SC nurses on frontline of coronavirus crisis ask governor to ‘protect our workforce’
Nurses from across the state have reported “extremely challenging working conditions” during the coronavirus outbreak, according to South Carolina’s largest professional nursing association whose leaders penned a letter to S.C. Governor Henry McMaster on Wednesday.
Some have been instructed to reuse disposable personal protective equipment, “risking the possibility of infecting themselves, other patients, and their own families,” wrote Kelly Bouthillet, the president of the association, to McMaster, state health officials and the S.C. Hospital Association.
And in some S.C. facilities, nurses are unable to get tested for COVID-19, the letter read.
The letter is part of a growing chorus of concerns from the state’s health care workers.
On Wednesday, nurses criticized Prisma Health, one of the state’s largest hospital systems, for discouraging the use of the highest grade protective equipment in some situations, reported The State newspaper.
“If we do not protect our workforce, who will?” asked Bouthillet in the letter, requesting that McMaster work with the organization to institute safeguards for nurses on the frontline of the outbreak.
The Nurses Association represents over 44,000 registered nurses in South Carolina.
Spokespeople for McMaster and the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control could not immediately be reached for comment on Thursday.
The number of S.C. health care workers who have contracted the potentially lethal virus is unknown. State health officials aren’t tracking how many of them test positive, said state epidemiologist Linda Bell at a news conference on Tuesday.
Staffing shortages worsen during outbreak
In an interview on Monday before the letter was sent, Bouthillet described staffing issues at medical facilities as “the big elephant in the room” as the coronavirus outbreak spreads.
“Staffing is just not adequate,” she said, saying her association has received reports of nurses self-quarantining after exposure to the virus, unable to work.
South Carolina faced a statewide shortage of nurses even before the COVID-19 outbreak hit, said Bouthillet, a point she raised in her letter to McMaster.
The online trade publication RegisteredNursing.org used federal data to project that the state will have a shortfall of almost 10,000 registered nurses by 2030. That number means South Carolina is on track to experience the fourth most severe shortage in the U.S.
“On a good day we’re already lacking,” said Bouthillet. “We don’t have an expendable number of healthcare providers.”
On Monday, before the nurses’ letter was sent, the S.C. Hospital Association spokesperson Schipp Ames said in an email hospitals weren’t reporting “immediate staffing shortages” and many were developing contingency plans for a potential surge in coronavirus patients.
This could involve redeploying staff working at outpatient locations, said Ames, who was not immediately available for comment on Thursday.
Bouthillet said Monday the Nurses Association understood protocols were being developed quickly in many facilities but that members had reported “communication problems” as policies were rolled out.
Elected officials warned of workplace issues
The Nurses Association plans to share its letter and concerns about workplace safety with all members of the South Carolina General Assembly, said Bouthillet in an email on Thursday.
State officials need to prioritize health care workers in allocating federal relief money said Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, who was copied on the nurses’ letter to McMaster.
Davis has previously worked with the association on a bill designed to expand the scope of practice for nurse practitioners. He said access to testing is critical. Wait times weaken an already strained workforce, he added.
“That’s several days that that healthcare professional is on the shelf,” Davis said. “It’s an all-hands-on-deck moment.”
On March 14, McMaster announced the S.C. Board of Nursing had procedures in place to issue temporary emergency licenses to out-of-state nursing staff.
Bouthillet said many hospitals are assembling “labor pools” to add extra staffing, as is common practice in emergency preparedness situations. She was not aware of nurses coming from other states.
The workplace safety issues present in some medical facilities raises the likelihood that nurses themselves will become victims of COVID-19 and hurt the health care system’s ability to respond, the Nurses Association said in its letter.
“We want to take care of patients. That’s ingrained in us,” said Bouthillet.
This story was originally published April 2, 2020 at 1:47 PM with the headline "SC nurses on frontline of coronavirus crisis ask governor to ‘protect our workforce’."
