New Mexico hospital officials say nursing shortage growing during pandemic
Health care leaders in New Mexico painted a dark picture Monday of hospitals and nursing staffs in crisis as the coronavirus pandemic plunders on.
The New Mexico Hospital Association and various hospital representatives told the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee the pandemic has worsened weaknesses in the state’s already fragile health care system. They need workforce help for the short term and solutions over the long run, such as money to help colleges produce more nurses, they said.
They described both big-picture institutional crises and appalling behavior at a personal level. Tim Johnsen, a registered nurse and senior vice president with Presbyterian Healthcare Services, said early in the pandemic, nurses were cheered publicly as heroes, food arrived at hospitals for them and banners flew.