McKnight’s Mood of the Market Includes Quotes from Katie Piperata!

The 2023 McKnight’s Mood of the Market survey: Pay up if we’re ‘never going to get caught up’
By Kimberly Marselas

The staffing crisis in long-term care is showing signs of easing, but many building leaders still want higher pay in exchange for the extra work they’re putting in, according to results from the fifth annual McKnight’s Mood of the Market survey. Read full article 

Staffing a ‘smidge’ better

Katie Piperata, a workforce engineer with 15 years experience recruiting for skilled nursing, counters that the boost in satisfaction rates and some of the other positive findings from this year’s survey are reflective of the labor crisis “getting a smidge better.”

She noted the negative “trickle-up” effect of a DON being routinely called to the floor to cover for missing nurses or aides. Administrators then have to step in on some of the DON’s duties, a reality that has hurt satisfaction among both categories of workers in the COVID era.

These workers have also seen less external support as inflation cut into margins and led to regional staffing changes at many nursing home chains.

“Now that we have more staff and staffing is becoming less of an issue, hopefully, corporations that are managing these buildings will start adding back in some of the FTEs that they’ve cut over the last couple years,” added Piperata, with Tampa-based MedBest. “A lot of what I saw cut was more on the regional side, not the administrator or the DONs, but the people that they report to. I’m hoping that some of that support starts coming back because that’s how you mentor your administrators and DONs. You have to have enough people above helping and grooming and growing them.”