The RN Jobs Squeeze

Us mature nurses are not getting hired- because we are, with our 30-40 years of EXPERIENCE at the top of our pay scale, we cost too much. The mature nurses before us fought when we were baby nurses to bring about change in the nursing world. fought for MORE pay- which we DO deserve since we nurses do the actual work not the docs, fought for more voice and to have some control in our practice. The docs spent the healthcare money years ago and fattened their wallets when they admitted patients for barium enemas, did colonoscopys on patients admitted for ear infections. Now hospitals are loosing money so the first place they go to make it up is to slash nursing positions. Well they have slashed so much it's not Safe anymore so now they lay off senior nurses making well earned merit raises/years of service- kicked out the door like old shoes. The hospitals are left with nurses with 3-4 years experience. One in So. NJ a Interevental Cardiac floor is FULL of new grads!! and foreign nurses- why- because they are cheaper. They can pay them $22/hr, $26/hr. and we mature nurses will seek employment else where but for the same cheaper wages. Why -because like was mentioned above hunger, bankrupcy, long periods of unemployment and have gone though our savings and 401k's to keep our homes we have lived in for 25-30 years. The manager of this young floor/unit is also young- inexperienced in management which is what the upper management likes(a STOOL pigeon) inexperienced at the bedside.( keeps more money in the big brasses pockets), clueless as to what is being set-up, inexperienced in LIFE but cocky as anything. Think about a cardiac interventional floor of all new young RN's that don't know how to read tele monitors. This is a suburban hospital. WE experienced nurses put out applications, call on these jobs posted and no reply??? Now that I'm seeing it in print by someone else- it kinds looks like it's the COST/hr our experience says we should be paid. So the hospitals must be looking for nurses some where between a new grad ( cost of orienting, preceptor- 2 RN's for 1 group of patients=$60,000. I got that number at a preceptor workshop in 2007) and a 30-40 year experienced nurse because that level of experience is cheaper. It's now lower the pay of nurses, they can't slash any more positions- the staffing ratio's are now dangerous. I work hospital staff per deim- this was all I could get and get cancelled most of my shifts- I was cancelled the last 4 hours on a 12 hour shift this past Saturday , my supervisor asked me how much per hour I made. $36/hr the nurse they kept makes $33/hr. That's a stinken $12.00 saving!! The real kicker was the other nurse WANTED to go home but was made to stay and I am out of $144.00($36.00x4=$144.00) that's car insurance for 1 month!!! This is A MESS.

Us mature nurses are not getting hired- because we are, with our 30-40 years of EXPERIENCE at the top of our pay scale, we cost too much.

One of the things I have never figured out is what is the advantage of recruiting all the international nurses? I keep hearing different stories. Do they really work cheaper? It must cost money to go to a country, recruit them, pay various expenses for them. Is it their devotion to do everything that a corporation tells them to do, and you all know what some of those things are. Some will sabotage caucasian nurses. I have seen some very unhealthy relationships between management and some foreign nurses that have been recruited from other countries.

Another memorable,recent(2 weeks ago) encounters I have had with one of these foriegn nurses was: he is INDIAN and also very prissy- long perfect hair, newest fashion uniform, $110 dansko's, nails done- was assigned to a cardiac patient who happened to have an old illeiostomy. She came to me and asked me if I would empty the illeiostomy bag for her, that she couldn't do it "because it STINKS" and she went on to say how it made her feel like vomiting!! MY thought was this poor patient and this moron nurse. I told her what my old OR instructor told me and my classmates in 1979. When you go to the OR to do your rotation if you feel sick, have some perfume on your cuffs and smell it. I then told this young foreign nurse to "BUCK-UP " The Director of Critical Care MEDICINE who was AMERICAN was doing his rounds and heard me. I went into that patient's room to empty the illeiostomy bag and I heard HIM tell her the same thing to BUCK-UP and that she was a nurse also and that she too has to take care of patients and this is part of patient care. Another foriegn nurse this week-FILIPINO from the CVICU transferred me a patient with chest tubes, I asked her about the drainage column level, she started to get angry with me, talking real fast with her HEAVY accent, so I just let it go, went out to the desk after she left the room only to find her reporting me to the assistant manager that I didn't know chest tubes! Both of these nurses need to be put on a flight back to their country of origin. I can't stand it anymore!!@ I have seen chest tubes evolve for 2 glass bottles and a gomco, to a pleuravac, to a thoracx, to the atrium to a cooper tube to a denver tube(these the patient gets SENT HOME with)!!!

I am not a xenophobe, but I have a big problem with our government giving visas to foreigners in the middle of a recession. How do stop that?

I am not a xenophobe, but I have a big problem with our government giving visas to foreigners in the middle of a recession. How do stop that?