Licensed Nurses Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Yeager Airport Announces Plans To Add Flights To Dallas And Houston

Two new flight service routes are on the radar of West Virginia International Yeager Airport (CRW).

The airport has secured grant money from the Department of Transportation Small Community Air Service Development Program (SCASDP) to add direct non stop flights to Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) and Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH).

CRW was one of 25 airports selected for the grant which is similar to the one used by Spirit Airlines to establish service to Orlando, Florida.

West Virginia International Yeager Airport Director and CEO, Nick Keller, said one of the airport’s long term goals has been to retain air service to high demand destinations. Both Dallas and Houston serve as international hubs for connecting flights to destinations around the world.

As the state’s economy continues to experience significant growth, Keller expects demand for air service will increase.

Charleston previously offered flight service to Houston on Continental but when that service ended a few years ago, the airport lost important westbound connectivity. The airport also briefly provided service to Dallas Fort Worth on American Airlines. Both flight routes operated smaller 50 seat regional jets.

“What we ran into here was weight penalties with the length of the runway,” Keller said. “It’s such a long flight that an airplane couldn’t necessarily take off on a hot summer day fully loaded, they may only be able to take 40 passengers instead of 50 and that makes that route a little less economical. Since that time, 50 seat regional jets have started to be retired in greater numbers and we have larger regional jets that serve the airport and all of the United States.”

The money from the SCASDP grant will fund start up negotiations with the airlines, and importantly, provide a minimum revenue guarantee — an insurance policy for airlines who incur substantial costs and risk when establishing new service. It will also cover recruitment and marketing costs to get the new routes up and running.

While American Airlines provided a letter of support for the grant, Keller said with the problems the airline industry is facing today, including a nationwide pilot shortage and scheduling issues, establishing the new flight service could take at least one to two years.

Health System Plans Initiative To Increase Nurses

The West Virginia University Health System plans to launch an initiative that will increase the number of nurses in the state, officials said.

WVU Health President and CEO Albert Wright Jr. told theCharleston Gazette-Mail’s “Outside the Echo Chamber” that the system plans to start an associate’s degree nursing program. Wright said the aim is to alleviate a “particularly challenging” nursing shortage in the state.

“The only way we fix the nursing shortage is to drastically and systematically increase the number of nurses we’re producing,” he said.

Wright said the initiative will be based in Morgantown but will have cohorts around the state that will help recent high school graduates complete an associate’s degree quickly and begin working.

WVU Health partnered with Thomas Health earlier this year making it the state’s largest health system.

Multiple new programs have been announced since Gov. Jim Justice cited the nursing shortage caused by the coronavirus pandemic when he announced in December that the state would use federal stimulus funding to aggressively recruit and train nurses over the next four years.

Nursing Agreement Raises Concerns in House

Members of the House’s Judiciary Committee are considering a bill that its sponsors hope will curb West Virginia’s nursing shortage.

House Bill 2522 would enter West Virginia into an agreement with other states to allow nurses to practice across state lines without having to get multiple licenses. The compact would include both registered nurses, or RNs, and licensed practical nurses, or LPNs, who packed the committee room Friday as members debated the bill.

There are currently 25 states in the nation that are part of a nursing licensure compact, including a number of states bordering West Virginia – Virginia, Maryland, and Kentucky for instance.

The first version of the compact was drafted in the late 1990s, and the first states signed on in 2000. In 2015, the compact was revised, adding requirements for background checks for nurses and creating a commission to oversee the agreements. So far, no states have adopted the new compact model from 2015 and West Virginia is the first to consider it.

Supporters of the bill say entering the agreement could help attract nurses to the state who don’t want to go through another licensing process. Del. Amy Summers is a sponsor of the bill. A nurse herself, she says West Virginia has had trouble keeping up with the demand for nurses, but the state has a low cost of living and the pay is good.

“We also have a very low cost of living here,” Summers noted, “I have lived in northern Virginia where the cost of living was more than double than what it is in West Virginia. The nurses are making a good wage in our state. There are sign-on bonuses; $10,000 that can attract you in if you want to come to a certain hospital. There are ways to make good money in nursing.”

Groups representing LPNs disagree with Summers though. Greg Chiartas is the President of the West Virginia State Board of Examiners for Licensed Practical Nurses.

“The bottom line is, is that there’s no evidence, at least based upon the surveys from the West Virginia Center for Nursing, that joining this compact is going to resolve any nursing shortage in West Virginia.”

Chiartas says entering the agreement could actually pose a problem for the group he represents.

“We are at a saturation point in West Virginia with LPNs; we have 26 schools, we have 8,000 licensed practical nurses in the state, and we don’t have really room or jobs available for additional nurses to be coming in from out-of-state and taking the LPN jobs that we have available,” Chiartas explained.

Bill supporters also say entering the compact could potentially increase the wages for nurses in West Virginia as the state attempts to compete with other members of the compact to keep them. But Chiartas doesn’t think that will be the result.

“Simple economics would dictate that if you have an oversupply, that you would drive down prices,” Chiartas said, “You would have increase competition which would drive down the amount of money that these nurses would make.”

Republican Del. Geoff Foster questioned Chiartas if he had evidence regarding other states that have adopted the compact and seen LPN wages drop. Chiartas said he did not.

Aside from just the potential impact to wages, some delegates were concerned that entering the compact would also make it easier for nurses to leave West Virginia.

Republican Del. Ray Hollen asked Chiartas about whether LPNs would have the opportunity to go to other states for higher wages if the state Legislature passed House Bill 2522.

“Certainly they could,” Chiartas said, “As of right now, we don’t have a lot of LPNs that leave our state. They take jobs in our state, and they stay in our state.”

Delegates on the House Judiciary Committee adjourned from their morning meeting before voting on the bill, but the committee returned to discuss the bill after the House floor session Friday afternoon. House Bill 2522 was approved on a voice vote and now goes to the full chamber for a vote likely next week.