Reno Reporter

Nevada hospitals are struggling to keep nursing positions filled as the nation faces a shortage of qualified nurses.

The nationwide shortage of nurses is so severe that many Nevada hospitals cannot properly staff their beds, News 4 reported. The problem is especially pronounced in northern Nevada where hospitals are near full capacity, making it so that there are more beds than nurses.

“I held a roundtable with leaders from state medical schools and hospitals on the physician shortage, how to better support Nevada’s graduate medical education programs, and how to improve the system to reduce these shortages in the state and across the country,” U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) wrote in an Aug. 1 Twitter post.

There was a shortage of nurses in existence before the pandemic, but each wave of the pandemic has taken a toll on nurses and has even made some opt out of the profession altogether, according to News 3.

News 3 reported that the nursing shortage in northern Nevada is being exacerbated by a major wildfire on South Lake Tahoe, which made the city’s hospital evacuate patients to hospitals near the area.

A representative of the Nevada Hospital Association said that some Nevada hospitals may have to resort to turning away ambulances to send them further away to hospitals with available staff and beds, News 3 reported.