Workers at Minnesota's rural hospitals are feeling the strain
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Another shot of bitterly cold air rolls through Minnesota today. Highs will be in the single digits for most of the state and wind chill advisories are up for northwest and central Minnesota. Sven Sundgaard has the latest on Updraft. | |
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| Minnesota rural hospital workers feel the strain as colleagues leave, COVID stays | For nurses and other medical staff across rural Minnesota, it's work upon work as they struggle to manage through the pandemic.
By one national estimate, nearly 1 in 5 health care workers have left the field since the start of the pandemic. The exodus is fueled by burnout stemming from the pandemic: extra hours to fill in for colleagues; the relentless stream of COVID-19 patients, many of whom have chosen to forgo a vaccine; having to keep patients who need speedy transfers stable for extended periods of time when hospitals are completely full.
On the tail end of yet another COVID surge, one north-central Minnesota hospital captures the challenges of trying to find new people to replace those leaving — an expensive and stressful effort as the pandemic hits year three. [Continue reading]
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| And COVID forces many students with Down syndrome to miss out learning vital to their progress | Minnesota legislation passed last year requires public schools to assess whether students with individualized education programs have regressed or lost learning opportunities during the pandemic. They must determine appropriate services to help compensate for lost learning, and deliver them regardless of staff shortages or school closures.
Implementing the requirement, however, hasn't been easy and Online instruction for disabled students “has largely been not as rigorous, not as comprehensive, not as personal, not as meaningful as in-person services,” says Dan Stewart, the legal director at the Minnesota Disability Law Center.
“For these kids, the COVID experience has been a largely unmitigated disaster because of the COVID restrictions, because of staffing problems, because of technology problems,” Stewart said. [Continue reading] | |
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