Nursing home workers face chronic short-staffing in Minnesota and other states. Credit: Illustration by Kim Jackson | Sahan Journal

Each week, I head to work at a nursing home facility in north Minneapolis. When I arrive, my first job is to help my residents start their day. That usually consists of helping them out of bed, assisting them with getting showered and dressed, and helping them navigate down the hall to the dining room for breakfast. But on any given day, that morning routine can quickly go off the rails if someone on my team calls in sick.

Our reality in Minnesota is that our nursing homes have the worst staffing shortages in the nation. So when our already short-staffed shift gets hit with the flu, or a colleague gets a flat tire, there’s no backup. I’m simply expected to care for 20 residents, more than double what it should be with adequate staffing. When that happens, I have to prioritize helping those at the greatest risk of injury. Inevitably, the time, care, and attention that I’m able to provide is much too rushed, and senior care suffers as a result. 

Weekends are particularly challenging since that’s when we’re the most short-staffed. I often wonder, why not offer incentives like wage increases for weekend shifts? I find myself spending more time working doubles than having quality time with my family. Our family immigrated to Minnesota from Nigeria in search of a better future, but it’s been a challenge. The cost of living is high, rent is high, and a wage boost would not only ease the burden but also show respect for the vital work my coworkers and I do.

Nursing home workers are the shock absorbers on a very broken system that’s crumbling because of chronic short staffing. It doesn’t have to be this way.

My coworkers and I, we see the choices that management makes over and over. They could prioritize raising wages so they could recruit and keep more skilled staff. But they don’t. Instead, the workers have to put up with the consequences of their decisions. The stress of working when short-staffed coupled with the low pay means that fewer and fewer people are seeking careers in nursing homes and those in the field are burning out and leaving.

I’ve witnessed the toll of short staffing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Working week after week, I became sick from COVID for three months, losing my sense of smell. The nursing assistants stood by our patients and had to take on extra work. It was an extraordinary, terrifying time, and we were exhausted and overworked. Yet, too many employers, comfortably seated at their desks, failed to acknowledge the staffing crisis in real, tangible ways at the time—and since then.

But the tide is turning. Nursing home workers are joining together and lifting our voices across all parts of the state to make change. Whether our family has been in Minnesota for generations or just arrived like me, whether we’re Black, white, or Latino, we’re seeking strength in numbers to improve the quality of care we provide residents in nursing homes. We’re demanding $25 an hour, respect, benefits, and a secure retirement, the right to form a union, and grassroots support. It’s time for change—for the recognition and respect that our essential work deserves.

My coworkers and I will be joining other nursing home workers across the region in holding a one-day strike. We don’t want to strike but feel it’s necessary to make our message clear: We care about our residents and we need to raise wages for nursing home workers to fix the draining and dangerous short-staffing crisis in Minnesota that’s putting them at risk. We’re hoping our collective action will make our voices loud and clear.

It’s time for Minnesota to tackle the low wages in the nursing home industry. The state’s new nine-member workforce standards board has been investigating the challenges we face, and they’ll soon be setting basic work standards, including wages, needed to keep current nursing home workers safe and attract more to do this very tough but important job.

When we unite across our differences, we can accomplish what seems to be impossible. Fixing the short-staffing crisis feels like moving a mountain. But the same passion that drives nursing home workers to help provide care to our residents will help us share our stories and push for bold change.

Taiwo Sodunola is a member of SEIU and UFCW and has served Minnesota's health care industry for over 20 years. She currently is working as a certified nursing assistant at the Villas at Bryn Mawr.