During Thursday’s “Team Kentucky” update, Governor Andy Beshear inked an executive order — declaring a state of emergency in the Commonwealth due to wide-reaching nursing shortages in all 120 counties.
Beshear noted Kentucky was already experiencing mild strain in the state’s medical support prior to the pandemic. But the coronavirus and its complications exacerbated issues, causing both the Kentucky Board of Nurses and the Kentucky Nurses Association to make considerable suggestions to the Governor’s office.
Beshear said the Commonwealth is currently operating between 12-and-20 percent short of its needed nursing volume. And by 2024, he added that Kentucky would need 16,000 additional nurses to fill the ranks.
The executive order:
■ allows Kentucky nursing schools to enroll more students
■ requires the KBN to approve requests for enrollment increases for schools that show sufficient resources to handle more students
■ requires schools to report vacant student seats to the KBN every week
■ requires any school at full capacity to refer quality applicants to schools with vacancies
■ requires any school that can’t meet allowed capacity because of faculty to provide a list to the KBN, the governor’s office and the Council on Post-secondary Education to ensure faculty is found and hired
■ allows existing schools that want to open more campuses, can do so more quickly and be considered an enrollment increase to an existing program
■ allows nurses licensed in other states to come in and practice during this emergency
creates a “Team Kentucky” nurse advisory committee to propose additional solutions, direct to the governor’s desk
■ and assures new and current nurses will qualify for “hero pay,” with Beshear noting there will be budget recommendations for nursing school loan forgiveness and/or scholarship programs for nurses who stay in Kentucky for a period of time upon graduation
Kelly Jenkins, the executive director of the KBN, said there’s been a push for this executive order since the beginning of the pandemic.
In recent months, an unknown number of nurses statewide have turned to other careers, as well, following hospital vaccination mandates ordered over the summer, and federal vaccination mandates that have recently been put on hold by the U.S. Senate.
