$5M Earmark In NJ Budget Won’t Fix Nursing Shortage, Union Says

NEW JERSEY — A plan to invest $5 million into an effort to fix New Jersey’s ongoing nurse shortage is nice – but it won’t solve the problem, the president of the state’s largest nursing union says.

On Tuesday, Gov. Phil Murphy presented the annual state budget address, teasing several spending plans for the upcoming fiscal year.

During his speech, the governor said the next state budget will include funding to help “young New Jerseyans” to launch their careers – especially in fields that are seeing chronic workforce shortages, like education and health care.

• See Related: NJ Nurses Are Quitting In Droves, Union Says – Here's Why

According to Murphy, state officials are planning to budget $5 million to create a new “Nursing Workforce Initiative.” The money would help nurses to pay off their student loans and fuel grants for job training.

Murphy said the initiative will be a “lifeline” for nurses in training, such as Mariluz Lantigua De Peralta, an New Jersey resident who was present at the budget address (watch the video below, cued to Murphy's comments).

De Peralta – a student at the Trinitas School of Nursing in Elizabeth – has been living in Union County since 2016, when she immigrated to the United States from the Dominican Republic. And when she graduates in May, it will be the culmination of her very own American Dream, Murphy said.

“With our Nursing Workforce Initiative, we will make sure aspiring nurses like Mariluz can worry less about affording rent — and focus more on saving lives,” the governor said, applauding her for living a “quintessential American story.”

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The new funding is a step in the right direction, according to Debbie White, president of the Health Professionals and Allied Employees (HPAE), a union that represents roughly 14,000 nurses, social workers, therapists, technicians, medical researchers and other health care professionals across the state.

But the money won’t fix the underlying problem that is causing the shortage, she added – it will simply be “pouring water into a bucket full of holes.”

“While this does address recruitment, it will not fix the retention problem we see in health care, especially in our hospitals,” White said.

“National studies have shown that nearly 18 percent of newly licensed RNs quit the profession within the first year of working,” she pointed out. “In a survey of New Jersey nurses, 95 percent of nurses with zero to 5 years of experience in hospitals say they are likely to leave due to stress from unsafe staffing.”

“Thus, addressing recruitment in our hospitals – while important – does not ensure retention of those we are recruiting,” White said.

Here’s what could help, she continued:

“New Jersey must pass legislation (S-2700/A-3683) mandating safe staffing ratios in order to comprehensively address the staffing crisis. Understaffing in our hospitals creates an unsafe working environment contributing to nurse burnout and stress. Understaffing is also a patient crisis as studies have consistently shown an increased risk of death and complications and lower patient satisfaction when the nurse is overwhelmed with too many patients.”

“Gov. Murphy's budget address had glimmers of hope, yet there is also much more to be done to retain our health care workers who continue to migrate out of the profession,” White said.

• See Related: Nursing Shortage Looming As NJ Struggles To Fill Positions: Report
• See Related: NJ Nurses Demand Safe Staffing Law In Hospitals: 'Stop The Bleeding'

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