Nurses

The state will repay educational costs for health care workers who are willing to work in underserved areas. Another program will increase the number of medical residencies in Missouri.

One Kansas hospital was planning to start welcoming 100 nurses from the Philippines this fall. But a lengthy backlog in visa applications has put that on hold, possibly for a year or longer. Plus: A handful of states have not adopted the federal government’s option to extend postpartum care coverage for mothers on Medicaid.

A new, national survey shows the majority of nurses in the U.S. have seen or experienced racism in the workplace. Leading professionals say such discrimination’s impact is far-reaching.

Hospitals across the country have recruited nurses from around the world to make up for U.S. labor shortages. But demand for international workers is delaying visas and slowing the flow of nurses able to come to Kansas.

Hospitals relied on travel nurses during the pandemic, but they came at a high cost. Now, states including Missouri are considering legislation to crack down on hospital spending.

The University of Kansas School of Nursing was one of the first institutions of higher education and the sole nursing school to launch a virtual “Metaversity” through Meta’s Immersive Learning project.

A prison nurse said she felt trapped between two corrections officers as one described plans to kidnap, drug and rape her. Her attorney said there were “daily ‘rape jokes’ from other corrections officers and retaliation by the warden and other jail personnel.”

The nursing shortage has led to a greater reliance on travel nurses — who come with big price tags — at hospitals around the country. According to leading travel nursing agency Aya Healthcare, there are nearly 1,500 openings for travel nurses in Missouri and 340 in Kansas. That’s causing some hospitals to rethink their nursing staff retention efforts.

The nurses alleged Menorah altered their time sheets to prevent them from being paid for all the hours they worked.

Missouri ranks 50th in the nation in hours of care nursing home residents receive from workers each day. Advocates for nursing home residents say the Biden administration's plans to call for increased staffing could help residents.

Smaller facilities — particularly rural ones that have struggled for years to stay afloat — are finding it difficult, if not impossible, to compete for health care workers in this labor market.

University of Missouri Health Care is pulling nurses from administrative positions and other jobs to cover clinic shifts, in order to keep up with the record number of COVID-19 patients.