Departments that cut the most shifts?

[mambojennifer]

I know from volunteering in a NICU that those nurses deal with a lot of cuts due to occasional lack of babies. I was wondering what other departments also cut a lot of shifts and which ones need all their staff no matter what?

[pers]

I've been at my hospital over ten years and in that time the only department that has never closed is the ED. Telemetry closed once for 3 days when they did some cleaning/renovation work (usually they close part of the floor down while they do the work and leave the rest of it open, working in stages till it's complete). At my facility the unit that closes most often is pediatrics or OB followed by ortho, neuro, progressive care and then med-surg. Of course patients are shifted from one unit to another to accomodate the closed department, if they have 4 patient's on neuro and 10 on med-surg then they'll close neuro and move those patients to med-surg. The MICU, ICU and CVICU close in rotation as well, when census is down they often combine to one or two units being open rather than all three.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

Since so many people utilize the ER as their primary care center, I would assume that nurses who work in the ED are unlikely to be canceled. Also, since ICU and critical care beds are often limited in many hospitals, I'm guessing that ICU nurses are less likely to deal with canceled shifts.

Units that absolutely depend on elective surgeries (ortho, med/surg, PACU, acute rehab, etc.) would seem to be most subjected to cutbacks and cancellations related to low patient census. If people aren't agreeing to get that bilateral knee replacement or the elective hysterectomy, this translates into less surgeries, which results in less patients.

In addition, people statistically plan fewer pregnancies during recessions, so units such as L&D, postpartum, newborn nursery, and peds would seemingly be subject to cutbacks.

[nurse.sandi]

The general population reads these forums. I think nurses and students need to be careful about what is discussed here.

If you are asking will I ever get cut? that is a different question.

The answer would be...according to bed census, the staffing office and managers decide where there are empty beds and which floors can move patients around and which unit should call off or pull someone to or from.

Just my thoughts...

[headinsandRN]

The general population reads these forums. I think nurses and students need to be careful about what is discussed here.

If you are asking will I ever get cut? that is a different question.

The answer would be...according to bed census, the staffing office and managers decide where there are empty beds and which floors can move patients around and which unit should call off or pull someone to or from.

Just my thoughts...

Please elaborate on your word of caution. This convo seems pretty benign.

[Caffeine_IV]

I take this question as asking which departments often experience a low census and don't need all the staff that is scheduled as per the staffing matrix.

We hardly ever get downstaffed on my unit which is general medical because we often get the most admissions.

This is supposed to be low census season now for us and we are still getting packed!

[PAERRN20]

ER's are never allowed to close and usually busting at the seams, esp. in a bad economy.

[wooh, BSN, RN]

Every unit is going to have the occasional seasonal slowness. Even emergency departments.

[Jules A, MSN]

Pediatric psychiatry in the summer.

[kool-aide, RN]

In my hospital, our surgical floors seem to have low census more frequently. (general surg, CV surg, ortho)

[Medic2RN, BSN, RN, EMT-P]

I work in the ED and 2 out of the 3 past shifts I've been staff reduced.

I find it amazing that they would roll the dice and take that chance.

We're entering our "slow" season.