TOPEKA — Lawmakers said coaxing retired mental health care workers back into the field could be one way to mitigate the state’s mental health care worker shortage.
A special committee of the Kansas Legislature recently met with mental health care institutions, including colleges, state agencies and the Kansas Board of Nursing to delve into the subject. They said the state needed to find ways to increase and stabilize the number of mental health care workers.
Lucinda Whitney, clinical assistant professor at the University of Kansas School of Nursing, said she knew from her personal experience as a psychiatric mental health nurse that the field had many challenges, including long hours, dealing with verbal and physical aggression from patients, and high patient-to-staff ratios.
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