New York dropping $646M to recruit, train health care workers

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ALBANY, N.Y. (NEXSTAR) — Gov. Kathy Hochul announced that the state is giving $646 million to three organizations over the next three years. It’s part of the Career Pathways Training Program to attract more new health care workers to the field statewide.

Hochul identified the three Workforce Investment Organizations splitting the nine-figure sum as:

Iroquois Healthcare Association (Saratoga County)
Finger Lakes Performing Provider System (Monroe County)
1199SEIU Training and Employment Funds

“We need to show up for our health care workers, because they show up for us,” Hochul said at a press conference announcing the funds. “The difference that this investment will make is enormous. It will change lives.”

The announcement came within days of a report—available at the bottom of this story—from the University at Albany on shortages of registered nurses at New York’s hospitals. It identified several major factors that lead new Registered Nurses (RNs) to leave the field within their first three years, including:

Stressful, rigid working conditions causing burnout
Pandemic-era training deficiencies
Younger workers more willing to change jobs for more money or a flexible schedule

The study “Understanding and Responding to Registered Nursing Shortages in Acute Care Hospitals in New York,” doesn’t cover all health care workers. Still, it acknowledged that retention saves money compared to recruitment in the healthcare industry, and recommended several strategies:

Increasing compensation, tuition assistance, or education loan repayments
Improving workplace culture
Prioritizing work/life balance
Expanding professional development
Reducing workplace violence
Virtual nursing

Hochul said she worked with Pres. Joe Biden and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for funding. The money comes through an amendment to the Health Equity Reform Waiver—worth roughly $6 billion over the next three years—that was approved in January.

“Fifteen percent of hospital patient care RNs between ages 20 and 39 report plans to leave their current position within the next year, which underscores the urgency of mitigating further declines,” said Jean Moore, Director of the Center for Health Workforce Studies at UAlbany’s School of Public Health.

Several politicians attended Hochul’s press conference announcing the funding from New York City on Thursday morning: