The hardest part of Culix Wibonele’s first job in long-term care was not getting injured.
Originally from Kenya, Wibonele worked as a certified nursing assistant in Atlanta in 2014. She went to the homes of mostly older clients, helping them with everything from bathing to cooking. Wibonele worked alone and sometimes had to lift clients much bigger than her.
It was demanding work and paid only $9 per hour with no benefits. If not for Wibonele’s second job as a babysitter and her husband’s income, they would not have made ends meet while supporting their four children.
“My paycheck, you know, was literally just nothing,” Wibonele said. “I was kind of shocked, like, the amount of work we (were) expected to do and the pay you get at the end.”
Wibonele’s experience reflects broader trends in the long-term care workforce. Those who tend to older adults in settings like private homes and assisted living facilities across the U.S. face low wages and risk of injury while the industry struggles with staff shortages, CNHI News and The Associated Press found as part of an examination of the state of America’s long-term care.
Meanwhile, demand for these workers is rising as the population ages. By 2030, roughly 20% of the U.S. population will be 65 or older, and that share will continue to grow, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Still crazy when Biden started requiring more nurses at retirement homes everyone acted like it’s a great plan…
I kept getting down votes for pointing out that without enough nurses it would lead to anything remotely affordable being shut down because they can’t meet the requirements.
Everyone acted like we just have a bunch of nurses hanging out without any jobs to apply for, even tho we’re close to half a decade deep into a nursing shortage.
The problem is the cost of education, if it’s prohibitivly expensive, we’ll lack skilled workers.
We can’t just snap our fingers and more appear, even if we fixed the price of education there’s a delay.
You got legitimately downvoted for a whole bunch of your argument and how you presented it. I’m not going to revisit it here.
Says a lot that you blame the people asking for more heath care and not the bosses who refuse to pay a living wage.
Bruh money is not the problem…
They could pay them more today, but that doesn’t solve what I was talking about about:
Nurses
Like I said, were half a decade into a nursing shortage, hospitals are paying out the ass, nursing homes already can’t compete, and people are still leaving the field.
Stop being mad, and read the headline of the article you’re reading. We can’t even staff the non nurses. To pay them, these wages will likely be cut more.
If they have to pay a competitive rate to get the nurses from hospitals, that cost gets passed on to clients or taken out of the pay of people like this article is about.
Profits is the last bucket it will be taken out of.
And people will be priced out of this because this is America
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I’m not familiar with other skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) outside of California but I believe if the skilled nursing facilities in California are struggling to survive, there is a possibility that others would as well with this requirement. Already operating margins have been shown to be at break even or negative before Biden’s initiatives [1], [2][3, note to add, i can count on my fingers, 10 yrs in HC, how many ppl pay privately for SNF].
The whole sector is honestly a mess unfortunately and I have so much to say. I will keep it simple though. I do not think the prices will rise or will be passed onto consumers like the above poster suggests because SNFs cannot control Medicare or MediCal reimbursement/payments (which is the bulk of their clientele). I think they will simply close down, especially with Bidens requirement, leaving less options for any patients needing short term care (iv abx before going home, wound care, rehab) and almost NO options for patients that don’t have money to live anywhere else. Already, sometimes I have to send long term pts 200+ miles because I can’t find any SNF beds closer. There has been a nursing shortage in SNF for so long, and Bidens requirement does not address any issues currently with the SNFs. And just adds a HUGE problem, likely to cause many SNFs to close down. That’s why I am against the nurse requirement.