As of late February, there were 49.2% certified nursing assistant vacancies and 39.6% certified medication technician vacancies.
MEXICO – The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is awarding the Missouri Veterans Commission with a grant to help combat a staffing crisis.
“We’re in a staffing crisis, same as any other business out there, [we’re] looking to find a fine staff to take care of our veterans,” Paul Kirchhoff, executive director of the Missouri Veterans Commission, said.
Missouri Veterans Homes manages a total of 1,238 beds across seven locations in Cameron, Cape Girardeau, Mexico, Mount Vernon, St. James, St. Louis and Warrensburg.
The federal grant will allow for a one-time differential of $920.42 to be paid to all full-time support care assistants currently employed or hired between March 1 and July 1, 2023. This comes as the Missouri Veterans Commission struggles to maintain a full staff.
According to the commission, during fiscal year 2022, the Missouri Veterans Commission had a 55.2% vacancy rate for support care assistants and a 32% vacancy rate for senior support care assistants. In this same period, the Missouri Veterans Commission saw a 104.8% turnover in support care assistants and 49.8% in senior support care assistants statewide.
As of late February, there were 49.2% certified nursing assistant (CNA) vacancies and 39.6% certified medication technician (CMT) vacancies.
The commission said vacancies require team members to take additional shifts to fill scheduling gaps in order to meet minimum staffing requirements.
“It’s not just a competition among ourselves and other long-term care facilities in the private industry,” Kirchhoff said. “We’re competing against Starbucks, Walmart, all the other businesses out there for staffing, and pay is an issue we have.”
These staffing shortages are keeping eligible veterans on the waitlist for a bed. As of late February, 230 veterans were on the waitlist.
“Instead of reducing the level of care that our veterans have earned, what we’re doing is we’re accepting less veterans into the home,” Kirchhoff said.
Kirchhoff said he hopes a recent cost-of-living adjustment for state employees will also make a difference to increase retention. The base pay for CNAs will now be $17.61. Previously, it was $12.01.
Tasine Hall is a CNA at the Missouri Veterans Home in Mexico. Over her 11 years working at the home, she said she’s seen a high level of turnover. She said this turnover is due to the pay and the difficult nature of the job.
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“There’s a lot of hard work being a CNA here,” Hall said. “It’s hard day to day.”
Hall said she continues to come back to work every day because she loves the veterans she works with.
“My favorite part is conversing with the veterans one on one as I do their showers,” Hall said. “I get to know them better… [They tell me] how they met their wives, the things that they did, and how they were brought up and how things are now and how they weren’t then.”
Hall said the veterans become more than just part of the job.
“The hardest part is losing my veterans because they become family,” Hall said.
Hall said the increase in her hourly salary and one-time shift differential will make a tangible difference in her life.
“It’s going to be for me and my kids, my bills, and things that we want that maybe I as a single mother couldn’t provide,” Hall said.
Emily Iburg has worked as a CNA and CMT at the Missouri Veterans Home in Mexico for six years. Like Hall, Iburg said she’s seen a high level of staff turnover during her tenure at the home.
“I think the pay has some[thing] to do with it,” Iburg said. “And then I think just CNA work is pretty hard, and some people are cut out for it, and some people aren’t.”
She said she stays for the benefits state employees earn and because of the veterans she works with.
“They served us at one point,” Iburg said. “They gave up a lot of their life so that we have what we have now.”
Applications to apply for jobs at Missouri Veterans Homes can be found here.