To help assess how more than 500 Missouri nursing homes have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic, Lori Popejoy and Amy Vogelsmeier, now research faculty at the University of Missouri, recently earned a 4-year, $1.9 million grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

A news release says by identifying strategies nursing homes used to overcome challenges related to the pandemic, the research team hopes to develop recommendations nursing homes across the country can use to improve quality of care and, ultimately, patient health outcomes.

Since the pandemic began, nursing shortages that already existed have gotten worse due to burnout and exhaustion. A recent MU study found 31 percent of all Missouri nurses are older than age 54, and some rural Missouri counties have more than half of their nursing workforce aged 54 or older.

“The workforce was already at a breaking point, and now the pandemic has pushed many of these older nurses into retirement,” Popejoy said. “These kind of studies can help inform public policy and hopefully implement best practices that nursing homes dealing with similar challenges can implement nationwide.”

Vogelsmeier said, “We will be taking a comprehensive view by comparing facilities in both urban and rural areas, as well as facilities with both high COVID-19 infection rates and facilities with low infection rates, which allows us to potentially identify patterns for what went well or what can be improved. By talking to various stakeholders, including residents and their families, nursing home staff and administrators, public health experts and the Department of Health and Senior Services, we can find helpful strategies to assist nursing homes to better prepare and respond to infectious outbreaks.”