UNAP President demands answers to hospital staffing shortage ahead of vaccine mandate deadline
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) – The President of the United Nursing and Allied Professionals Union is demanding answers as to how state officials plan to address the staffing shortage come the October 1st health care worker vaccine mandate.
“That’s the issue. The plan is something that we haven’t been privy to. No one has told us what the plan is on Friday,” Lynn Blais, President of UNAP said. “We don’t know whether the state has looked at what they’re going to do if there’s an influx of patients that are coming from nursing homes or if there are patients that can’t get discharged to go to a nursing home and the hospitals are starting to burst at the seams.”
UNAP represents over 7,000 nurses and other health care staff. The union highly supports vaccines but says there is a staffing crisis inside hospitals and they need help.
According to Blais, about 93-94% of health care workers are vaccinated. Hundreds are set to lose their jobs come Friday when the healthcare mandate goes into effect placing a huge weight on those who are already burnt out.
“We’ve dealt with probably more death and loneliness and despair in the course of 18 months than many of us have seen in our entire career. That weighs on the people that are doing the job,” Blais said. “We’ve been there since day 1. When the pandemic hit, we got up every morning not knowing what it was we were going to face when we got there.”
The Governor’s Office and the Department of Health announced last week that health care workers can continue to work past the October 1st deadline if there’s a risk to the safety and care of patients.
However, Blais says there’s not much clarity on who can stay and for how long. She worries those against the vaccine won’t change their minds and many with it are leaving for travel nurse jobs offering much more.
“How do we retain what we have? How do we recruit more nurses in? It truly comes down to feeling respected in the workplace, appreciated, and given the tools we need to get the job done,” Blais said.
According to Blais, those tools are not being provided. She hopes that changes soon rather than later.
“I have very valid concerns. I pray my family stays healthy over the course of the next couple of weeks as we get through this process,” Blais said. “I know our members will do everything they can to provide the care that is needed, but I hope that our administrators and state leaders are as prepared for Friday to make sure we can do what we need to do.”
ABC 6 News reached out to the Governor’s Office asking if they plan to bring in the National Guard to help with places experiencing staffing shortages. We are waiting to hear back.
