ROCHELLE — Rochelle Community Hospital CEO Gregg Olson said last week that he’s seen the effects of a nationwide shortage of registered nurses locally. 

As of last week, RCH had five open RN positions that its human resources department is in the process of filling. Not all of them are related to staff leaving and some of the openings are a result of sustained growth the hospital has experienced in patient care areas. 

Olson stressed that no single department at RCH is more important than another, but outlined reasons for the importance of RNs on staff. 

“They work at the top of their license,” Olson said. “They are the caregivers in many cases. They're supplemented by nurse's aides or medical assistants, but they do have somewhat of a leadership role when it comes to managing the patient. We desperately need those people in the positions that are there. They have that ability to react to what they're seeing with our medical staff to provide a plan of care and carry that out. They're very important to the operation of this hospital and in any hospital.”

During the earlier, more serious stages of the pandemic, RCH didn’t say many staff members in general leaving. Since then, staff members such as nurses have seen attractive new employment opportunities. He said registered nurse is one of the hardest positions to fill right now.  

There are companies that are hiring registered nurses away from RCH to work at home. 

“They're getting some pretty high wages to do that,” Olson said. “Not only do they not have to physically come to work, they can stay home and watch their kids and do their job at the same time. It's very attractive. Plus make more money. We've seen that. We've seen insurance companies do that. We have lost some folks to that sort of arrangement.”

RCH has also lost “some” registered nurses that have gone into a “travelers type of circuit” where they work for a company that assigns them to different parts of the country for 13-week stints where they’re “paid very handsomely,” Olson said. 

RCH has had to bring in some agency registered nurses to help supplement its current staffing levels, Olson said. He said he hopes that’s short-term because it’s “very expensive.”

“We have seen some activity that we hadn't seen before,”Olson said. “Does it concern us? Yes. And it should. We're certainly holding our own. We have the staffing. Our goal is to provide the best possible care we can for our patients and the community and keep our staff safe. We're going to do that.”

Olson said he couldn’t say enough positives about his staff as a whole about its work throughout COVID-19 and said the focus remains on the patients RCH sees. As far as registered nurses, there are some positions RCH is initiating where it will be doing things a “a little bit differently” and adding a nurse in a role it hasn’t had before. 

Olson said measures are being taken industry-wide to combat the registered nurse shortage and have been for a while. The issue was also seen a few years ago, he said. New programs were introduced and colleges, universities and technical schools did things like expanding class sizes. 

“There were more options,” Olson said. “Virtual education where you can sit behind a computer at your house. You have to do hands-on of course, but a lot of times you can do a lot of the education piece virtually. There's more opportunity for people to get into the nursing field. And I think that's a result of having more access points to different programs."