Letter: RI needs Nursing Home Workforce Standards board

My name is Sherman Pines and I am writing to express my disappointment in Gov. Dan McKee’s recent veto of the Nursing Home Workforce Standards Board Bill (WSB). This bill was a commonsense way to tackle the extreme issues that exist in our state’s nursing homes including chronic short staffing, low wages and high turnover.

As a former nursing home resident, I unfortunately know these problems all too well. In 2021, I spent one month in Kingston Center in West Kingston for rehab during the height of the pandemic. I witnessed firsthand the terrible reality of short staffing. There were only two CNAs for an average of 30 residents. Once, I had to wait an hour to get a glass of water, another time, when I needed assistance to use the restroom, it took over an hour for someone to come. What was even more disturbing was that I could hear residents screaming out in the middle of the night because they needed help … but there wasn’t enough staff there to help them. The staffing situation got so bad, nursing home workers were flown in from Texas and Alabama. Even though this was during the pandemic, the situation has barely improved.

Finally, I thought this bill would help make the change we desperately need. The WSB would help CNAs by raising wages, improving training and giving them a seat on the board along with representatives from government, industry and Medicaid community groups. It would use data and collaboration to create a long-term plan and was voted on overwhelmingly by the General Assembly. Because Rhode Island’s 2021 nursing home staffing law was never enforced; the WSB is our best hope to make sure no one has to go through what I went through.

For these reasons and more, I can’t understand why Gov. McKee would veto this important piece of legislation. In the last few years, he has done nothing to help nursing home residents and instead issued six executive orders suspending the staffing law. Enough is enough. Nursing home workers, residents and family members have been through too much and we need relief. We need the General Assembly to override this veto and let the WSB become law.

Sherman Pines, Newport resident, CEO of Newport Healthcare Advocate

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Letter: RI needs Nursing Home Workforce Standards board