Management at my hospital, like a lot of places, upped nurse ratios throughout the hospital. I'm in ER where there is a huge emphasis on getting admitted pts upstairs. But now the floor nurses have higher ratios. The charge nurses now must take pts. They took away a designated admit nurse. Now, to top it off, the techs can no longer to accuchecks because of some new state regulation.
Yesterday I had a pt who came into the ER at 9:30 AM. She was marked for admit at around 11:30. Then we had to wait for a room. Of course the floors can't get rooms available until they discharge. Waited forever for that, then the room was dirty, then they changed the room assignment, and that one was a terminal clean, then the nurse was busy, after I sent the SBAR yet again because their printer was not printing right. Then the admit doc decided to change the pt to Tele. Then waited for a room, then it was dirty, SBAR sent, report given. Room a terminal. Finally, after 9 PM the pt went upstairs. The pt and family were so patient, I really had to reassure them and keep up a positive rapport though.
90% of our flow problem is because upstairs doesn't have enough help! And some of my crankier ER colleagues will then take a self-righteous attitude toward the floor nurses, severely resenting them for being on lunch when they want to give report. Yet, there is no designated charge nurse who can take report. Yeah, lets turn on one another instead of naming the true cause.
This is exactly why the curent glut of nurses was created. To give nurse employers the abiliety to increase ratios and cut nurses pay and benifits without fear of haveing an unstaffed unit. A few years ago when most hospitals had a variety of open positions all the time managment didn't dare do such things our their nurses would vote with their feet and the hospital would be left high and dry.
The current glut of new nurses was created specifically by private institutions of higher education. These vultures realized they could make millions in loan money by peddling associate degrees to prospective students by continuing to hype the nursing shortage that doesn't exist. People can't complain about facilities not hiring new grads and in the same breath claim that these same institutions wanted all of these new grads in the first place. I understand and respect your frustrations about staffing levels in certain hospitals and facilities, but you need to be honest about your arguments.
Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.
The current glut of new nurses was created specifically by private institutions of higher education. These vultures realized they could make millions in loan money by peddling associate degrees to prospective students by continuing to hype the nursing shortage that doesn't exist.
Of course the "nursing shortage doesn't and didn't exist. However the private schools you mention are only part of the problem.
Public school jumped on the band wagon and started graduating many times more grads than they did before or than were needed. In my sate lots of schools went from on graduating class a year to two. Lots of Accelerated BSN and direct entry masters programs were created. The DE MSN programs in particular are cash cows for universities. They get to sell the same product that the community colleges are selling for around $7K and charge graduate tuition for it and they are eligible for financial aid.
What's even worse about the public schools is that they did it with OUR money, tax payer money extorted from congress and state legislatures with false propaganda and the backing of nurse employers like hospitals.
People can't complain about facilities not hiring new grads and in the same breath claim that these same institutions wanted all of these new grads in the first place. I understand and respect your frustrations about staffing levels in certain hospitals and facilities, but you need to be honest about your arguments.
If you think that health systems and other employers of nurses were not strongly behind the creation of the glut of nurses you are mistaken. I have seen where CEO's of huge health systems spoke before the state legislature demanding that the state expand nursing programs to fix the supposed "nursing shortage".
PHXRN1
37 Posts
The current glut of new nurses was created specifically by private institutions of higher education. These vultures realized they could make millions in loan money by peddling associate degrees to prospective students by continuing to hype the nursing shortage that doesn't exist. People can't complain about facilities not hiring new grads and in the same breath claim that these same institutions wanted all of these new grads in the first place. I understand and respect your frustrations about staffing levels in certain hospitals and facilities, but you need to be honest about your arguments.