Nursing "shortage"?

Zee_RN, BSN, RN · Dec 28, 2001

Nurse Recruiter here, Pittsburgh area. I'm *crying* for critical care and telemetry nurses. *crying* I've been doing nurse recruiting from 2 months; was in ICU previously as a staff nurse. Nonprofit community hospital trying to compete with the tertiaries. It's killing me. Not being able to staff is killing the units; not being to find staff is killing me. Ack.

Some people seem to think that because they are in high demand, they don't even need to use professional courtesy. I have had people accept offers and then just not show up on orientation day. A new hire that hadn't scheduled her physical was called by the EE Health office and she told them "Oh, I decided not to take that job"--but she never told US; if we hadn't called her we wouldn't have known until day one. No shows for interviews w/o a call-in.

I wish I could pay nurses what they are worth. And I wish I could scheduled everyone steady daylight. But I can't. New graduates come to me and tell me what they will or won't work--ya know how many new grads want steady daylight in OB, PACU, L&D or outpatient surgery?! *sigh*

Sorry, I know I'm ranting. And I'm really missing ICU. I'd rather have a crashing patient that needs tubed, triple pressors, needs a stat dialysis catheter and be transported for a stat CT Scan AFTER he's tubed than deal with this mess! ACK, sorry, I'm whining again. Thanks for letting me vent.

booklady · Dec 28, 2001

The nursing shortage alive and well here in South Carolina! Especially ICU and OR. We're "closing" ICU beds due to lack of enough staff, and have had to go on" Critical Care Bypass" , and this is a for profit private Corp. hosp.

dawngloves, BSN, RN · Dec 28, 2001

I'm guessing that there is a slowdown in admissions for the holidays and that nurses are signing up for OT to help with the holiday bills.

When I did agency last year I was frequently cancelled except for Christmas and New Year's Day.

Mijourney · Dec 28, 2001

Hi. I'm no longer in the hospital setting in GA. But, I can tell you in home health that the combination of increased rules and regulations, paperwork, and less staff has tried the best of us. I have more moments where I feel numb. That is not a positive sensation as we know.

fiestynurse · Dec 28, 2001

The hospitals Southern California have an average of 60-70 openings for licensed nurses. Most have hired two nurse recruiters and many are offering a $5,000 to $10,000 sign-on bonus. The nursing shortage is reaching critical stages in the skilled nursing facilities and some are refusing admissions due to low staffing.

mustangsally · Dec 28, 2001

I live in the Madison area and hear horror stories about other hospitals in the area with staffing. The hospital I work at seems to be pretty well staffed and does not seem to have the staffing problems that the other hospitals have. We have actually had voluntary time off for some of us around the holidays which have been nice. I know the other large hospitals in the city have had problems with mandatory overtime but we have been lucky not to have that we always seem to cover ourselves.

grouchy · Dec 28, 2001

Check out the nurses and traveler's forum at http://www.delphi.com. Someone there had the same problem. There were some really good responses. In addition to the holiday slowdown that our managerial friends apparently enjoy, someone pointed out that because of recent changes in Medicare funding rules, hospitals may not know enough now about likely 2002 revenue. They have probably spent the money budgeted for travelers in 2001, and are delaying hiring travelers until the 2002 budget firms up.

askater · Dec 28, 2001

I'm from MI. Both day's I worked nurse's were working short. On my step-down unit and our sister unit CICU. My supervisor is very laiz farre when it comes to staff.........for the most part we work short forget about supplementing our staff. Someday's when we have ENOUGH staff we get pulled to the unit. Leaving US short staffed.

kewlnurse · Dec 28, 2001

We are always short staffed, almost our whoel unit (CMICU) had 3 patients each, still better than 12 patients on the floor. Anywho, there are talks of layoffs, can you friggen believe it! I swear, Buffalo is the only palce in the world that lays off nurses , teachers , just laid off 400 of them, cops, talking about going to 1 man patrols and some layoffs, and firemen, they alread closed 2 firehouses. Niarga Falls, NY is pretty mush the same, but when i say Buffalo, i'm referring to the area.

kids · Dec 29, 2001

Pediatric Home care...We have a baby thats been ready for discharge since October but can't get the staff together to bring her home- niether can any of the other agencies here in SW WA.

My Mom works in a SNF in the same town that 'got lucky' and hired a bunch of new LPN grads...unfortunately there not enough RN's in the building to keep it legal sometimes of day so someone has to come in early or stay late.

LTC-LPN · Dec 29, 2001

The LTC facility where I work in northern Wisconsin has been really short nurses for the past year. Right now, we do not have enough nurses to work every other weekend. One RN is working EVERY weekend (her choice). The facility sent two certified nursing assistants to a class to learn to pass medications to help with the staffing. They can only work the day shift though because their scope of practice is quite limited. This particular facility does not utilize agency nurses, instead they pay the regular staff bonuses to pick up shifts. The day shift on weekends has been cut from three nurses to two nurses and sometimes a med tech. The PM shift was cut from two full shift nurses and a half shift nurse to just two of us and it is very difficult to complete the work in a timely manner. I don't see any relief in sight for the shortage here in the northwoods.

Jane Ann