Why would a facility over-hire nurses?

I work in a busy SICU, and every year my manager overhires because every year someone who was waitlisted gets into anesthesia school and quits with barely any notice. Sometimes several someones. Every year, someone leaves to go to school to be an NP without giving ANY notice. Every year someone leaves to follow their sweetie across the country with little notice. Every summer after graduation, we're ten people up, but by the time those ten people are off orientation 6 moths later, attrititon has reduced the staffing to just about what we need.

It sounds, however, as if the OP's facility tends to use the new grads at $19.5/hour so they can get rid of more experienced nurses with bigger salaries.

I have to give the nurse manager credit for being honest about their reasons for overhiring. I have said this months ago and will say it again, with the "recession" comes a perception that business can do anything they want to employees. Just remember, however, what comes around goes around. While you are hiring a boatload of new grads, be careful that this tidal wave of inexperience doesn't deluge you in malpractice suits. And let's not forget Press Ganey. New nurses don't know what they don't know.

When you've played the heavy to the hilt and made all the cutbacks you can, you'll still be expected to make more. Whose position will be expendable then? And, more importantly, where exactly will you work afterwards?

our hospital is using the same practice, a few years ago we were able to get all the overtime we wanted, many times i could call at 3p to see if they needed help at 7 p and they would say YES PLEASE. our sister hospital started doing it first, they overhired, had too much staff (mostly casual and part time) and the regulars no longer got the easy overtime. i braced myself because my friend warned me we were next. sure enough we were hiring new grads like crazy ( we used to not hire them) and now we are overstaffed and many having to stay home on low census days.i got an average of 24 hrs a week and i'm full time. ( and was used to paychecks with at least 12 hrs ot on them)

so we have a lot of nurse who work part time with fewer or no benies and no one getting ot, it works better for the hospital that way. marale is getting bad over here, people are stressed and fighting over hours and complaining about why one person got to work a double and they didn't. and just recently they have started enforcing the time card rules ( no clocking out early or staying late or you get reprimanded) and now people are starting to worry about job security, seems like the people with the most seniority (highest paid) are the ones getting written up and called in for meetings over petty little things now..

getting scary and it's all about the money unfortunately.