US nursing home workers face ‘catastrophic crisis’ of understaffing

The US Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has proposed a rule to implement minimum staffing standards in long-term care facilities. Photograph: Maskot/Getty Images

For Linda Long, who has worked in nursing homes since 1997, at the same facility outside of Tacoma, Washington, since 2003, understaffing has always been a problem.

It only got worse during the Covid-19 pandemic, when she said co-workers were leaving due to the short staffing, constant Covid outbreaks and the immense workloads that staff were left with to fill in the void.