AdventHealth Physician Leader Testifies to Florida Legislature on Staffing Crisis

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On Sept. 20, Neil Finkler, MD, chief clinical officer of the AdventHealth Central Florida Division, addressed Florida’s House Health and Human Services Committee and explained some of the challenges facing health care professionals.

At the forefront of the discussion is the widespread shortage of nurses. Staffing nurses was a challenge before the pandemic, Finkler explained, but COVID-19 has intensified the urgency to address the shortage. During the pandemic, many nurses chose to either become traveling nurses and relocate to COVID-19 hot spots around the country for compensation of $10,000 a week or leave the nursing field altogether.

“This is really one of the great existential threats to our ability to continue to deliver healthcare,” Finkler said. “This is not sustainable. It limits consistency. It limits our mentoring capability. It limits team building, and it limits a lot of the things that we have done to improve the quality of care that we provide."

Finkler, along with colleagues from other health care organizations, asked lawmakers to help with the various obstacles hospitals face and expressed the need for more students, professors and educational opportunities to ensure the industry has an adequate workforce in the future.

Learn more about Finkler’s testimony here.

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