Even before the pandemic began in March of 2020, the city of Chicago had been collecting data that residents are moving out of downtown to other parts of Illinois, or even out of state. Despite a couple of particularly pandemic-contingent experiences, the pre-pandemic reasons are mostly similar to the current conditions that are encouraging people to move away from the heart of the city.

Identifying a couple of pandemic-contingent situations that very obviously influence the want and need to leave downtown are lack of activity and lack of amenities. It is certainly a benefit to live downtown amongst numerous restaurants, museums, various stores, and pretty much every other possible resource a resident could possibly want. If one works downtown, there is also the allure of a short commute. The accessibility of all these experiences was also one of the main reasons why cost of living is/was so high downtown. With the pandemic, most people started working from home and most facilities closed. Suddenly there were no restaurants open, no stores, completely empty streets, and with this, lack of ability to use most or all the amenities of living downtown.

With downtown Chicago effectively being a ghost town, residents who paid what was considered high cost of living felt they were paying an exorbitant amount for a downtown residence with none of the benefits that they had previously experienced. Thus, with no incentive to stay downtown, many individuals took this rare and peculiar opportunity to move to the suburbs of Chicago, or further north. In general, real estate brokers have noted the surge of prospective homebuyers that are funneling out from downtown, which also leads to the current housing boom we are experiencing.

When the pandemic started in March of 2020, many individuals found themselves in an unfamiliar situation: they had unlimited time at home. Individuals were encouraged to quarantine and stay at home to help us better navigate the pandemic. With this situation came one simple trend: an extreme boom in pet adoption. People far and wide were adopting their first pet, or adding more pets to their home. This was, in part, perhaps due to boredom, or perhaps due to the desirable opportunity of being able to spend as much time with the pet as possible. Regardless of the reason, pet ownership has peaked in 2020 and into 2021.

Meanwhile, veterinarians, considered essential workers, stayed open during the pandemic. Protocols may have changed, but animals still needed to be seen. Licensed veterinary professionals widely experienced a notable surge in patients and clients. People who had never had pets before due to time and lifestyle constraints were needing to book appointments for their newly adopted cat or dog. Commonly, newly adopted pets will need vaccinations, boosters, medications, preliminary check-ups, and sometimes even health-related treatments early on in their lives. For example, purebred animals often have health issues due to inbreeding or improper care. Pet owners, especially those who have never had pets before, are usually wildly unprepared for the costs and time spent ensuring their pet is safe and healthy.

A new trend has started to emerge, as noted by professionals who work in the animal care industry: new pet owners are beginning to return their pets to shelters or other adoption centers, or even surrendering the pets at veterinary offices. There are several reasons why this is occurring. With the slowing of the pandemic and the return to normalcy, people are going back to work in offices, and no longer have time to take care of pets. Some may also feel guilt that their pet, who had been enjoying time at home with their owner, will now be alone during work hours. Pet owners, especially those who had not previously had a pet, may also be shocked and burdened by the sometimes-unexpected costs of pet ownership. Another fiscal issue might be that pet owners have lost their steady income due to the pandemic and can no longer afford basic care for their pets. These reasons, and more, are what professionals have noted as the impetus for returning pets.

Since the global pandemic began in March of 2020, it has transformed and altered many professional industries. Although it is one of the most disturbing and tragic components of the pandemic, the rate of death associated with COVID-19 has severely impacted the working conditions and environment of, of course, physicians and nurses who work in a medical setting, but less often discussed are how licensed professionals in the funeral home industry have experienced and managed the COVID-19 Pandemic.

There are a variety of factors within the conditions of the pandemic that uniquely and directly affect funeral home directors and embalmers. When epidemics or pandemics occur, there is commonly a large increase in deaths, sometimes known as “excess deaths.” Funeral homes, which are equipped to handle sometimes just several deceased individuals in one day (depending on the size of the facility), become overburdened and overwhelmed with the deceased. This manifests in multiple ways. First, there is the physical and logistical issue of having too many bodies for the facility. This creates the conditions by which funeral homes must rent refrigerated trucks to store bodies in the interim while they work on others, or temporary storage solutions like pallets or wooden boxes. This can also result in mass storage sites for bodies that have already been prepared or unclaimed bodies. Alongside the logistical issue of having excess deaths is the emotional and mental toll upon the licensed professional. While funeral home directors and embalmers are very acquainted with death, the emotional turmoil of experiencing their facilities struggle to adapt to the surplus of deceased individuals, in addition to the trauma of the effects of the pandemic, can greatly affect their ability to perform their duties.

With the chaos of the pandemic as described above, it can lead to various situations and oversights that could invite investigation of one’s license or even generate complaints that the IDFPR will investigate. If facilities are unable to keep up with the demand, and these licensed professionals are subject to traumatic conditions, then it is inevitable that protocols might be adjusted, things might slip through the cracks, records might falter, corners might be cut, or a variety of other situations. It is important to try and maintain diligence and normalcy within these situations, yet the inevitability of error is always present in such situations.

The dental industry experienced several unique conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic, comparative to other licensed professionals. Prior to these conditions, dentists and hygienists certainly already had particularly sensitive working conditions with strict PPE protocols. Given the fact that their industry relies directly on work within the mouth, a pandemic that is spread through the nose and mouth is particularly detrimental to the ability to safely perform work.

Just like many industries, most dental practices initially closed at the start of the pandemic. However, due to the fact that their work requires access to the mouth, a threat of direct exposure during the pandemic from potentially ill clients was something that many professionals had to seriously consider when thinking of reopening. Many industries were able to implement strict social distancing protocols and mask mandates and greatly reduce the risk of spread and exposure; however, the dental industry is unable to follow all of these protocols since a mask cannot be worn during treatment. The common solution was to implement more stringent PPE protocols on behalf of the dentist or hygienist, who often wear a combination of face shield, (K)N95 masks, gloves, scrubs, hair nets, and other protective wear to help reduce their risk when treating clients. The costs of purchasing PPE increased exponentially and often became difficult to find for many professionals.

The particularly focused risk of exposure made many professionals delay reopening and remain closed as infection spread. Although remote work was/is an option for many industries, there is very little that can be done in the dental industry beyond internal billing and general administrative work. Income is produced almost solely from in-patient visits. If patients are not allowed in the office or the office is entirely closed, then income cannot be generated. Many dental professionals suffered from an extreme loss of income that could only be rectified if they reopened under what were considered to be generally unsafe conditions. This struggle placed many professionals in a precarious position with few options for help. The inevitability of reopening and the unwavering support of client demand has allowed many of those who struggled to bounce back as conditions improve in the pandemic.

In January 2020, the Adult Use Act 410 ILCS 705 came into effect. Adults over the age of 21 years old are now able to legally purchase cannabis for recreational use from licensed dispensaries across the state.

The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDPFR) has the sole authority to regulate cannabis dispensaries and its employees. However, the rules governing dispensary agents are murky. We outline preventative measures all dispensary agents can take to reduce the risk of compliance violations.

Agents and Agents-in-Charge

Dispensary employees are designated as “agents” for purposes of regulation, while dispensary managers are designated as “agents-in-charge.” Both must hold valid agent identification cards and must comply with the following:

The clerical aspect of data collection in the medical industry is not often included in the immediate list of important concerns for licensed medical professionals. However, what data is collected, how it is collected, how it is distributed, and how it is accessed are just a few of the common, overarching issues that licensed medical professionals may personally encounter, and certainly a larger issue in the industry as a whole.

One component that makes the data itself problematic is the manner by which it is collected. A patient may see multiple providers, or go to multiple medical facilities. They may employ their insurance for certain visits, but other visits may not be covered. How does the patient’s medical history from one hospital visit make it into their file when they visit a completely different hospital or doctor? What about if they visit a hospital or medical facility in an entirely different city, state, or even country? Each individual facility certainly collects the data on the patient and retains it within their system. However, these systems are isolated and subject to the particular protocols of that specific facility that the patient visited. Of course, other medical facilities can “order” this patient history from different medical facilities, but this process is inconsistent and may take precious time that is needed to properly treat the patient.

In addition to the isolated nature of medical data collection, the issue is that a patient is often expected to self-report their entire medical history to help better guide their treating physician. Patients are unreliable for various reasons, including shame/guilt/embarrassment, forgetting and inadvertently omitting medical visits and information, improperly remembering specific medical issues, lack of knowledge on previously used medications, inability to correctly identify dates, times, and facilities, and so much more. If a patient enters a medical treatment facility, the licensed medical professional may simply rely on the patient to provide a relatively accurate snapshot of their medical history, and this is not reliable. This occurs, in short, because our nation does not have a systemwide medical data program that allows each person to have a conglomerate report of their medical history to easily provide to the person treating them.

The Supreme Court of Illinois just issued its highly anticipated opinion in Evans v. Cook County State’s Attorney, 2021 IL 125513. Evans considered whether Section 10 of the FOID Card Act – which establishes a process for relief from firearms disabilities – automatically and permanently makes this relief unavailable to convicted of felons. The Supreme Court of Illinois determined that Section 10 of the FOID Card Act was intended to be a mechanism for firearm civil rights restoration for some convicted felons.

Evans was convicted of two felonies in 1994. Both were related to controlled substances. Evans applied for a FOID card in 2018 but was denied. The Illinois State Police’s (ISP) justification was based on federal law. ISP argued that Section 922(g)(1) of the Federal Gun Control Act of 1968 prohibits an individual from possessing a firearm when that person “has been convicted in any court of a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year.”

The circuit court agreed with the ISP and rejected Evans’s petition to have his firearm rights restored. The court reasoned that federal law barred Evans from obtaining a FOID and Evans had also failed to prove that his owning a firearm would not be contrary to the public interest. Evans had submitted various materials to the court in support of his rehabilitated character including letters of recommendation. However, the circuit court did not find those materials to be persuasive.

Licensed chiropractors know that it requires extensive training, practice, and investment in time and money to become a professional licensed chiropractor in the state of Illinois. Despite the fact that chiropractors are governed by the Illinois State Medical Disciplinary Board, there is still a prevalent general stigma against licensed chiropractors due to years of false conflation/comparisons to other licensed medical professionals, and the general idea that chiropractors perform some kind of pseudo-medicine. We at Williams & Nickl know that is not the case, and we support our licensed chiropractors. However, we are aware of the particular stigmas that they face.

Arguably the most common misconception is that chiropractors are not “real” medical professionals and that their medical practices are not based in any kind of established science or medicine. In reality, as licensed professionals know, chiropractors are required by the state medical board to undergo extensive education and training, and this education often overlaps with all the basic medical and science studies that other medical professionals experience. They are also required to take and pass multiple national board exams to become licensed, in addition to their own state’s requirements. While there are distinct differences between a licensed physician and a licensed chiropractor, for example, both licensed professionals are rooted in a background of medicine and science with extensive education and training.

There is also the assumption that chiropractic medicine is not rooted in real medicine/science, and that the practices are just nonsense, or, worst case scenario, chiropractic techniques can irreparably harm a patient’s body. Just like in all medical and scientific fields, things can go wrong, or mistakes can happen. However, they are extremely rare, and occur in spite of the most stringent practices and protocols. If a medical mistake occurs, the stigma against chiropractors seems “justified,” and this is in part due to the overarching idea that chiropractors do not perform valid medicine. In reality, they have extensive knowledge of the body and this stigma largely stems from the baseless assumption that adjusting joints in the way that chiropractors do is simply random or meaningless.

Williams & Nickl (W&N) authored two legislative bills that were both signed by the Governor in August 2021. These legislative changes to the Private Detective, Private Alarm, Private Security, Fingerprint Vendor and Locksmith Act (Act) were the product of the combined efforts of W&N, the Associated Detective and Security Agencies of Illinois (ADSAI) and the Illinois Security Professionals Association (ISPA).

Public Act 102-0152 made significant changes to the training requirements for private detectives and their employees and private security contractors and their employees. Another change is that all licensees and employees who were issued Firearm Control Cards (FCC) (or who wish to apply) will have changes in the number of hours required to obtain a firearm training certificate and the addition of annual refresher firearm training requirements. We include a short summary of the Act changes made by PA 102-0152. All licensees are urged to read through the Act changes:

20-Hour Basic Training

Any licensed social worker across the country faces similar commonplace issues that directly stem from nationwide systemic problems such as: poverty, racism, classism, domestic and community violence, accessibility to education, and so much more. Social workers often find themselves helping families who are struggling to get their basic needs met, and it can be extremely disillusioning/disheartening to witness the experiences and daily lives of these individuals. Worse yet, many social workers cite the inability to resolve these issues, or provide substantive assistance when the issues are deeply rooted in society.

In Chicago, social workers face the above-outlined challenges, and even more. For social workers who practice within the educational system, they likely find themselves in Chicago Public Schools, which is the third largest school district in the country, and publicly known to be rife with various shortcomings, specifically due to the large number of students coming from various backgrounds. Chicago is extremely diverse, but there is a clear divide of race and class across the North and South sides. Notably, people of color, specifically Chicago’s Black residents, are systemically disenfranchised and face unique experiences of poverty, violence, lack of community support, and lack of educational options. Social workers are often employed within schools, where it is easier to reach a larger number of struggling individuals, but certainly also interact with these folks on a community “door-to-door” level. Licensed Social Workers in Chicago specifically note this clear segregation between the quality of life for Chicago’s white residents and its residents of color.

Chicago social workers cite the greatest area concern with the prevalence of high caseloads. Due to racial and class inequality in Chicago perpetuated by the long history of segregation between the North and South sides, and the perpetuation of this inequality by the last few decades of local government, Chicago struggles immensely in providing a high quality of life to all of its residents. Social workers note that with such high caseloads, they are often travelling across the city to various residences, or, if they are working within an educational setting, they are often expected to provide care to multiple institutions, sometimes even in the same day. Social workers are forced to hop from location to location, and the ability to provide help is limited by these conditions.

Most towns, or at least larger cities, have a veterinary hospital to take care of our furry family members. The demand for veterinary services is not decreasing, especially with the rise in pet adoptions during the pandemic, when more people were home to take care of and raise animals. So while veterinary hospitals are not hurting for clients, there can still be a loss in profit depending on particular conditions of operation, pricing, and business protocols.

Veterinary hospitals owned and operated by a larger corporate chain are less likely to suffer the direct blow of profit loss. These hospitals have a safety net of corporate money that allows the individual hospital owned by that company more wiggle room in spending and general costs. There is certainly a benefit to having this safety net, especially when expensive equipment purchases need to be made, or new employees need to be onboarded. For veterinary hospitals who are self-owned, the licensed veterinarian(s) may be more personally responsible and involved with spending. If money is needed for particular things beyond day-to-day costs, there is no corporate pool from which to grab. If the money is needed but does not exist, some small vet offices may even have to resort to loans to cover costs of equipment and employee onboarding.

One of the ways that independent veterinary hospitals can attempt to increase, at least stabilize, their profit is by carefully identifying cost, value, frequency of services, and other related factors. For a corporate-owned hospital, these fees and costs may be determined by a provided financial advisor, who can observe supply and demand, cost of goods sold, and comparative fees associated with the standard services provided to patients. These types of decisions must be made, and protocols must be enacted on a more individual level with a small veterinary hospital. One of the reasons an individual might choose the services of a small business is the attractive pricing, and the feeling of supporting an independent entity rather than a corporate one. However, these generally lower costs can gravely affect the profit of the independent vet hospital. Thus, decisions must be made on price increases to counteract the expenses, and this can be a difficult transition that may even result in loss of clients. It is certainly a level of balance and personal involvement that is virtually non-existent in a veterinary hospital owned and managed by a corporate entity.

Since the pandemic started in March of 2020, there have been many changes and unexpected effects/conditions/outcomes in many professional industries. Licensed real estate brokers and appraisers are in, perhaps, one of the more unique situations directly stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic: an enormous housing boom that has generated a frenzied market of high sale prices, even higher offers, and extremely low mortgage rates. Just like the pandemic itself, these conditions are unprecedented and have been rocking the relatively steady industry.

There are likely a variety of conditions that intersected to create this particular current market. Although economical and other similar conditions have been greatly altered with the pandemic, one cannot ignore the human impact rooted in conditions of life. For many people who normally experience a hectic daily life, they suddenly found themselves working remotely 100% of the time. This caused many to reflect on their current living situation and many reached the same conclusion: it was time to buy a house, especially if conditions of the pandemic created the reality of being home most of the time. There is also the simple fact that more people were saving money due to lack of commute and the closure of mostly everything. Thus, many people were finally simultaneously emotionally/mentally and fiscally ready to pursue the housing market. This newly gained interest and “supply” for licensed real estate professionals certainly fed the current housing boom.

The mere fact that many more people are looking for houses than in a normal market also creates the increased prices. People are ramping up their initial offers to far above the asking price simply due to the sheer amount of people also vying for that same house. The potential buyer may assume that the only way to get the house is to outbid all other parties, which may or may not be true; in the end, however, it results in most others operating in this same way, and this causes houses to be sold tens of thousands of dollars above their asking price not because the house is valued as such, but because of the amount of people competing for one particular house. While this condition is not uncommon in the real estate industry, it is usually not a widespread phenomena across all standard houses.

Dentists and hygienists endure many industry-specific challenges with their respective professional licensure. Potentially the biggest area of concern and hardship is insurance, both that the patient has/does not have insurance, and if insurance is involved, struggling to work with the insurance companies to get patients’ procedures effectively covered. In the same vein, on the professional/business side, dental offices also must contend with insurance companies to get paid for their own work that they do. These struggles are industry-wide, and do not have a blanket solution.

In the United States, which has a for-profit health care system and citizens are not required to have health insurance, including the many individuals that simply do not have the ability acquire it. In addition to the struggle to obtain health insurance, dental (and vision) insurance are completely separate insurances that are often not included with basic healthcare plans. This results in individuals having to do one of three things: 1) do not get dental insurance, 2) pay extra/additional to get dental insurance through their main health insurance plan, or 3) pay for a separate dental insurance plan that is separate and different from their health insurance (and usually costs more than if it is attached to their main health insurance).

The above-referenced conditions for the patient directly affect the services that the dental office is able to provide. If the patient does not have insurance, many struggle to afford the services that are needed for their dental health. This could result in less visits to the dentist, having to go on a payment plan, or even being delinquent in payment on the care provided to them, which particularly affects the licensed professional who needs to acquire income in exchange for their services. If the patient does have dental insurance, whether it be dedicated/separate or alongside their health insurance, both the patient and the dental office may have to fight to get the services covered. Some services are not covered but are common procedures; some insurances cover certain common procedures, whereas others do not; some insurances claim to cover specific services, but then will not do so; the list of scenarios goes on.

In our previous post, we wrote about ways your clinic can cope with the changes caused by Covid-19. Here are some additional thoughts about understaffing and client satisfaction during the pandemic.

Question: How can my veterinary clinic navigate issues of understaffing caused by the Covid-19 Pandemic?

Understaffing in Veterinary care was a common issue prior to the pandemic. The pandemic only worsens this divide. Following CDC guidelines, an employee who is exposed to Covid-19 must quarantine until they receive their test results, and even if they are negative, the length of the quarantine is 7 days from the test. If it is positive, the quarantine period is at least 14-days, and they cannot return until they acquire a negative test. This can create large, unexpected gaps in staffing if even one employee is following quarantine protocol. This issue can become exacerbated if multiple employees were exposed and require quarantine. We recommend to have a plan and prepare for these possible scenarios. It will still be challenging, but you will be prepared for the unexpected.

Until recently, Illinois courts disagreed on how to serve process on residents of Cook County. Some Appellate Courts interpreted the law to require court appointment of a private process server when serving a resident of Cook County. Other Appellate Courts held that the county where the lawsuit is filed is the controlling factor to determine whether appointment is necessary. Thus, if a lawsuit were filed in DuPage County against a resident of Cook County, then court appointment would not be necessary.

The Supreme Court of Illinois recently resolved this disagreement in Municipal Trust and Savings Bank v. Moriarty, 2021 IL 126290. Service of process in Illinois is controlled by Section 2-202 of the Code of Civil Procedure. Moriarty involved a plaintiff who filed suit in Kankakee County against a defendant residing in Cook County. The Supreme Court of Illinois held that Section 2-202 is concerned with where process is served on a defendant. Therefore, for a private detective to serve process on a defendant in Cook County, he or she must be specially appointed by the court.

The ruling sheds light on a murky area of the law. It also adds to the expense of lawsuits, requiring further diligence by both attorneys and process servers. Special attention should be given to the location of defendants and its impact on service of process requirements. 

Over a year into the Covid-19 Pandemic, there are still ongoing questions, concerns, and struggles faced by many industries. Veterinary care is certainly one of those industries affected, especially since Illinois deemed them as an Essential Service while most everything else was closed. We address commonly shared concerns and questions that have persisted throughout the pandemic:

Question: How can my veterinary clinic cope with the various changes caused by the Covid-19 Pandemic?

Things are uncertain, confusing, and wholly different. Established protocols that have been tried and true methods can no longer be followed in the same way; basic day-to-day office interaction is punctuated by strict social distancing and sanitary procedures to keep everyone safe; clients, who were once an office fixture, are commonly disallowed from attending the appointments. It can be difficult to adapt to these changes even after experiencing them for the past year. We recommend embracing the change and facing it head on, rather than comparing operations to the past. Fixating on the way things are different rather than how your clinic can expertly navigate the challenges of the Pandemic is one way to affect the morale of your staff and your clients.

All physicians work incredibly hard in their profession. However, not all physicians experience the same challenges within their fields. Now more than ever, gender issues are commonly discussed and acknowledged in health related professions.

Because of the intensive, long hours that physicians experience, there can be particular challenges when it comes to arranging and securing childcare or being able to take maternity leave when the time comes. Certainly, not all female physicians have or will have children in their professional careers; however, for those who do, it’s a hurdle one must navigate to both comfortably practice and also feel confident in their parenting ability. There is certainly the expectation that female physicians will somehow, with ease, juggle the intensity of their careers and be perfect mothers simultaneously. In reality, the stress of childcare, motherhood, and pregnancy, alongside the stress of long hours and unforgiving work can severely affect the physician. There have been cases of reported negligence stemming from exhaustion and extreme stress caused or exacerbated by the inability to balance these challenges; some female physicians also turn to other methods to help them through these challenging times, and it can result in substance abuse issues that could threaten their license. Acknowledging these challenges and providing solutions to put the female physician in a less precarious position is an important step that needs to be taken at many facilities.

In addition to the very real challenges of childcare and motherhood, female physicians also experience discrimination based solely upon their gender. Sexism and biased attitudes toward women are still prevalent across most industries, and female physicians fall victim to this underlying (and sometimes overarching) current within their profession. Young male physicians are often lauded and highly regarded, or even seen as impressive, whereas young female physicians are often discredited and invalidated, with the assumption that they are too inexperienced and uneducated to properly care for patients and make the right medical decisions. This thread of negativity can place immense stress and pressure on the female physician and can destabilize their career, or even generate feelings of unworthiness and the want to leave to avoid further stress.

Once rare, online therapy is now commonplace. For many patients, the ease of meeting virtually has broadened accessibility and the willingness to meet more regularly. Similarly, many mental health professionals have found the recent surge of virtual appointments as a general benefit for both their patients and their own work. However, there is an underlying thread of challenges that most mental health professionals may not even realize exist.

There are many free programs available for virtual appointments. However, unbeknownst to its users, that particular program may not even be HIPAA-compliant. If the professional is audited or reported, their license could be suspended while investigation occurs, or a license could even be revoked for a HIPAA violation, even if unintended. Although there are free programs that comply with HIPAA, the mental health professional should also research and possibly invest in official licensed programs for mental health professionals. The patient will also have confidence that their appointments are safely occurring and that any sensitive information could not be recorded or stolen from them.

The mere nature of a virtual appointment can also be less than confidential. For some patients, they may not have regular access to a dedicated space in which to have the private appointment. This certainly prevents the patient from having basic privacy while engaging in private discussions, but they may not have another choice. There is also the possibility that the mental health professional may not have a dedicated home office due to lack of space, which can affect both patient confidentiality and invalidate the professional. The general informality of this setup can prevent the appointment from being useful to the patient and can be invalidating to the professional, who likely has a dedicated office space for in person meetings.

We have already written about the prevalence of understaffing in nursing. Undoubtedly, the Covid-19 Pandemic has severely exacerbated the existing understaffing issues. Now more than ever before, nurses are facing extremely challenging work environments with unforgiving and unrelenting conditions.

Already understaffed, facilities reaching critical capacities due to the Covid-19 Pandemic only further highlights these existing difficulties. Nurses who already struggle to provide care to a typical number of patients simply cannot manage an even larger number of patients. As much as patients are filling facilities with Covid-19, nurses are being exposed to the virus and many have fallen ill. With strict and long quarantine policies, a facility can be without multiple nurses at once. This can be devastating for facilities, especially those with minimal staff.

In many cases, nurses who test positive for Covid-19 are out of work for at least 14 days, and only return when they obtain a negative test result. For some people, despite having a negative test result and surpassing the quarantine period, their physical health remains affected by the virus. Scientists and doctors have barely scratched the surface of understanding the condition known as “Long Covid,” but the reality is that many nurses who tested positive continue to have symptoms long after their initial illness. These symptoms, which include fatigue, brain fog, heart palpitations, and lesions, can gravely affect the nurses’ ability to perform their work, if they are even able to physically be at work. This creates a perpetual cycle of understaffing and makes already-difficult work even more challenging.

Across facilities, whether they be public or private, the issue of understaffing is a critical issue within the field of nursing. Understaffing causes a variety of challenges that affect both the nurses and their patients. It is no fault of their own that facilities are understaffed, but nurses are the individuals on the frontlines who are most affected by these circumstances, and it has a ripple effect across their facilities.

There are many reasons that understaffing occurs. As otherwise qualified individuals apply to be nurses, they can face certain bureaucratic issues that delay their ability to receive their Nursing License. If prospective Nursing Licenses are on hold, this can cause a shortage in staffing while these individuals pursue the necessary routes to clear this hurdle and obtain their Licensing as they are qualified to do so. In a similar vein, a licensed Nurse can encounter difficulties with their established license, which can prevent them from practicing while they resolve those issues. This can lead to understaffing issues in the same vein as not having enough nurses in the first place. The demand for nurses always appears to be higher than the rate at which individuals can become licensed, which leads to perpetual understaffing. There simply are not enough people who are obtaining licenses (although they may be in the process of obtaining one, or are working to reinstate a license after an issue) to compensate for the demand of licensed Nurses in various facilities.

Nurses, even without understaffing issues, generally work very long hours and regularly work overtime. With the understaffing issues caused by various circumstances including those outlined above, the challenging nature of long hours and consistent overtime is greatly exacerbated. This creates burnout, which facilitates the cycle of understaffing. This is the unfortunate reality that many nurses face in their industry and there is little to no relief, plan, or solution to alleviate these issues.