Achieva | The Arc of Greater Pittsburgh | Nursing Issues
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All Children Deserve to Live with Their Families

Families Providing Extraordinary Care

Could you keep your job if you had to call off one or more times a week?

All children—including those who need the care of skilled nurses—deserve to live with their families. The national nursing shortage has made that impossible for some Pennsylvania children and threatened the home lives of others.

Families are trained and expected, but not paid, to provide the skilled care their children need. When nurses are unavailable, parents are forced to either stay home and give up the jobs that support their families or place their child in institutional care.

Help us keep children with complex medical issues at home with their families: create a license for well-trained family members who provide nursing-level skilled care to their children under the supervision of a home health agency to be paid for their services.

  • More than 3000 Pennsylvania children are authorized to receive medically necessary skilled care from home nurses when their parents are not available due to work, sleep, or other responsibilities.

  • On average, at least 14% of authorized nursing hours are not provided due to the shortage. For some families, nurses are not available for days or weeks at a time.

Please Support and Co-Sponsor Legislation to help these families.
Complete Parent Survey
Contact: Mary Hartley mhartley@achieva.info 412.995.5000 x424

From a Parent's Perspective

child in carseat

“The ability to be a paid caregiver for him would allow Ben to continue to safely remain with his family where he can continue to thrive.” -

Ben’s mom, Philadelphia
 

Nancy-Santana-and Alma

“I know that my child and I owe a great debt of gratitude to our nurses, but I also say that they deserve an income comparable to all they do as home care nurses.”

Nancy Santana, Alma’s mother

Improving Access to Pediatric Home Nurses

Could you keep your medically fragile child safe with no sleep?
All children—including those who need the care of skilled nurses—deserve to live with their families. The national nursing shortage has made that impossible for some Pennsylvania children and threatened the home lives of others.

Lack of access to needed skilled care risks the lives and health of medically fragile children and results in hospitalizations, loss of parent employment, family stress, and caregiver exhaustion. Worse, it causes some children to be placed in residential facilities away from their families and communities.

Nurses are inadequately compensated for providing pediatric home care. Children with complex medical issues have a legal entitlement to get the nursing care they need. The Office of Medical Assistance Programs (OMAP) must take responsibility to ensure that these children receive authorized health sustaining services.

A 2020 survey of more than 900 Pennsylvania licensed nurses revealed that better pay and benefits is the most likely way to attract and keep more nurses in pediatric home care.

Keep children with their families by guaranteeing access to nurses.
Please Support and Co-Sponsor Legislation to help these families.
Complete Parent Survey
Contact: Mary Hartley mhartley@achieva.info 412.995.5000 x424