I work in a medium to large size community hospital and we are literally busting at the seams. Putting patients in areas where we don't typically house patients. Opening up units that were previously closed. There are no beds in the ICU.
My hospital is offering incentives for staff to work extra shifts and are actually offering double what they normally offer. It is insane. I have been doing nursing for almost 7 years and have never seen anything like this. I have also worked at 5 different hospitals and was actually at my current hospital last holiday season and it was not like this.
Earlier this year we were closing units because there was not enough patients and we were being told not to come in due to a lack of patients. Sometimes this happened 2-3 times a pay period. We did a restructuring of staff as well because we thought that things were changing and there would be less inpatients.
I'm just wondering how things are throughout the US and why this is happening. I thought maybe because it is near the end of the year and people have deductibles they want to use but the admitting dx of my patients does not support that. Only one pt had surgery that you could say was elective.
