hiring freezes,layoffs,oh my

[The Bell Jar]

Things have been bad here but now they've gotten REALLY bad.One local hospital just laid off a ton of people and now has a hiring freeze.The other has a hiring freeze.There is literally nobody hiring nurses.Sometimes a nursing home job will pop up but its literally swarmed with applicants.Then some are for nursing homes with really bad reputations/staff to pt ratios/who are being closely watched by the state they've been in trouble so much.

I dont know what I am going to do I will commute up to an hour and there is still nothing.No new places are opening and nobody is giving up their job in this economy.

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

YIKES! What part of the country are you in? In my neck of the woods, Hospitals have generally frozen "non direct care" jobs but they are still filling nursing vacancies. However, if census drops as an effect of the economy, this could change.

The problem is - without any regulatory standards, nurse staffing is still pretty much at the discretion of organizational leaders. So, any calculation of 'shortages' is based on a moving target. Current projections are based on an 'ideal' situation. There are just too many variables to get any kind of an exact number.

Even in Ca - where they have mandated nurse ratios, they are eliminating or cutting back on ancillary support and nurse managers. As other areas shrink, the work falls on nursing. So nurses may only have 4 patients but they are now doing everything except parking cars - and that may happen next.

Me? I'm just hunkering down - paying off debts, saving my and hoping for the best.

[Jen2002]

I agree there have been fewer nursing jobs available, and cuts are being made where they can. We will be doing more for the same money, and probably will have to deal with it just to be happy to have a job.

[pagandeva2000, LPN]

I work for a city hospital and they constantly have job freezes, so I can't say for sure that this current one is due to the recent economic crisis or another routine phase that will end. I am hearing of agency nurses that are not being called as often in my hospital. In addition, I am hearing of nurses being sent home for low census numbers on the floors, but these are private facilities. We have a union that states they have to guarentee us 37.5 hours for full time employees, so, they cannot send us home.

What I have been seeing, however, are more 'white collar' patients than usual-recent laid off people with no medical benefits that are now subjected to our already crowded clinics, being shuffled around like loose papers.

[DeepFriedRN]

Yep, just heard that 2 hospitals in our area have hiring freezes also. Our census has also been way low. I sincerely hope this flu season isn't too bad, because with all the people forgoing doctors visits for insurance reasons, one wonders if we'll see a spike in people being admitted for getting really sick and then waiting too long to get care, only to end up hospitalized. Yeesh, I hope people are shelling out $25 (if they have it) for the flu shot...