how busy have you been at work now that winter is here?

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Overall, how is census where you work? Have you noticed an increase ? I have been off island since late October, I came to Arizona for the winter to do a 160 hour clinical at Mayo clinic in Phoenix.

Out of curiousity I called a few of the staffing agencies and they all reported that census was pretty low with the places they contracted with, and they weren't able to place nurses in many assignments right now. Most of the shifts that are available are for LPN'S in nursing homes.

Just wondering how the island is doing..

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Specializes in Critical Care.

Pretty busy in ICU but of course it is always a roller coaster there. I think it's more an issue of the hospitals being well-staffed with their own nurses that is leaving the agency nurses in the dust than a low-census issue.

We very rarely use agency nurses anymore and it has been a long time since we have had any contract travel nurses on the unit.

Up until a few years ago we always had at least two travel nurses on contract (sometimes more) and also used agency nurses quite often.

With the glut of nurses now available and the increased hiring of new grads we are now staffed almost completely with our own nurses (who sometimes are called off because of low census), even call-ins. And many members of our own staff are eager to grab OT.

So...not much work for agency nurses right now.

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