires about 2.5 nursing hours of care per patient per day. (connect.ohnurses.org). According to the Ohio Nurses Association, “the requirements for nursing homes do not include a mandated ratio of patients to staff, but a formula requiring so many hours of nursing care per patient per day” (connect.ohnurses.org). The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) measure staffing using a standard called “hours per resident day”. Based on numerous research and studies and according to the recommendations from CMS, it was found that nursing staff should provide an average of 4.1 hours of care for a resident/patient per day. Ohio’s staffing hours are exceedingly low and is considered dangerous , a crisis, and is ranked 35th in the country; Alaska was considered first in the ranking providing residents/patients with 6.13 hours of nursing care per patient per day (articles.cleveland.com).
Ohio Department of Health
Data available upon facility request regarding the Nurse Aide Registry for State-Tested Nurse Aides in Ohio. Nurse aides can only work 7.5 consecutive hours or 8 hours in a 48-hour period of nursing and nursing-related services for compensation (odh.ohio.gov). Nursing home minimum staffing requirements “sets a minimum CNA-to-patient ratio of 1:20 [and] a facility must have at least one licensed nurse for every 40 residents” (https://www.cga.ct.gov). Long-term care facilities usually provide care to residents/patients age 85 years of age and older for more than 3 months, whereas nursing homes provide care to residents/patients for less than 3 months such as a rehabilitative center.
Number of patients currently in Ohio’s Long-Term Care Facilities: In 2015, Ohio housed 75,523 residents/patients in nursing homes (http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/contents2016.htm#092).
Carolyn’s Law Food for Thought:
If there is about 10,602 registered nurses and about 95% (about 55,100) LPNs who work in nursing homes in Ohio, that’s about 65,702 nurses in addition to an unaccountable number of nurse aides in the State of Ohio to provide care to 75,523 (from 2015) residents/patients in Ohio. That’s plenty of staff and it’s easier to get more nurse aides due to less duration of time with training!
Number of long-term care facilities in the State of Ohio:
960 nursing homes in Ohio, however, not all nursing homes are long-term care facilities. Nursing homes that are not considered long-term care facilities have length-of-stays lasting less than 3 months and consist of half of the nursing homes in Ohio (ltc.ohio.gov).
Number of residents living in Ohio:
As of 2018, the Ohio population is estimated at 11.69 million, of which only 75,523 residents/patients in 2015 were residents/patients in nursing homes. There’s no excuse, regardless of the presumed nursing shortage, that there are inadequate staffing issues. Again, if there is about 10,602 registered nurses and about 95% (about 55,100) LPNs who work in nursing homes in Ohio, that’s about 65,702 nurses in addition to an unaccountable number of nurse aides in the State of Ohio to provide care to 75,523 (from 2015) residents/patients in Ohio. That’s plenty of staff and it’s easier to get more nurse aides due to less duration of time with training!
79% of Ohio’s nursing homes are for-profit while the remaining facilities are not-for-profit and non-profit whereby philanthropic donations can be received and these types of facilities can have more funding to provide better care and staffing, in most cases, if monies are properly budgeted.