DECATUR, Ala. — Hospital staff everywhere is experiencing burnout, especially Decatur Morgan Hospital, with 70 nurses out President Kelli Powers is asking for help.
"Our staff is very, very exhausted and so are our physicians," said Powers, "even if you can just give me, you know, four hours a day or a day a week, whatever you could do to help- help us would be great."
Whether you're a retired nurse or an ex-nurse who feels called to help - there's an urgent need for those who can provide medical care, as well as other kinds of volunteers.
These people, these other volunteers who may not be medically trained, can offer help on the more administrative side of things.
"We also need some volunteers, and if there's anybody, whether you want to volunteer or come to work I need people to answer the phone, make calls, schedule things like that. So we can take some of the clinical people and put them back in clinical roles," said Powers.
So, what about mandating the vaccine at Decatur Morgan Hospital?
"I don't want to mandate it, because I'll lose staff," said Powers.
From a health professional point of view, she would love to mandate the vaccine and lead by example but because staffing is also a major issue, making this decision is very hard.
"I can't afford to lose these nurses that do not want to take it and they go other places to work. So, you know, right now we're sort of in a, you know a catch 22 on that. But yes, I would love to mandate it- to make people, but we're, I don't feel that we're going in that direction, so I just want to say that," said Powers.
For more information about career, clinical affiliate or volunteering opportunities, check out the hospital's career webpage.