nursing shortage? Where?

911fltrn · Jul 1, 2002

Im not sure about canada. But here in the states you can move anywhere you want and have multiple job offers! If you interested in a job in Las Vegas, Nevada. Let me know. Best of luck to you.

fergus51 · Jul 1, 2002

leeson, I am also in BC and know what you are talking about! Our hospital lost quite a few medical beds and staff there are not being kept busy. Luckily I work in L&D and Campbell can't really do anything to cut that. A lot of nurses from here are going to the US in the next few months, including me. These cuts are just too deep.

PhantomRN · Jul 1, 2002

Not everywhere in the country is hiring. I know of a hospital that just laid of a couple hundred people, some where nurses, and now they have a hiring freeze. Natuarly they are trying to keep it very quiet.

I am sure there are other hospitals out there who have put on hiring freezes..it is bound to happen.

The hospitals depend on the money from insurance companies and the gov to pay the bills. Well the amount insurance pays has not changed, but all of our salaries have gone up. It only stands to reason that sooner or later they will cry foul, because how much money do you think the CEO is willing to loose out of his pocket...er hospital fund?

SmilingBluEyes · Jul 1, 2002

That is what may happen in the US ...we will see a reduction in the "shortage" too. hospitals will shut their doors and many will then be out of work, looking elsewhere. These scenarios are not hard to imagine. Scary, but very likely.

uk_nurse · Jul 1, 2002

it is the opposite here in UK. Not enough nurses to manage the bed status. If we had more nurses then perhaps we could have more beds. Many students are dropping out of their nurse training due to the conditions and the pay. We definately need more nurses here.

Tiiki · Jul 1, 2002

Here's a voice from Ontario. I'm in Ottawa, there has been a shortage for as long as I can remember. In 2 years 50% of nurses working now will be of retirement age. If we are having staffing problems now, what will happen then? Before transferring to the ER I worked on an acute medecin floor where we actually closed beds due to staffing shortages. I was part-time but worked full-time hours and had over-time on each cheque to boot. Our ER just had a huge hiring blitz. I am meeting nurses from all over Ontario and Québec. The biggest problem is for acute care nurses. Floor nursing has equalled out. Acute care..has bottomed out. Some nurses working ICU and ER haven't been granted their summer holidays in years. The big cuffufle has come from Québec. They are experiencing a nursing shortage as well, but pay their RN's considerably less ($14.00/hr) so the nurses are coming over here.

If there is no shortage where you are, consider yourself lucky! It's an awful situation to be in, not to mention dangerous.

Cheers! :)

Jo-Anne

fergus51 · Jul 1, 2002

I don't think it's really that there's not a shortage of nurses, it's that we have cut beds so that the shortage is meaningless. People still aren't going to get the care they need because there isn't enough room in the hospital for them. Go to bcnu.org and it says that BC has the lowest number of nurses per capita in the country and that we have the most nearing retirement age in the next few years. Couple that with the fact that we are losing more than half of our new grads to Alberta and the US (this is from the Interior health region) and you'll see a real crisis in a few years.

OrthoNutter · Jul 2, 2002

Originally posted by uk_nurse
it is the opposite here in UK. Not enough nurses to manage the bed status. If we had more nurses then perhaps we could have more beds. Many students are dropping out of their nurse training due to the conditions and the pay. We definately need more nurses here.

Same problem here in Australia....although we don't need more nurses as such. We need the conditions and pay improved to bring back all the ones who have left nursing because they just couldn't stand it anymore.

Qwiigley, BSN, MSN, DNP, RN, CRNA · Jul 2, 2002

JoAnne!

who in their right mind would do what we do for $14.00/hr? I am making over $32./hr and am not the highest paid in our city. (I work in Los Angeles). Our hospital does pay higher for BSN, MSN etc.

dianthe1013 · Jul 2, 2002

Van:

That's $14 Canadian that JoAnne mentioned. That, at the moment, is about $21 US. Still not great, but a little better.

Donna :)

pfleige · Jul 2, 2002

In Florida the entry level is 20 to 22 dollars. I was making that in California About 14 years ago.

Doctors and Hospitals and Insurance companies seem to make the same all over the country in genearal I think, but Nurses no

Way. Any one wonders why?