nursing shortage???????

Nurses General Nursing

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Is there still a nursing shortage? If so where & how has it affected staffing & hours?

Specializes in CV-ICU.

There is another possibility: my hospital posts RN openings separately from all of the other positions open throughout the hospital; I'm not sure if they are listed as professional openings, or if they are listed under the contract heading. But I know that I was surprised to see no RN openings listed the first time I checked; then someone told me I was looking in the wrong area (that was years ago, it isn't something new here).

Specializes in Critical Care,Recovery, ED.
Originally posted by mustangsheba:

Let me provide you with another little piece of joy - even though hospitals post jobs, they don't necessarily fill them. I know several nurses who are well qualified who have applied for jobs posted by big hospitals. Never heard a word from anyone. After filling out page after page of applications, not even a phone call. Call me a cynic, but I believe the posting of jobs is often an empty gesture to appease the nurses who are asking for help and are being told "We've posted the job!" - so we keep hanging on, hoping that little light at the end of the tunnel is not an oncoming train.

We were expiriencing the same difficulty, when our last contract was renegotiated the union won the right to review all RN applications. We made sure that qualified applicants were notified and we checked to see if they were offered a position and if not why not.

Originally posted by ocankhe:

We made sure that qualified applicants were notified and we checked to see if they were offered a position and if not why not.

we have that too. Our bargaining unit chair & secretary are sent the listing of postings a few days before it goes up & the union has the right to review how long positions have ben vacant, why positions have not been filled, what efforts the hospital is making to recruit & retain,and if they arent, we have an avenue to take to get them to. They have to show us if they are advertising & if not, why not, and we can take the hospital to arbitration for not filling needed positions, forcing them to hire staff. When they are spending millions on community relations, decorating improvements and the like, they cant use the excuse that they have no money to hire staff. http://www.nysna.org

I am from Florida and the hospitals have been playing the job open game with no job available for the past 5 years just to give HR interview practice. If they DO hire you they try their best to get rid of you before your benefits/bonus is given. with no employee laws ie right to work state we RNS are at the mercy of unscrupulous administrators and their yes man (also nurses) managers. I got out and went to a major dialysis company only to find out they are worse than hospitals. They hire crazy managers who have no management experience with their major focus on harrassing the help until they leave. This company recently employed a major company to do a survey on "recruitment and retention issues" things are so bad with this company. Right now I have been assaulted by the "charge" nurse at the end of the day when asking about a pts condition and the manager is blaming ME for this problem and is indiscreetly telling the rest of the staff she is going to "get rid of me". If anyone out there is working in a state where the RN employee has some rights, please advise. Thanks and Happy New Year!

Originally posted by msdttob:

Is there still a nursing shortage? If so where & how has it affected staffing & hours?

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Hi. According to experts and now the media, there is a growing nursing shortage that is quickly going from acute to chronic. It's most noticeable in direct patient care settings although it is now beginning to permeate indirect patient care. The problem is that the human body and health and medical care were never designed and are not equipped to be a part of the stock market and corporate profiteering. We find that employers engage in unjust tactics like mandatory overtime, wage compression, purposeful staff shortages (imagine having 12 patients on 2nd shift, a shift with traditionally the lion's share of admissions and post-ops, w/o an aide) and subtle and not so subtle intimidation of nursing staff. I really believe that what we have been facing is spiritual warfare-mostly from people in high places. Nurses are finding it more and more difficult to provide quality patient care and protect patients from those who would unduly exploit them. It also seems silly to have to deal with unduly stringent rules and regulations when you have a shortage of staff, a lot of staff turnover, and less people entering the profession. Guess I can attribute that to trying to maintain a balance between keeping the public, the vendors, and the stockholders happy? And yes, nurses, by and large, run the hospital by making every effort to try to keep everyone else appeased.

Specializes in CV-ICU.

Mijourney, you summed it up by saying that "nurses run the hospital by trying to keep everyone appeased". That is the problem with us nurses; I think we've created much of our own problems by always trying to fill in where there was a problem. We have enabled the health care industry to use us; but we are now past our limits of tolerance and fatigue.

Specializes in L & D; Postpartum.

I work perdiem in a small birth center which does about 60-70 deliveries a month. We have a virtual swinging door there, with new hires leaving within months after they arrive. Much of that, IMHO, is the lack of fair and effective leadership demonstrated by our nurse manager, but some is nursing shortage. I agree that nurses always bend over backwards to keep things running. We have nurses who work 16 hours several times a week because "no one else is available." That usually means that the NM hasn't tried to find anyone else, and rarely is she available other than day shift. After a week or so of that, those RNS doing those long days become ill, and then the problem is even more acute. We have to begin saying NO! and forcing management to face the music.

We have a policy of no more than 4 major scheduled inductions/sections a day, but guess what? Twice in the past 2 weeks, she's allowed 5 or more to be scheduled, and in our small unit,that plus even 2 walk-ins throws everything into a complete tizzy. I started turning off my phone at night so that I don't get calls at 7:30 am (after getting home at 1:00am) about how busy they are. I have informed the scheduling office not to call before 9 am, but that won't stop them. From now on, I'm going to ask if it's an over scheduling problem or really just a spontaneously busy unit. There's a big difference for me.

PPL Thank you for your response. I'm located in the mid SouthEast. The site has been updated. There are no openings at present. It is likely the shortage has not impacted this region as yet.

Originally posted by PPL:

Where in the world are you located, that there are no open positions for RN's? Our facility has a bunch. Who owns your system and is it possible that your online site just has not been updated? Thanks.

Dear mustangsheba, I believe every word of your reply & I find it very discouraging. It is

however most likely going to be the scenario that is more the norm than not. I'm not

sure I see a positive upside to this unfolding dilema either. Thank-you for your response.

Originally posted by mustangsheba:

Let me provide you with another little piece of joy - even though hospitals post jobs, they don't necessarily fill them. I know several nurses who are well qualified who have applied for jobs posted by big hospitals. Never heard a word from anyone. After filling out page after page of applications, not even a phone call. Call me a cynic, but I believe the posting of jobs is often an empty gesture to appease the nurses who are asking for help and are being told "We've posted the job!" - so we keep hanging on, hoping that little light at the end of the tunnel is not an oncoming train.

Specializes in Med/Surg, ICU, Cardiac ICU.

Here in West Texas, we are not only posting but are gladly hiring almost any warm body that shadows our door. We are in desperate need of licensed personnel with full time hours and benefits. We had only 6 applications for licensed positions in our entire 300 bed hospital in November and only a few more in Dec when nursing classes are graduating!!! And we are offering sign on bonuses to RN's and LVN's.

The shortage is definitely affecting us here. We are budgeted for wonderful nurse/patient ratios but are struggling to fill the positions to reach those.

Dear jt, I hope that administrators across the country are made aware of the econimic nuances at your hospital. I am guessing they were trying to save money by not having to dole out the expense for orientation training & the benifits packages that are necessary for employees to have. Apparently financially this did not work out for them. I wonder if all 55 positions are posted. Thank-you for your response

Originally posted by -jt:

Originally posted by PPL:

Where in the world are you located, that there are no open positions for RN's?

It could just be that the hospital isnt trying to fill vacant positions. Thats one way to save money & maintain the profit margin. During negotiations, when we looked at the amount of dollars the hospital spent this year on nursing agencies, we were shocked to see that they had enough need for & spent enough money on agency nurses to have actually hired 55 full time RNs. Obviously the need to fill positions was there, they just werent trying to fill them. No wonder we were working like dogs! They had a ton of available positions but they werent posting them. They are now.

In just a few hours I met an RN working as a waitress and an RN & LVN working at a department store! All told me they miss nursing but left due to stress. Two were quite young. They said in effect, "Give me safe staffing, respect, and support so I can take good care of my patients and I'll return to the bedside in a heartbeat."

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