COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio's nursing home staff shortage precedes the coronavirus pandemic, but is now at critical levels, according to recent findings by two investigative reporting outlets.

"The situation in nursing homes is really critical," Strott said. "It's an issue that is really important and is really critical across the nation, but...specifically in Ohio with nursing aides. It's a really big issue."

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, Ohio has the third-highest number of nursing homes behind Texas and California.

According to Strott, Ohio reported nursing assistant shortages in 26% of reports to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, making Ohio the 14th-worst nationwide for the percentage of nursing homes reporting too few STNAs in 2020.

"We're seeing that number is pretty high compared to everyone else," Strott said. "And so when their shortage for nursing assistants puts stress on other positions in a nursing home, it messes with the whole system."

Strott said the biggest roadblocks nursing homes face when hiring include not enough people in the hiring pool.

"They really attribute that to the national labor shortages that we're seeing across all industries," she said.

Strott said when speaking with activists dealing with the hiring issue, they cite low pay and job difficulty as a reason why hiring options may be slim.

"You'll have a really hard job where you're doing a lot of care, a lot of physical labor, a lot of emotional labor because they are providing companionship to the patients and they're just not seeing the benefits or the wages are making it worth it," she said.