Hiring freezes, cut backs?

[Floridanurse]

I work in Florida and several hospitals including the one I work for have institued hiring freezes and are initiating cut backs due to the low census we are having in Florida. Are other areas of the country having this issue? Are you having overcensus issues in your area for this time of year? Thanks for responding.

[Aneroo, LPN]

We have a hiring freeze here. I think it's less lack of patients and more lack of money.

[mickey13]

Here in mid-missouri we had a drop in census for about three weeks back in September. We're back to a full house most shifts, but one of the localk hospitals is laying off and we are in a hiring freeze at my institution.

[amjowens]

I'm trying to get my precepting hours done in a med-surg unit of a hospital. Today I arrived to precept with my preceptor, but she wasn't there. The unit clerk said that I need to call to make sure she isn't called off, as many of the nurses have been regularly told not to come in due to low census. I'm afraid I won't be able to complete my 96 hours before I graduate! Also, during my clinical last semester, a med-surg unit at a different hospital was closed (there were two units). It appeared to be a rare and big deal for the nurses.

I'm in NW Ohio. We've got a lot of nursing schools here, and there appears to be too many nurses and hospitals for the population. I'm getting my license in Michigan, as grads are more likely to land a job there, yet everyone knows about Mich's economy. The economy plays a big part (with the way it is, it seems that everyone is affected), but in my experience, it's more about having like seven or eight nursing schools for a mid-sized region.

[dream'n, BSN, RN]

My company has a hiring freeze that doesn't appear to be ending anytime soon. They are also cutting some programs. The winter visitors due make it difficult in some areas in the country. If a company is staffed enough for the winter influx, they are too over staffed for the summer.

[diane227, LPN, RN]

We are not having any cutbacks or lay offs in the Washington State area. Most of the hospitals here are not for profit hospitals. We are short of nurses in this area but it is not as bad here and it was when I lived in Texas.

Some of the hospitals in the Houston area used to have hiring freezes or cut backs but they were the for profit hospitals that had to meet the bottom line. Working for a for profit hospital was a HORRIBLE experience for me. Never again.

[ivorybunny]

I am in Fl and our hospital is in a current hire-freeze. Currently we are a public hospital, but they have started asking for tax money because we are almost in the red. Their solution is not to hire more nurses, but we still have a lot of patients, which may force us to take more than a 6:1 ratio. Rumors are going about that the hospital may go private, then all bets are off.