Are nurses really leaving nursing in droves?

caffeinatednurse, BSN, RN · Sep 9, 2021

15 minutes ago, subee said:

You can say that, but I don't see any proof that nurses are "leaving in droves" because of vaccine requirements. Most nurses are vaccinated and I doubt that "droves' of them will leave when they will lose so much in salary and health care benefits.

At the hospital I just left, only 30% of the nurses were vaccinated. This was just before admin mandated the vaccine, so I imagine some will accept it and some will not. But no, most nurses are not vaccinated, especially in the rural south. Many don’t trust the vaccine, even nurses.

she244 · Sep 10, 2021

I am a retired Nurse 65 years old. I have an associate degree. I have 11 years of ER experience with 14 years of Orthopedic/Acute Care experience but since I do not have that BSN degree they want I get No to being hired. I have kept my Picc line certification up to date, ACLS, PALS certifications. I did get one yes with the understanding that I would agree to go back to school to get the BSN degree. I applied to come out of retirement and go to work to help ease the workload at the Hospital. Not quite understanding the resistance to hiring some of us ADN or Diploma Nurses who have a lot of ER, ICU and Med Surg experience who don't need the benefits but are willing to work on a Temporary basis but are unable to get jobs to help out.

I wish all of you who are working the very Best and Pray there is an end in sight to help ease the stress and danger of working short all the time.

Prayers for all of you and Prayers for your family.

subee, MSN, CRNA · Sep 10, 2021

On 9/9/2021 at 12:00 PM, caffeinatednurse said:

At the hospital I just left, only 30% of the nurses were vaccinated. This was just before admin mandated the vaccine, so I imagine some will accept it and some will not. But no, most nurses are not vaccinated, especially in the rural south. Many don’t trust the vaccine, even nurses.

The rural south.......isn't it the lowest vaccinated area of the country in general? I can't find any statistics on the vaccination rates for RN's in the US but I cannot believe it is a low as 30%. You are gonna have to prove that for me; especially with the horrendenous death rates that southernors have elected to suffer.

guest464345 · Sep 10, 2021

Five of the eight nurses in my school district left after the 2020-21 year.

Not the same kind of stress or acuity that hospital nurses are facing, but there is nothing fun about parents screaming against masks and vaccines while you spend literally all day quarantining and contact tracing, in PPE you bought yourself.

caffeinatednurse, BSN, RN · Sep 11, 2021

6 hours ago, subee said:

The rural south.......isn't it the lowest vaccinated area of the country in general? I can't find any statistics on the vaccination rates for RN's in the US but I cannot believe it is a low as 30%. You are gonna have to prove that for me; especially with the horrendenous death rates that southernors have elected to suffer.

This statement doesn't even make sense. You're doubting that vaccination rates among nurses are low in the rural south, even though, in your words, southerners have "elected" to suffer? (By the way, I don't think anyone elects to suffer from COVID, even the unmasked, unvaccinated groups of people - they just suffer from lack of knowledge, which isn't made better by opinions like yours.) Nurses are people too, and they have doubted/continue to doubt this vaccine for a myriad of reasons.

Obviously, I can't show you a study or any other "proof" on vaccination numbers. I didn't poll the hospital workers myself. That number came from our CEO. But I can tell you that the hospital I left mandated the COVID vaccine because the vaccination rates were so low.

subee, MSN, CRNA · Sep 11, 2021

14 hours ago, caffeinatednurse said:

This statement doesn't even make sense. You're doubting that vaccination rates among nurses are low in the rural south, even though, in your words, southerners have "elected" to suffer? (By the way, I don't think anyone elects to suffer from COVID, even the unmasked, unvaccinated groups of people - they just suffer from lack of knowledge, which isn't made better by opinions like yours.) Nurses are people too, and they have doubted/continue to doubt this vaccine for a myriad of reasons.

Obviously, I can't show you a study or any other "proof" on vaccination numbers. I didn't poll the hospital workers myself. That number came from our CEO. But I can tell you that the hospital I left mandated the COVID vaccine because the vaccination rates were so low.

Those folks have the same information to information that I have. One doesn't have to be highly educated or a mental giant to figure out that Covid is dangerous. But the other narrative is so much more seductive. I'll give the great uneducated masses of the deep South a pass because I grew up there and there is less respect for education. But I do not allow nurses the same courtesy because they have had the benefit at least of some college. Their ignorance is willful.

verene, MSN · Sep 11, 2021

On 9/9/2021 at 9:00 AM, caffeinatednurse said:

At the hospital I just left, only 30% of the nurses were vaccinated. This was just before admin mandated the vaccine, so I imagine some will accept it and some will not. But no, most nurses are not vaccinated, especially in the rural south. Many don’t trust the vaccine, even nurses.

Depends on where you are in the U.S. At my hospital total staff vaccination rate (everyone from admin to evs to nursing to MD) was at about 76% percent prior to this latest wave, and more have received vaccine voluntarily since then. (Mandates haven't started yet, but will soon).

According to ANA about 88% of RNs are vaccinated and according to AMA about 96% of MDs.

Mandating vaccines may have some impact to staffing, but I feel like a lot of those who are strongly opposed have already left the field (this is anecdotal based on my work environment). I'm also really curious based on my own (completely unscientific) observations that vaccination hesitancy and rates seem to track at least in part to education level. As it seems to me that I've seen/heard a lot more vaccine hesitancy among our EVS staff, security staff, aides/techs, and LPNs than I have from those at higher levels of certification and education.

Back to the topic of staffing it's increasingly bad across all disciplines and across all levels. We have massive shortages of nurses, psychologists, social workers, aides, security, EVS staff.... pretty much every role. We went from being "fully staffed" before the pandemic in nursing (I.e. there was turn over, but we we consistantly hiring at a rate equal to our turn over rate, and could easily meet base staffing) to having 145 open positions just at RN level alone - slightly under half of our total nursing positions. Everyone is picking up slack everywhere across disciplines across units, and the burn out rates are increasingly high. Now I'm seeing a lot of our nursing staff leave for agency and travel jobs where they make more money - at the same time as we are brining more agency staff in. Unfortunately agency staff often don't stay long, aren't invested in helping to stabilize the hospital, and usually take far more training than they are worth (because most don't have psych/mental health backgrounds and having agency who have never worked psych before in acute psych - let's just say some days I wish I *didn't* have them and would rather work short-staffed but with a team who knows what they are doing).

caffeinatednurse, BSN, RN · Sep 12, 2021

Thanks for getting it back on topic.

Also, thanks for the statistics. I'm glad that nationally, things are much brighter than they are here.

2BS Nurse, BSN · Sep 12, 2021

"Ability to take time off when needed and support from management are valued."

These are the most important!