Rural New York Home Care Affected By Nursing, Staffing Shortages

Many residents in rural New York are going without "essential health care," because of the nursing shortage and a "lack" of manpower in home health care, the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin reports. On May 3, health care providers from the Family and Children's Society, which provides home care in the Southern Tier area, testified before the state Assembly's Nursing Shortage Task Force and said that the number of hours of care provided by the firm had dropped 30% because of a staffing shortage. "Shut-ins" and the sick are "especially" affected by the staffing problems. Kathy Williams, the society's executive director, said, "As health aides, many are walking into difficult and dangerous settings. That's hard to do when you can work at Burger King and get french fries for free, the same pay and not put much mileage on your car." Mary Collins, dean of the Decker School of Nursing at Binghamton University, also testified before the panel and said the shortage is at "all levels," from "unskilled home work" to hospital administrators. To alleviate the problem, she requested state assistance through scholarships, loan forgiveness programs, and subsidies for teaching in clinical settings. Williams added, "We consider it of crisis proportion. We are concerned about the ability of people we care about in our community to get the care they need" (Wilber, Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin, 5/4). For more news about the nursing shortage, see story 1.