Staffing Woes

Nurses General Nursing

Published

just a vent I suppose - is anyone else so short staffed that they're robbing Peter to pay Paul to get enough nurses for a shift? We've had 4 people leave recently, 2 more are leaving by June 15th and our crop of orientees (mainly new grads) aren't graduating for at least another 1-3 months! I work a busy step down unit that takes med-surge overflow and we routinely have 1:5 ratio. I just took this job at the beginning of the year and we're on our 3rd manager.

I realize that there is no way to fix it until orientation is over (approximately 12-16 weeks depending on the person). Just looking for commiseration.

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Specializes in Med/Surg/ICU/Stepdown.

Staffing woes: prevalent in every specialty in every hospital. Our unit is facing the same issues. We have an extremely high turn-over rate due to the high acuity/low staffing combination. Additionally, our unit is not what it was intended to be, and it's burning people out at an alarming rate.

My sickest patients often get the tail end of my nursing expertise due to the "customer service" mentality. It's a sad state of affairs. I'm hoping it turns around but the outlook doesn't look good.

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Specializes in CCRN.

I think staffing ebbs and flows in many areas. I am in the process of changing jobs and the reason the unit I will be starting on has openings is because of nurses that are finishing their MSN's and leaving the bedside. Between employees leaving for personal reasons or being fired for other reasons, staffing can go from being great to being a nightmare in a heartbeat. I was previously a nurse manager and we lost 4 CNAs in a two week period. It was a nightmare for scheduling and staffing. It can be very difficult to fill shifts in a hurry, especially as staff starts to feel burned out.

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I hope it teaches hospital administrators a lesson, when staffing turnover gets so high that patient satisfaction and safety are compromised.

Maybe they'll get the message they ought to treat their nurses like actual people.

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Specializes in PACU, pre/postoperative, ortho.
Maybe they'll get the message they ought to treat their nurses like actual people.

Nope. We just get told we're expected to sign up for call time (but it's not mandatory) and the CEO has this nice new program involving meeting everyone in small groups to get all touchy feely and talk about what my personal specific contribution is to the patient experience. Again, not mandatory, but when asked if it was okay if our schedule didn't allow us to make any of the available dates for this 90 minute meeting, our manager stated then it would be a different conversation with the CEO.

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I could have written this post 25 years ago... to the "t".

Ask yourself why you are on the third manager? The "new crop" of orientees are not going to change diddly squat.

You work in a facility where with administration will NEVER change the status quo.

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Specializes in ER, Med Surg, Ob/Gyn, Clinical teaching.
I could have written this post 25 years ago... to the "t".

Ask yourself why you are on the third manager? The "new crop" of orientees are not going to change diddly squat.

You work in a facility where with administration will NEVER change the status quo.

I love you profile name " been there done that" ;)

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