There was a shortage of roughly 1.2 million nurses in the United States pre-COVID, largely due to the Baby Boomer generation’s retirement, says Sooner Home Health Care Sapulpa Director Brenda Anderson. After COVID, those numbers have jumped substantially, particularly in Oklahoma.
One reason for the shortage is that many nurses have chosen to retire early, to avoid the risks of the pandemic. Those who are newly-licensed, with 0-3 years of experience, are leaving the profession entirely, due to the stress and strain caused by the pandemic. They say, “This isn’t what I signed up for.” And, similar to the teaching profession, “Our nurses are leaving to work in other states,” says Assistant Director Julie Nevins. “Their expenses are being covered; they have shorter work hours and higher salaries.”
Another drain on the industry is that many of the nurses who were providing bedside care at hospitals are choosing to do travel nursing through home health clinics. They are lured by the benefits, sign-on bonuses, housing, and travel pay, Anderson and Nevins agree.
And some hospitals are “flying COVID patients out of state or sending them home, because they are not able to take them—there are no nurses. All of these issues can cause serious delays in patients’ health care coverage.”
Much of the extra burden in Creek County has fallen on SHHC-Sapulpa and its full-time nursing staff of 11, 9 of which “are out and about, serving this community in the field.”
“There’s a shortage in all health care facilities, not just us. It’s affecting all of us. Clinics, nursing homes, senior living facilities. And now we’re all competing against each other to get nurses to come in and apply. We have positions open for 3 nurses right now at this office,” says Nevins. And company-wide there are at least 15 openings.
Nurses are also facing a “serious burnout issue,” says Anderson. Seeing patients die of COVID, and family members being affected (two of their nurses have lost family members to the virus recently) on top of life’s day-to-day activities, “It becomes too much. There is a real mental health crisis in the healthcare industry.”
To combat these issues, SHHC is working on providing flex scheduling, to make sure their employees have time off with family and have time to rest and recharge. “When they say they need a break, they get a break. All we can do is listen to them and how they feel,” Anderson says.
SHHC opened in March 2005 in Norman, by OU alumni Mike Vaughn and Wayne McClure (hence the “Sooner” in the title). Brian Wilson acquired the company in 2016. They have 7 sister locations that service almost the entire state, with the exception of the panhandle and some western counties, although they are expanding to Yukon and Enid soon. Wilson’s vision is to provide coverage for all Oklahomans.
The Sapulpa office offers nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and home health aide services. And the service area is large, covering the vast majority of Lincoln, Washington, Nowata, Rogers, Okmulgee, Pawnee, Osage, Creek, and Tulsa Counties. “We can take care of the needs of a lot of Oklahomas,” Anderson says. Another area of growth for the company will be the addition of hospice care to their services.
Though the Sapulpa office is moving to the former Cancer Treatment Center of America campus in Tulsa in November (just northwest of 81st Street and 169), which will be more central for nurses and physical therapists, much of the staff lives in Sapulpa, Cushing, Mounds, or Kellyville, and they won’t be giving up on Creek County. “We’ve seen Sapulpa grow and evolve,” says Anderson, and “we have a lot of Creek County clients. What is unique about our offices is that we serve rural people. And we’ll take any outliers that other entities can’t get to.”
Sooner Home Health Care is now able to accept new patients, and it is in network with Medicare and most Medicare Advantage plans. Most commercial and Medicaid insurance is also accepted.
Open full-time positions are LPNs, RNs, RNCMs, and Health Aids, and part-time positions are LPNs, RNs, and PTAs. All positions come with a sign-on bonus.
