There is currently a palpable low morale among the nurses in the very large teaching hospital where I work. Quite a few seasoned nurses have been fired for seemingly frivolous reasons. Working hard, well-liked, never call in, have never been in trouble and suddenly fired. Many nurses say they are trying to find new jobs because they are afraid they will be suddenly fired.
This issue was brought up in a staff meeting. We were told that there were good reasons why these nurses had been fired. If we wanted to find new jobs they would be glad to give us good references. Many have left over this issue.
To make it more confusing. The CNO is verbally asking, trying to determine why they cannot retain RN's? Stating it's so expensive to orient nurses and then they leave for no good reason. All are afraid to speak up for fear of getting fired by their manager. Seems as though the managers and the administration are not on the same page.
It seems they should be on the exact same page. They go to the same meetings regarding staff, staffing and budgets. What would explain the difference?
Scary that you can be fired for no reason except age, in my hospital in UK we are rewarded for long service.
£100 after 20 years, £100 after 30 years and if you make 40 years they give you £200 and a watch to the value of £200. This is all staff, not just nurses.
If we become unable to carry out our duties management try to redeploy staff to other jobs which are less onerous or reduce hours and hospital pension can be payable after 60.
After reaching the age of 55, many nurses (especially those with seniority who earn more than most of the others), become a financial liability. Insurance companies operating strictly on the basis of statistics, levy exorbitant premiums for both employers and employees (in 1998 it was the regular premium + $1,000/month)
which tips the scale in favor of retaining younger nurses.That
wouldn't present the problems for
mid-life employees as it does today,
if it hadn't happened insidiously
over the past 3 decades.
Greater knowledge attained from
experience and honed skills, no
longer have more value over
budgets. It is assumed as usual,
that the doctor's opinions regarding
patients' predicted outcomes is
more reliable than conclusions
drawn by nurses who actually
assess that, and draw comparative
healing rates from other
patients.
Most physicians are still self
employed, they work until they
wish to retire, seldom seeing their
own frailty, as age takes it's toll. They bring revenue into hospitals, and therefore add to their worth, the longer they work. Never mind their inevitable diminishing skill and
recall, not to mention intractability
regarding "how it's always been
done".
I gag when a commercial for Blue
Cross/Anthem comes on TV, with an
older pediatrician commenting
about the multiple generations he
treats. Despite their comparatively shorter lifetimes and extrayears of preparation (than nurses have) mostly male physicians have much longer work years than nurses (who are mostly female), with longer expected lifetimes.( For the past 20-30 years it has been necessary for both parents to work, and more nurses work after becoming parents, so that isn't the reason for the shorter work years they have.)
If I'd been able to plan for loss of
employment that came as a shock
each of the 8 times it happened in
the past 15 years, I would have
been motivated to market myself as
a consultant, shared my job with
another nurse, and saved more
money for lean times.As it was, the
times I spent unemployed
diminished my savings, and illness
with its subsequent expenses for
ongoing treatment ultimately
caused what I'd saved, to
disappear.
I'd expected to work until I chose
to retire, but that decision was
made for me. Added to that
monumental set back, was the loss
in value of my home, marriage, and
investments. I've had to lower my
cost of living to bare bones, go on
food "stamps", apply for Medicaid
(finding that the high "share of
cost" restricts seniors' costs for
their home, transportation, all
needs, to $600/month. What is left
from their income, is the "share of
cost".
We can't afford not to pay attention
to the platforms of candidates for
political office, so that retirement
circumstances will improve. The
Reform of Health Care will make
medical care more affordable, even
though there is resistance to having
government take it over from
private insurance companies. The
huge profits made now by their
executives, is simply unaffordable.
Doctors can live very well with less than they have now, as they
It happened to me in 2009, I quit my job just in time after seeing the handwriting on the wall and at least didn't have a firing on my record. A good record for all my years of nursing, a good evaluation just months before, and when budget problems surfaced in the hospital I suddenly was being written up right and left, for silly things, things I didn't do, problems created by other people. A visit to human resources and 15 pages of written rebuttal to all of the charges did me no good, the HR guy said he couldn't intervene. I was 59. After I left, on just my shift, one other nurse was forced to retire early and another, our unit education nurse, got fired the same way they set out to fire me. I seriously considered checking around when I heard there were others on other units, to see if anyone wanted to start a class action suit, but was told by an attorney that Colorado is an employer friendly state and it would be difficult to accomplish. The really sad thing, besides the problems created for those of us who lost jobs, is the impact on patients who have nobody to take care of them with much experience. I hear stories of things happening that would not happen with more experienced nurses from people I know who still work in the system, and I hope never to have to be a patient there. I don't know how hospital management can sleep at night.
Lamaz and janet- I'm right there with you with the reasons you posted. I think Grumpy has a point. Look at the differences in our 2 healthcare systems. If the insurance and health care industry was taken over by the governement- this problem would go away real fast. The twisted disturbed incentive would disappear.As would the hiring for looks not on ability.
Hopefully the writing is on the wall-the insurance companies have already started to conceede by offering more managed care options for lower costs, but still in the name of profit. Something in this country still needs to be done about the CEO salaries and bonuses in these healthcare systems.
I so agree with you. This kind of thing was not happening when I worked in the federal health care system for the VA and department of defense. And the patients got good care. I am all for the government taking over healthcare, myself, based on my experience with them. The concern was for the patient for the most part and not for the almighty dollar.
I dye my hair too, and looking younger than my age gets me hired. However, once in a job I've been told by HR to complete their health insurance application, despite my assertion that I have health insurance.When I worked for Anthem in Richmond VA, I refused to include my year of birth on their form (that's illegal, to insist that employees tell their age to employers). Finally, I was told that I'd not work there any longer if I didn't complete that form. So I did write it in, and submitted it.A half hour later, someone from Administration called M'R to say that I must report to security so that my ID badge could be changed so that my birth date would go under my picture on it......?!?!An hour after I did that, I was terminated, and told to write my own letter stating that. I said I'd write a letter of resignation for them, but certainly couldn't write myself a letter informing me of termination (without cause).I did contact an attorney who had won a class action lawsuit against Blue Cross/Anthem/ Wellpoint. I was told that I hadn't worked there long enough to benefit from their case against them for age duscrimination. Further questioning of underlings at that law firm revealed that the lawyers' portion of the award, was $80,000,000! The amount of money individual nurses would get, was under $100!!!
There are laws that focus on discrimination of age. They need to get an auttorney and if the hospital can not show just cause they will wind up with a nice lumb sum of money and their jobs back.
Dennis
I'm sorry to disagree with you, but nurse that tries and fight it will end up with nothing. The hospital will just have another reason for firing the old nurse. Hospital management is not dumb, they can be cruel but they are not dumb.
These healthcare HR depts know how to get around the law- they take course in it. Forcing some one to retire is illegal also but it is done= they issue ultamediums- it's off the old 'Godfather movie" make them an offer... nurses are given their 'buyout or early retirement packages" and told take the package and go quietly or stay and be fired and loose everything. It's done the slowly, looking for every little reason, a succession of write ups and boom- 3rd write up, if you haven't learned your lesson by then and left on you rown accord aka, harrassed right out the door- your gone.
Just a little news worthy peice I read today- the auto industry is now crying the blues- now they have increased sales and orders for American cars- gone from $12 million to $14 million and project $15 million by end of year.. They can't meet the demand- GM and Chrysler laid off 20% of the workforce a few years back, filed bankruptcy, and closed plants. sold off tools and equipement. Now they can't buy the resin used to make the plastic parts to meet the demand. We used to have plants in this country that manufactured PVC. The resin plants also closed and laid off workers in record numbers. Oh well!! What goes around, comes around!! And the first sign of the economy picking up was last year, the auto industry hired some hot shot MBA's and forged 40 some thousand jobs when no one else was hiring. It's going to come :lol2:around to bite the healthcare industry - the CEO's and MBA's in healthcare will get theirs too. I have faith!!
I too have seen government run healthcare- the Dept of defense- work much better. CEO's/administrators/ commanders - don't earn a wooping 4.9 million in salaries. They are more conceinous about observing the labor laws and fair play. If they get ahold of a nurse, they are not so quick to lay them off. They bust their buns to keep every one they have. The competition and profit factors are eliminated. They have "x" number of dollars allocated and they are not going to give it to one 'lazy greedy fool in the big chair'. Not even Mr US President makes 4.9 million.
we had several mature nurses leave, on their own volition, when we started the electronic medical records because they just could not grasp the electronic world. Some have left because the older you get the harder it is to keep up with the stressful work.
I'm employed at a small community hospital as a 50+ year old med/surg nurse. In our department, there are several nurses in their 60's, three who are 70+, and several who are fighting serious chonic illness. These nurses advise and mentor new staff members while maintaining a high standard of care. They are treated with respect and given the flexibility and tolerance regarding scheduling to meet their individual physical and medical needs. After reading these posts, I have a better appreciation for the caring attitude exhibited by our nursing management staff.
GrumpyRN, NP
1,357 Posts
Scary that you can be fired for no reason except age, in my hospital in UK we are rewarded for long service.
£100 after 20 years, £100 after 30 years and if you make 40 years they give you £200 and a watch to the value of £200. This is all staff, not just nurses.
If we become unable to carry out our duties management try to redeploy staff to other jobs which are less onerous or reduce hours and hospital pension can be payable after 60.