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Woodlawn Care Center weathers virus outbreak, staff shortages

By Patrick Adrian
[email protected]
NEWPORT — The Woodlawn Care Center is employing social media and monetary incentives to recruit its short-term nursing staff as it deals with an outbreak of novel coronavirus infections and employee shortage.

Woodlawn, a long-term care facility on Pine Street in Newport, has successfully used its Facebook page to attract applicants to work as temporary nursing staff amid a viral outbreak that has depleted the home’s staff. Ten staff members are still in quarantine after testing positive for the novel coronavirus and approximately another 10 have stopped working at Woodlawn due to concerns of the outbreak, which has infected 22 of the center’s current count of 44 residents.

On Saturday Woodlawn Administrator Christopher Martin posted a message on the program’s Facebook page asking the community to help fill shifts during the crisis.

“We have residents needing more care and less staff to take the load,” the message stated. “The State has some crisis staffing for outbreaks but they have been unable to fill any of our needs or open shifts.”

Woodlawn is offering increased pay through state-funded emergency relief to nurses or LNAs (licensed nursing assistants) and a free eight-hour course to receive a temporary nursing assistant license, according to the message.

“We’ve actually gotten about a dozen responses,” Martin told The Eagle Times on Monday. “And we had one start yesterday.”

The problem of LNA shortages actually predates the pandemic, though the novel coronavirus has exacerbated the challenges for care facilities, according to Martin.

“The well has been dry for a while,” Martin said. “They’re relatively low-paying jobs that compete with the service industry.”

Care facilities are heavily funded through state Medicaid reimbursements, which limits a facility’s ability to adjust its compensation to compete with other employers.

Woodlawn typically pays $15 per hour to full-time LNAs and $18 per hour per diem, though the facility has added an additional $5 per hour “COVID incentive” during the outbreak, Martin said.

Martin said Woodlawn is currently short about half of its total nursing staff due to either illness or staff opting not to work. Many nursing staff members at Woodlawn work per diem shifts outside their primary employment. In several cases the individual has had to drop the shifts at Woodlawn to satisfy the primary employer’s concerns.

These temporary positions may only be needed for the next week or two until the regular employees in quarantine are ready to return, Martin said.

The state has also kept Woodlawn well-supplied in PPE, or personal protective equipment throughout most of the pandemic.

“The state has been great with providing PPE,” Martin said. “The National Guard is here now delivering four pallets of supplies.”

Martin confirmed that three residents have died during the outbreak. Two of the three had tested positive for the novel coronavirus, though it is not clear whether the virus factored into either person’s death. The residents in question were not suffering respiratory problems or other issues directly resulting from the virus but one cannot know whether or not having the virus exacerbated the person’s existing health issues.

Most of the 22 residents who have tested positive have exhibited mild to moderate symptoms while about 25% of residents have been asymptomatic, though symptoms can sometimes appear later, Martin said.

“Just because people aren’t showing symptoms today or tomorrow they could in a couple of days or a week from now,” Martin said.

The virus’s 14-day incubation period also makes it difficult to trace Woodlawn’s outbreak. Martin could confirm that the first staff member to test positive had contracted it from the outside community, it is uncertain how many staff members who tested positive contracted it from exposure in Woodlawn. Some staff members to test positive only worked periodically at Woodlawn and had no known contact with infected residents, while cases across the state are surging at a rapid rate.

Additionally someone who tests positive today could have been exposed 13 days ago, Martin said.

“So the fact that we had positives this weekend does not mean what we’re doing is not working,” Martin said.

Woodlawn has put all residents under quarantine and staff are required to wear PPE when interacting with residents.

Individuals interested in temporary work at Woodlawn may contact Martin at [email protected]. To take the eight hour course to be a temporary LNA visit educate.ahcancal.org/products/temporary-nurse-aide.

“These are challenging times and we appreciate the support of the community,” Martin said. “We’ve got a lot of people who have responded to help with staffing and folks who are providing support staff as well, so we appreciate the community coming together in our time of need.”

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