Vermont lawmakers say state's long-standing nursing workforce shortage is at a crisis point

As the Vermont Legislature prepares to debate how to spend millions of dollars in federal aid, state and federal lawmakers say that one immediate priority is addressing the state’s nursing staff shortage.

Standing on the Statehouse steps in Montpelier one day before legislators gavel in, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Republican Gov. Phil Scott and state Senate President Pro Tempore Becca Balint, D-Windham, said Monday that Vermont’s nurse shortage is at a crisis point.

“What many Vermonters might not realize is that we have a nursing shortage that predates the pandemic. And like many other sectors across our economy, this global emergency has revealed starkly the cracks in the system,” Balint said. “We need more nurses in Vermont … and we have to be aggressive in addressing this shortage now.”

According to Sanders, Vermont needs to add 9,000 nurses to the workforce in the next seven years in order to address a crisis made worse by the state’s aging population.

One cause of the problem, Sanders said, is that the state does not have enough nursing educators on hand to train the next generation. Nursing instructors on average earn a salary of about $65,000 per year, he said — significantly less than they make if they stay in the field. Boosting instructor pay would incentivize more people to step up and train new nurses, he said.

Read more: https://vtdigger.org/2022/01/03/vermont-lawmakers-say-states-long-standing-nursing-workforce-shortage-is-at-a-crisis-point/