COVID-19 was hard on everyone, but at UVA’s School of Nursing, Dean Marianne Baernholdt says it was especially hard on those caring for patients in hospitals.
"I have talked to many nurses that watched their co-workers die, and that’s probably one of the worst things that can happen," she says. "They have to make a choice: who’s going to get the ventilator. That really makes you think what do I want to do."
Some retired or quit.
"During the pandemic, we lost 100,000 nurses," Baernholdt recalls. "They simply left the profession. They came back, but they were more selective in terms of what they came back for."
Others became traveling nurses – taking short-term assignments in places that desperately needed help and were willing to pay much more than the going rate for regular nurses.
"That kind of sends a shock through the whole system," says Baernholdt.
Responding to that shock, medical centers began raising pay. By the spring of 2023, the average salary for a nurse in Virginia exceeded $88,000 a year, and in Northern Virginia some were earning in excess of $115,000.
Health systems also created programs to reduce burnout and found ways to give nurses a greater say in how they did their jobs. UVA offers a two-year program for Clinical Nurse Leaders like Sarah Thompson who are constantly looking for ways to improve care through collaboration.
"Nursing talks a lot about advocating for patients, and we absolutely do that, but we’re also able to advocate for the staff sometimes," she explains. "We’re able to advocate for the managers + because you’re going to get the best outcome if the most people feel that we are doing the best for everybody."
And colleague May Gallanosa adds that Clinical Nurse Leaders are always on the lookout for better, safer ways to do things.
"So if we go to the evidence, look at the research and we find that this specific workflow or this specific process is the best way, can we use that evidence and then apply it to a number of different clinical settings."
Colleges and universities stepped up efforts to recruit and train more nurses. VCU plans to double the number of students in its undergraduate nursing program next year.
At UVA, 68% of nursing students get some financial aid. Among them, Cindy Tran who considered becoming a psychiatrist but opted, instead, to be a psychiatric nurse.
"I come from a low-income family, so finding a job that had a lot of security and was able to pay so I could take care of myself and my family was one of the reasons," she explains. "My mom and dad were elderly, and I didn’t really have the time to be in school for so long."
Of course, schools can only train students if they have enough faculty members, and Dean Baernholtd says that’s a challenge.
"You would take a pay cut to become a faculty member, and typically you have to have either your master’s + or your doctorate, which is preferred."
So she predicts schools will draw more teachers from the clinical setting, inviting them to mentor students in the workplace, adding to their pay and providing more practical training for future nurses.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
