Gurwin nursing home looks inward for answers to staffing gap

A local nursing home, facing a shortage of certified nursing assistants and a tight hiring market, came up with a solution: a training program to grow its own.

Gurwin Jewish Nursing & Rehabilitation Center, a 460-bed nursing care facility that employs nearly 1,000  people at its Commack campus, launched a program in November to train existing and new employees to acquire the new skills. The intensive three-week program is free, provides participants a full-time wage while training, and holds the promise of employment at Gurwin following successful completion of the state certification exam.

The nursing home said hiring and retaining nursing assistants has become more difficult since the pandemic began, creating a staffing gap of about 200 employees.

“Nurse aides are the dominant source of labor that we have,” said Stuart Almer, chief executive of Gurwin Healthcare System. “We’re very dependent on them to support all of our programs.”

Almer said if vacancies were filled, the nonprofit would likely have around 1,200 staffers.

Attracting and retaining employees was difficult even before the pandemic at nursing care facilities, and the problem has only worsened.

“This is a national issue, not just a problem in New York,” said Michael Balboni, a former state senator and the executive director of Greater New York Health Care Facilities Association, a nonprofit trade group representing nursing facilities on Long Island.

A high workload — along with low pay, COVID-19 restrictions and vaccine requirements — have made jobs tending to the elderly harder to fill, according to industry representatives.

Because employees at many nursing homes have their wages tied to state Medicaid reimbursements, Balboni said, the industry has not seen wage increases keep up with the cost of living.

“Fourteen years ago, in New York State, the starting salary for a certified nursing assistant was about 20% to 25% above the minimum wage,” he said. “Over the last 14 years there’s been no increases in the starting wage because the state has not invested any money.”

Median pay on Long Island for nursing assistants — a job title often grouped with other health care support roles like medical assistants and home health aides — was $46,430 a year, according to current estimates from the state Department of Labor. Median pay for medical assistants and home health aides were an estimated $41,970 and $31,590, respectively.

Balboni added that as many large employers like Amazon and Walmart have raised their starting wages to attract workers, it has created additional competition for an industry with limited ability to raise pay.

Despite the challenges, Gurwin has already graduated several groups of employees from the paid training program and hopes to have trained between 75 and 90 new certified nursing aides by the end of the year.

“I started working in the kitchen,” said Mabill Fox, 34, a certified nursing assistant who completed the training program early last month.

Fox, who also works nights part-time at St. Catherine of Siena Nursing and Rehabilitation Care Center, said that before coming to Gurwin in September she had wanted to become a nursing assistant but couldn’t afford to take the time needed for classes.

When she found out about paid training program, she was surprised.

“They said it’s not just free, but we’re getting paid to go thorough it. I was shocked, I couldn’t believe it,” said Fox, a Kings Park resident who moved to the United States from the Philippines in 2014. “It’s a big opportunity,” she said. “I didn’t have to quit or lose my job.”

Carolina Fernandez-Zuluaga, 44, started as a housekeeper for Gurwin more than 10 years ago after moving to the United States from Colombia. 

She credits the training given to her by Gurwin as a major steppingstone, and she said the program gave her "everything, the books, the uniform, everything.”

Now, after completing her CNA training in December and working closely with elderly residents, she plans to take classes this fall to become  a licensed practical nurse.

“It’s a lot of work, but I love it," she said.