Nurses are continuing to leave their profession amid the ongoing staffing crisis. The question now is, can hospitals and health systems change enough to keep them in their profession?

Several large health systems are turning to virtual nurses to fight workforce shortages and improve hospital efficiency, but not all leaders are onboard.

The Texas Board of Nursing charged 23 people as part of the reverberations from "Operation Nightingale," which uncovered a national scheme involving thousands of fake nursing degrees. 

Along with its newly released financial results in a Feb. 16 earnings call, Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems this week also noted nurse recruitment was up 18 percent in 2022.

Hospital beds are nearly full and waiting times in emergency departments across the U.S. are often untenable. However, April Kapu, DNP, president of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, recently told Becker's that nurse practitioners can provide solutions for hospitals facing clinician shortages. 

A bill passed in Oregon in 2019 may soon make it so community colleges can offer four-year traditional baccalaureate degrees, including a Bachelor of Science in nursing — but despite a national nursing shortage, some are not sure this effort is worthwhile or will be effective.

In recent months, several health systems have rolled out virtual nurse initiatives or said they plan to do so as a way to recruit and retain nurses. 

Lexington Medical Center plans to build a 52,000-square-foot nursing simulation center and teaching facility at its campus in West Columbia, S.C., the hospital said Feb. 16. 

Sioux Falls, S.D.-based Sanford Health has already onboarded more than 130 of the 800 internationally educated nurses the system is looking to hire to help offset nursing shortage challenges.

Tennessee has the most active nurse practitioners of any state per capita, while Hawaii has the fewest, according to a ranking from Kaiser Family Foundation. 

Stone Academy, a for-profit healthcare college in West Haven, Conn., will close all three of its campus locations immediately after failing to address multiple compliance issues, according to a Feb. 14 press release from the Connecticut Department of Public Health. 

We spoke with RLDatix’s Chief Clinical and Services Officer, Inge Garrison, about the staffing crisis across the healthcare continuum. She shared her outlook, along with some thoughts on how technology might be able to help.

Florida's Commission for Independent Education has ordered seven nursing schools allegedly tied to the fraudulent degree scandal to pause graduation and enrollment activities through March, the state confirmed to Becker's Feb. 15.

The widespread shortage of nurses is the result of a foundational crack in hospital systems across the country, Amanda Bettencourt, PhD, APRN, president of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, told Becker's.

More hospitals and health systems are betting on workplace flexibility advancements as a key strategy to boost nurse recruitment and retention. In recent months, various leaders have talked to Becker's about their efforts to give nurses more flexibility in their schedules and roles. 

Nearly two decades since California passed legislation mandating nurse-to-patient ratios, it remains the only state to have done so. For decades, staffing ratios have continuously sparked debate between hospitals and nurse associations, and have led to volumes of research pointing to benefits on both sides of the coin.

There are more than 49 million adults over the age of 65, according to the National Institute on Aging, and the number is expected to increase and so are diseases as more baby boomers reach retirement age throughout the next few years.

Lebanon N.H.-based Dartmouth Health recently gave nurses the opportunity to pitch solutions for issues they encounter on a daily basis as part of the health system's first Nursing Innovation Hackathon. 

Mandatory nurse staffing ratios are a temporary solution to a larger issue and will not bring about the respect the profession deserves, Kathleen Bartholomew, MN, RN, a national speaker and nurse advocate, wrote in an op-ed for Nurse.org. Instead, nurses should be advocating for charge nurses to have the authority to set ratios on an hourly basis and "get as many nurses as they request. Period," she said. 

Job flexibility is at the center of hospitals' and health systems' strategies to welcome back nurses who left during earlier stages of the COVID-19 pandemic — and some are seeing significant progress.