A rash of firings...

[kesmarn]

Is this happening in anyone else's place of employment? Since the beginning of 2012 our 240 bed acute care hospital has fired at least a dozen nurses and a few PCTs (nursing assistants). Many of them have been over 50 years old and had worked there for many years. Those of us who remain don't have any info on reasons for these abrupt terminations. The nurses involved will usually be working as usual when they're suddenly pulled off the floor into the office and told to empty their lockers and be escorted out by security.

Needless to say those of us who remain have stress levels that are through the roof. Most if not all of the nurses terminated seemed to be "good" nurses. It seems odd that someone could perform acceptably for 30 years and then suddenly become incompetent...

Could this be because new Medicare reimbursement policies factor in patient satisfaction scores and young attractive nurses get higher ratings from patients? As an older nurse, naturally I'm worried.

[whichone'spink, BSN, RN]

My floor has had a lot of new hires, many of them are young. The young ones are new grads, and the older ones are transfers from other floors. I haven't seen an older new grad, yet.

Holy crap, I really don't know what to say about what's happening at your place. It's like Logan's Run. And I say this as a young person. I won't be young for long.

[scameron]

Maybe a way to avoid retirement benefits

[kesmarn]

Hah! "Logan's Run" is right. Or "Soylent White." "It's made of nurses!!" Oops, you may be too young to catch that geezer reference.

I appreciate your comments very much. Best wishes in your career!

[kesmarn]

I wondered about that too, scameron...

[Hygiene Queen]

Or "Soylent White." "It's made of nurses!!

LOL!!

[NurseCard, ADN]

"Soylent White is NURSES! It's NURSES!" =)

I didn't get the Logan's Run reference, though.

Anyhoo.... at the LTC that I worked last year, my DON went

nuts and fired a crap-ton of people, including myself. But

that was right around state survey time, and I think the stress

got to her or something. I have no idea why this would

be happening in your hospital, but it sounds horrible and

scary, for sure.

[Zookeeper3]

Nope, last two places I worked wanted experienced nurses desparartly. Look at NC and VA , we are desperate for experienced nurses here.

[kesmarn]

It's no fun, NurseCard. Did you have any trouble getting another job after your DON's meltdown?

[kesmarn]

Zookeeper3, I think that may be part of the problem here. There are 7 hospitals in this area and 5 nursing schools. We are "over-hospitalled" and have an over-supply of nurses. It's good to know there are other options out there.

[NurseCard, ADN]

Kesmarn: Yes I did; I got fired last August and I just now found a new job;

however I also just now threw my hands up and decided to really look at

LTC jobs again. I've been looking mostly at hospitals and home health/

hospice. Hospital jobs where I live are getting harder and harder to come

by, for anyone. I've put in many applications at hospitals and gotten NO

reply from many of those.

[tokmom, BSN, RN]

This is why I would never work for a non union facility. Union facilities can't pull that BS.