The US Department of Health and Human Services’ plan to spend $13 million on nursing education and training is “a key pillar of President Biden’s action plan to improve the safety and quality of care in the nation’s nursing homes,” the department said Friday.
“Nurses have been true heroes throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, delivering lifesaving care on the frontlines despite unprecedented challenges,” Carole Johnson, administrator of HHS’ Health Resources and Services Administration, said in a statement. “Today’s announcement is part of HRSA’s commitment to strengthening nursing training and education and growing the next generation of the nursing workforce.”
Of the $13 million, HRSA is awarding:
- More than $8.4 million to 10 awardees through the Clinical Faculty and Preceptor Academies Program.
- $4.75 million to 14 awardees through the Registered Nurse Training Program to increase the number of nursing students trained in acute care settings.
It’s not enough money, according to Mark Parkinson, president and CEO at the American Health Care Association.
“Analysts have projected that it will require billions of dollars to hire more than 100,000 more nurses and nurse aides if a federal staffing minimum moves forward,” he said in a statement following the announcement.
“Long-term care needs a concerted and considerable investment to recruit and retain more frontline caregivers and address access to care issues for millions of seniors,” Parkinson continued.
CMS toughens stance
The HHS announcement came on the same day that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced plans to increase its scrutiny of chronically low-performing nursing homes by revising its Special Focus Facility Program. CMS also called on states to consider a facility’s staffing level in determining which facilities enter the SFF Program.
The SFF Program reforms will:
- Increase penalties for nursing homes in the program that do not improve.
- Increase safety standards for improvement.
- Increase technical assistance.
LeadingAge President and CEO Katie Smith Sloan said Friday that although the association and its members support CMS initiatives to improve care at under-performing nursing homes and agree that those that do not demonstrate progress should close, “we continue to emphasize the need for CMS and all stakeholders to prioritize workforce.”
“Staffing goes hand in hand with quality care,” she said. LeadingAge, Sloan said, believes that an “all of government” approach is needed to solve the chronic staffing challenges in long-term care.
“Identifying, funding and implementing programs that bring more qualified staff to nursing homes, provide training and career ladders and lattices, are critical to ensuring that older adults and their families can access quality care,” she said.
AHCA’s Parkinson said that although his association appreciates some of the steps being taken by the Biden administration to address the quality of care in poor-performing nursing home as well as the long-term care labor crisis, “we remain concerned that the rhetoric surrounding these reforms is degrading to the millions of nursing home caregivers who are committed to caring for their residents like their own family and have risked their lives serving on the frontlines during this pandemic.
