CLEVELAND COUNTY, N.C. — The nationwide nursing shortage is affecting palliative care, Testa Family Hospice House had to close its Kings Mountain location last August to consolidate staff to its Shelby site. 

What You Need To Know

  • Testa Family Hospice House in Cleveland County has been closed for the past five months because of a shortage of nurses; Hospice Cleveland County consolidated its patients to Wendover Hospice in Shelby
  • Myra McGinnis, president of Hospice Cleveland County, says they served 1,000 families last year
  • UNC Chapel Hill says by 2033, North Carolina faces an estimated shortage of nearly 12,500 registered nurses

Registered Nurse Kimberly Hughes has been the director of nursing at Wendover Hospice House in Shelby for the past three years. Before moving to palliative care, she worked in the oncology department for 30 years.

"A lot of people will ask us, how do we take care of dying patients everyday and the answer is, it's very rewarding. We get to help families at a very difficult time in their lives, and we get to help the patients at the end of life," Hughes said.

Her daily duties include administrative work, but the last few months she has been helping with patients on the floor because they are short-staffed.

Hospice Cleveland County closed Testa Family Hospice House in Kings Mountain in August and moved its patients and staff to Wendover Hospice in Shelby because of a shortage of registered nurses.

According to UNC Chapel Hill, by 2033, North Carolina will experience a shortage of 12,500 registered nurses.

"It's rough, it really is because we are not able to take off as much time off, my administrative duties now come second because I am tending to patients," Hughes said.

Myra McGinnis, president of Hospice Cleveland County, said the staffing shortage started during the pandemic. When nurses got sick with COVID, they had to move staff around and never really recovered.

The pool of nurses is shrinking.

“Decades ago, it was women who primarily became nurses, teachers, secretaries and now, a lot of the people are retiring, so that’s one thing that’s feeding into this nursing shortage," McGinnis said.

She needs two more full-time registered nurses to reopen Testa House, which she hopes to do by early February.

Another factor in the shortage she says, is the lack of higher educational opportunities in the nursing field.

"In North Carolina, there really isn't a lot of choices, but now, Cleveland County Community College has doubled its nursing program, so hopefully we will get to see more nurses joining the workforce in the next few months," McGinnis said.