State draws backlash after advertising nursing jobs with ‘no mandated COVID-19 vaccination’

By Andrew Ozaki

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    OMAHA, Nebraska (KETV) — A recruiting campaign to attract more nurses to state-run facilities is drawing heat from health professionals and one state senator.

The ads offer hiring bonuses and tout that COVID-19 vaccinations are not required.

One of the facilities hiring is the Eastern Nebraska Veterans Home in Bellevue.

State Sen. Carol Blood represents that district. She said veterans’ family members were calling her.

“What criteria was used by our executive branch to make this decision? And how appropriate is it to utilize this as a marketing tool to encourage people to come and work in facilities where some of Nebraska’s most vulnerable people are currently living,” Blood said.

Blood sent a letter to Gov. Pete Ricketts and to the Nebraska Department of Veteran Affairs.

She said she understands the staffing shortage for nurses and health care works, but wrote putting veterans at risk because of the need to find bodies to hire is not acceptable.

“Are we truly honoring our veterans if we’re putting them in harm’s way?” Blood said.

Catherine Todero, the Dean of Creighton’s Nursing College also has concerns

“Concerns for both the provider and for the patients,” Todero said.

She said that it was an “interesting recruiting tool” and that many health care organizations are requiring staff to be fully vaccinated, such as all of Nebraska’s major hospital systems.

Todero believes many other organizations will probably follow since the Food and Drug Administration’s full approval of the Pfizer vaccine.

“The best strategy for managing the whole COVID circumstance is to vaccinate,” Todero said.

Veterans Affairs Communications Director Holden Armstrong said in a statement, “While we encourage teammates to get vaccinated and have hosted vaccination clinics in all four facilities, it is an individual’s choice, and unvaccinated people live and work all throughout our communities.”

“Healthcare workers, including those who are not vaccinated, have served admirably throughout the pandemic, and many are very experienced in treating Coronavirus patients and slowing the spread of the virus. The state advertising these opportunities to recruit nurses to continue to serve in their profession in a way that may not be afforded to them elsewhere,” Holden said.

He said VA staff have protective gear, are screened and vaccinated, staff are tested weekly, while unvaccinated staff are tested every other day.

Gov. Pete Ricketts’ Director of Strategic Communications Taylor Gage said in an email, “The State is advertising these opportunities to recruit nurses to continue to serve in their profession in a way that may not be afforded to them elsewhere. We have many unfilled nursing positions in State government and working for the State can give nurses who want choice over their health care an alternative professional opportunity.”

Blood wants to know why the state isn’t following the advice of many in the medical community.

“We have local experts who say that anybody who works with our most vulnerable, should be vaccinated,” Blood said.

The Nebraska Nurses Association is also voicing its concerns in a letter to Ricketts.

Kari Wade, President of the Nebraska Nurse Association said, “The State of Nebraska’s recruitment approach of not requiring COVID-19 vaccination being used as an incentive demeans the dedication and diligence the nursing workforce has demonstrated during the pandemic to improve the health of all Nebraskans. This promotion does not serve our state well.”

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