Transforming Nursing Home Teams: What We Can Do Now to Build a Stronger Nursing Home Workforce

Many people are drawn to work in nursing homes because they want to build deep relationships with residents and families and be part of an interprofessional team that cares about the whole person and what matters to each resident. However, profound staffing needs and a lack of regulations and policies to support staff make achieving these goals in long-term care difficult. To address current staffing challenges and provide the quality of care and life that nursing home residents deserve, most people agree that we need to make nursing home jobs–from Director of Nursing (DON) to medical director to certified nursing assistant (CNA) to environmental services, and every other job on the team–more attractive, better supported, and sustainable.