Tennessee Quietly Reinstates Emergency Order To Relieve Short-Staffed Hospitals

Gov. Bill Lee has signed an executive order reinstating flexibility for hospitals that find themselves short-staffed.

The order allows out-of-state nurses and doctors to work in Tennessee, as well as those who are recently retired. Nursing graduates can also work without having to pass their licensure exam first. Some limitations on paramedics are also waived as well as renewed authority for the national guard to pitch in.

The order was signed Friday and is set to expire Oct. 5.

Earlier in the pandemic, nurse practitioners were allowed to work without much supervision from doctors, but that provision was eliminated.

“Licensed and highly educated (advanced practice registered nurses) need to be able to practice to the full extent of their education and training when our state is battling a public health crisis. Waiting to utilize the skill of these professionals will only provoke an already stressed healthcare system,” the Tennessee Nurses Association said in a statement.

In response, Gov. Lee’s press secretary said that only “the provisions that worked before” were reinstated.

Tennessee hospitals are feeling the strain of this latest COVID wave, with more than 1,700 patients statewide as of Sunday. They have plenty of space but not enough people to staff the beds, according to hospitals and the state’s health commissioner. Louisiana has had to bring in a disaster team as hospitals struggle to handle the sharp rise in seriously ill COVID patients there.