“…And it was a one-size-fits-all approach to a problem that they were seeing in some areas of the country. And unfortunately, it wasn't a good fit for the rural and frontier areas of North Dakota.”
Nikki Wegner says the Long-Term Care Association was among many speaking out against the measure when it was first introduced. She says even with thousands of comments submitted, the finalized rule was still very rigid and not a good fit for North Dakota.
“…There was a requirement for a certain amount of nursing hours, so RN, LPN, CNA, and the minimum was 3.48 hours per resident day. And in North Dakota, we tend to staff higher than that minimum anyways because the needs of our residents tend to be a little bit higher here.”
Wegner says the issue wasn't in the hours of nursing provided. It came in how that nursing was delivered. She says, under the regulation a long-term care facility would need to have an on-site registered nurse around the clock.
“…With the 24-7 RN, that's every minute of every day. Otherwise, we would be fined. In those frontier and rural areas of our state, that was not possible. The workforce just doesn't exist like that. And so what we would have seen was those facilities actually closing. And so because they weren't going to be able to comply with that standard. So then the people that live in those facilities and the people that work in those facilities would then have to move closer to those more urban areas of the state to find work or that care.”
And this is where the twist comes in. Wegner says facilities have been operating under previous rules. And were working to come into compliance with the rule in anticipation of it being enacted.
“It would have had to start the implemented in 2026. It was kind of phased in.
So this rule hasn't been implemented. And now it's been repealed. So up until this point, we were still doing the eight hours of continuous RN and then LPN covering the rest of the time or an RN if there was one.”
Wegner says while the regulation may be gone, we still have our elderly and we still need to care for them.
“We still could use support with improving the workforce, you know, getting more people interested and working in long term care, having more nurses in those RN programs, you know, we still need that support from our policymakers and from advocates. We still would like to see more workforce in our industry.”
And for those working in the industry, Wegner closes our story with this.
“…And there will always be a need for that because you'll always have times where we'll need coverage, you know, and the work that they provide is very, very important. And we're very grateful.”
For Prairie Public, I'm Todd McDonald.
