On-site therapy could benefit the mental health of nurses overwhelmed by COVID-19 caseloads and staff shortages, according to Butler County Community College registered nursing students.

A group of second-level nursing students researched issues confronting health care, and presented proposals recently in the college's business and health professions building.

The issues they found included “workplace violence in nursing,” “ventilator-associated pneumonia with mouth care as the intervention,” “communication boards vs. no communication boards in relation to patient care and safety” and “on-site therapy to reduce burnout in the critical care nurse.”

“Burnout is crazy high,” said Krista Hartle, a registered nurse student from Butler. “There's already a shortage on staff. You're picking up extra shifts. You're trying to take care of critically ill patients. You're running on zero energy.”

Their proposal for health care facilities is on-site therapists or on-site therapy rooms to help workers to decompress.

More than 11,540 COVID-19 cases were reported in Pennsylvania Dec. 9, the most in any single day since Dec. 10, 2020, according to the state Department of Health.

Roughly 85 percent of the 3,600 intensive care unit beds in Pennsylvania were occupied as of Dec. 13, according to the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine's Coronavirus Resource Center, which compiles statistics from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Nearly half of the intensive care unit beds occupied were by patients with COVID-19.

“Not only do we have sicker patients, we have more patients coming in,” said Heather Darrington, a BC3 faculty member who also works as a critical care nurse at a regional hospital. “We have more nurses leaving the bedside because of the burnout. And that creates even more burnout.”

The researchers found that therapy would be beneficial for nurses and other hospital staff to mentally handle the workload and emotional toll brought about by the volume of patients.

“Having someone to talk to and feel safe,” said Lauren Wade, a registered nurse student from Butler. “You can talk to your co-workers all the time, but if you are at the nurses' station and you are afraid your supervisor is going to hear you, you're not going to be completely honest about how you feel.”