will receive scholarships that cover the majority of tuition. Several lawmakers have proposed bills in the 2023 session that would extend income tax credits for rural medical providers to nurse educators. A similar effort died in committee in 2019. FEW CLINICAL SPOTS Nursing students need hands-on practice to finish their schooling, but a lack of faculty and working nurses means there are too few mentors to guide students in clinical settings. The short- age of clinical placements became acute during the COVID-19 pandemic, when many healthcare facilities closed to visitors. Deb Henry, a nursing education and practice specialist at Legacy Health, said the hospital system offered 2,607 clinical spots for nursing undergraduates in fiscal year 2020, then only 468 in 2021. Clinical spots rebounded to 1,110 in 2022 but are still not back to pre-pandemic levels because of staffing shortages. Hospital units that have several nurse openings can’t accommodate as many students, Henry said, and will prioritize onboarding new Legacy hires or traveling nurses before training stu- dents. “We try hard, I try hard, to place these students but there are so many variables involved that it’s difficult,” Henry said. The Oregon State Board of Nursing allows schools to substitute simulated nursing scenarios – like working with high-tech mannequins, case studies or actors – for up to 49% of a student’s clinical hours, Thompson said. Some schools have leaned into that option. The Linfield School of Nursing expanded simulation centers during the pandemic to help meet students’ needs for clinical experience. Spending time alongside professional nurses in real health care settings helps prepare students to work face-to-face with patients, but the hours can be unpredictable, associate dean of nursing Julie Fitzwater said. Simulations let instructors craft the exact experience they want their students to work through, like caring for a mannequin that has given birth and is suffering a post-partum hemorrhage or interacting with an actor simulat- ing a patient in a mental health crisis. “Having both experiences is so important for building their clinical reasoning and clinical judge- ment,” Fitzwater said.
Source: https://www.oregonlive.com/business/2023/01/oregon-health-care-employers-hamstrung-by- staffing-shortage-as-the-state-produces-3rd-fewest-nurses-per-capita.html
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