WINONA, Minn. (KWNO)-Gov. Tim Walz last week announced he’s activated 400 members of the Minnesota National Guard to assist with staffing shortages in long-term care facilities.
“It would be awesome if we were able to get some of these guards people just even to give a break to our staff who’ve been doing a phenomenal job,” Winona Health President/CEO Rachelle Schultz said during an interview on KWNO’s In the Know Monday.
Schultz says long-term care staffing issues have limited beds in those settings and have forced long-term care patients into longer hospital stays, which Schultz says is adding to the strain on hospital capacity. She says Winona Health will apply for the staffing help and predicts other area facilities will do the same.
“We have a fair amount of long-term care facilities in the region and I think everybody could use that kind of help or that kind of relief right now,” Schultz said.
Schultz says the guard members will be broken into strike teams made up of 10 people. She anticipates the teams to stay at one location for two to three weeks before moving elsewhere.
Many guard members are expected to need a crash course on nursing skills before being deployed into long-term care settings. MSC Southeast says they are getting as many as 20 guard members ready for their latest assignment.
The school began training guard members on Sunday at its Red Wing campus. A statement from MSC says the training sessions will run from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily until Dec. 5.
The training includes classroom and hands-on skilled labs. MSC says one instructor and five adjunct instructors are will provide a total of 75 training hours over the course of eight days.
Statement from MSC Southeast:
Red Wing, MN (November 27, 2021) — Minnesota State College Southeast in Red Wing is one of 16 Minnesota State colleges that will provide emergency Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) training for members of the Minnesota National Guard next week. These Guard members will serve in under-staffed healthcare centers and assist in long-term care facilities to address staffing difficulties and shortages during a period of heightened need due to the pandemic.
WHAT: Emergency training of 20 National Guard members to become Certified Nursing Assistants
WHERE: MSC Southeast Red Wing Campus, 308 Pioneer Road, Red Wing, MN
WHEN: November 28-December 5, 2021
On November 22, Gov. Walz activated 400 National Guard members to create skilled-nursing response teams to help short-staffed long term care facilities. With only a few day’s notice, MSC Southeast responded to a request from the Minnesota State Healthcare Training Network to provide CNA training for up to 20 National Guard members.
The schedule is intense, with classes every day beginning on Sunday, November 28 and ending on Sunday, December 5. Many of the days run from 9 am to 9 pm with half-hour lunch and dinner breaks. A total of 75 hours of training will provided in 8 days. Training will be provided by one full-time nursing instructor and five adjunct instructors.
The Nursing Assistant for the National Guard training includes classroom and hands-on skills labs. National Guard members who complete the training with a passing grade will also be eligible to sit for the written and skills Nursing Assistant tests. Participants who pass both portions of the testing will be placed on the Minnesota Nursing Assistant Registry and will be eligible to continue working as a nursing assistant in their civilian life.
This training may be the start to a career pathway in a very high demand field: according to RealTime Talent, prior the COVID-19 pandemic, nine employers completed a two-year forecast estimating they would need to fill 5,400 positions within their Twin Cities locations. In addition, nursing assistant standing is a requirement for entry into the college’s nursing majors at Minnestoa State College Southeast.
Statewide, 16 colleges will train 400 Guard members, with training to be completed by December 5 as the vaccination requirement for healthcare workers becomes effective December 6, 2021. Additionally, up to 400 more participants can be trained before June 30, 2022.
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