PA nurses: Half say they would quit...

[P_RN, ADN, RN]

Did any Pa nurses here get polled?

http://www.post-gazette.com/businessnews/20011114nurses1114bnp5.asp

Half of nurses answering poll say they'll quit

Wednesday, November 14, 2001

By Jim McKay, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Registered nurses in Pennsylvania are so disgusted with their jobs that 56 percent responding to a survey on working conditions said they would never enter the profession again if they had to do it over.

Nearly half, 46 percent, of the 6,000 polled by the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses & Allied Professionals said they intended to leave nursing altogether, half of them in the next five years.............

[ratchit]

We've been hearing about the bad staffing conditions in Western PA for a while- esp at U Pitt Med Center. I love the city and was interested in a travel contract there. But UPMC has told the travel companies that they are not taking travellers any more. On the travel nurses board, one recruiter said two of his nurses were cancelled a week before starting at UMPC. Sad, isn't it, that the nurses are that miserable and the hospitals are turning away nurses who want to work there?

[thisnurse]

i never got the poll but if i had id be one of the few that wont quit.

i love what i do and i cant imagine doing anything else.

of course UPMC is going to turn down the traveling agency nurse, they cost too much and right now I think UPMC is in the lead as far as hiring nurses. I think they have good incentives but they are going to fall short on retention.

Maybe things have changed since I worked for them, but I felt they left much to be desired for an employer. Our facility is losing nurses to them but I think these nurses are thinking the grass is greener on the other side. Once they cross the fence they are going to see that it's the same if not worse.

i had a family member in one of the UPMC hospitals earlier this year. i couldnt help but notice that the staff never smiled. Not the docs, not the nurses, not the CNA's...nobody. I'm not saying they werent nice to us, of course some were and some werent, but it just was not a happy place.

and i keep reading these "little" stories in the paper about the nursing shortage here in Western PA, but they only skim over the topic. I think the papers make us sound like greedy *****es.

I wish someone at the paper would do a REAL story about whats going on.

the staffing problem in our hospitals isnt going to get better until the hospitals get real. they know what they have to do. they just have to do it.

[oramar]

Maybe because I was a member, I do not know how they selected the people they sent them to. As for UPMC not using traveling nurses anymore. I have seen institutions come up with these statements before. What they mean is "who ever we have is going to do what ever work there is no matter how much there is to do". That goes over like a lead balloon. Staff bail out in droves and then the agency and travel nurses come back. One other thing, I think I heard something on the morning news yesterday about recruitment being up in the Pittsburgh area due to increased wages. Fine I say, but just remember RECRUITMENT IS NOT RETENTION.

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

The poll was conducted by PASNAP of their union members.

Their website for more info:http://www.pennanurses.org/

Membership if not part of a collective bargaing group is $100.00/yr.