Health care professionals across the globe and in our community have been working tirelessly throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. In a recent Gazette article, “CDH grapples with rise in COVID patients, staff burnout,” (Sept. 2), Cooley Dickinson Chief Medical Officer Estevan Garcia, MD, acknowledged that “staffing has become a challenge with burnout one of several factors leading to employee shortages as case counts have risen.”

In a letter published Sept. 14, members of the Massachusetts Nurses Association at Cooley Dickinson state that nurses are stressed, exhausted and demoralized because they are not getting enough support.

As Cooley Dickinson’s chief nursing officer, and a registered nurse for 38 years, I acknowledge that the challenges we face have never been greater. Every day, the nurse leadership team and I support our nurses in ways that provide safe, exceptional care for our community. We create connections between experienced nurses and those just joining the ranks through, for example, a new nurse mentoring program. For their well-being and mental health, we encourage staff to access our employee assistance programs.

The COVID-19 pandemic has elevated our need to recruit and retain nurses. This situation is not unique to Cooley Dickinson. Earlier this month, the American Nurses Association wrote to the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to “urge robust and immediate action to address the unsustainable nurse staffing shortage facing our country.”

The ANA is developing and implementing both short- and long-term solutions. Nationally, staff shortages have reached crisis levels. Locally, we are finding ways to be innovative in our hiring practices. Last month, we hosted drop-in/open interviews to hire new employees. That effort yielded nine new patient care staff, including four registered nurses.

I am proud of the nurses and patient care staff for their commitment to providing safe, quality care to some of the sickest patients we have ever seen. We are committed to supporting our staff safely and respectfully as the uncertainties of COVID persist. In the meantime, my message to our community is unwavering: we are here for you.

Angela Belmont

Northampton

The writer is vice president of Patient Care Services & Chief Nursing Officer at Cooley Dickinson Hospital.