Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39972516›Full record

ArticleHealth services research2025

Addressing Staffing Shortages in Nursing Homes: Does Relaxing Training and Licensing Requirements Increase Nurse Aide Staffing?

Gulrukh Mehboob, Hari Sharma

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Health services research, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Trial
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Gulrukh MehboobDepartment of Health Management and Policy, College of Public Health, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0009-0000-8559-8168
Hari SharmaDepartment of Health Management and Policy, College of Public Health, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7857-8545

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectiveTo evaluate whether COVID-19-related nurse aide training and licensing relaxation policies improved staffing shortages in nursing homes. STUDY SETTING AND

designStaffing shortages have been a long-standing concern in nursing homes, and states are experimenting with different approaches to enhance nurse aide staffing. We use the latest quasi-experimental difference-in-differences methods to evaluate the effect of relaxing training and licensing requirements in 19 states (treatment group) relative to the 31 states that did not implement such policies (control group). We analyze the combined effect of relaxing both training and licensing requirements, as well as the impact of relaxing each policy separately. DATA SOURCES AND ANALYTIC SAMPLE: We obtain quarterly data on nursing home characteristics, including adjusted nurse aide hours per resident day (HPRD) from 2019 to 2023 from Care Compare, a federal website with quality information on all Medicare/Medicaid-certified nursing homes. After excluding outliers of staffing data (nurse aide HPRD > 5.25, or nurse aide HPRD = 0), our final analytical sample had 278,170 observations. PRINCIPAL

findingsThe average nurse aide HPRD is 2.30 in the treatment group and 2.26 in the control group. Using the difference-in-differences regression analyses, we find no significant effect of the relaxation of training and licensing requirements on nurse aide levels (average treatment effect: -0.0001; p = 0.99). Similarly, separate analyses of training and licensing relaxation policies suggest that neither policy significantly impacts nurse aide staffing. Results are consistent when we adjust for staffing requirements, wage increase policies, and nursing home characteristics.

conclusionsOur findings suggest that the relaxation of training and licensing requirements may not lead to improved nurse aide staffing levels in nursing homes. Policymakers need to consider other strategies to address persistent staffing shortages in nursing homes.

Indexed as

COVID-19LicensureNursing AssistantsNursing HomesPersonnel Staffing and SchedulingHumansUnited StatesWorkforceCOVID‐19licensing relaxationnursing homesshortagestraining relaxation

Identifiers

PMID39972516
PMCPMC12120521

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.