Hospital sold!--Have to reapply for my job....

teeituptom, BSN, RN · May 24, 2003

I agree with sjoe, and who knows it just might turn out to be a blessing

MandyInMS · May 24, 2003

Oh lawdyyyy...I never even thought about some of the issues brought up...our local hospital is rumored to sell out within the next 6 months possibly...it's currently locally owned but operated by the possible buyer....non-union....I've worked there for almost 14 years...if I lost all my vac/sick time/bene's/seniority/ and had to reapply think I'd STROKE.....hmmmmm better be looking into this some more....I'm sorry this happened to you dachweiler but I am glad you brought it up...hell, I may be in the same boat soon too.

mattsmom81 · May 24, 2003

This has happened quite a few times in my area. I have been PRN when it did so it didn't effect my seniority, vacation or sick time; but it did many of my coworkers.

The management team only got nice severance packages when the facility closed ...and they closed it after promising they would not. The staff had to reapply for their jobs (those they didn't want to keep were not rehired) and when they closed they offered a cashout option on unused vacation(at a portion of the value of course). Retirement funds were rolled over to another account, so they were not a loss for the staff, thank God.

These are not fun times, and the sad truth is, big business cares little about people; its about $$$. Hang in there...you are wise to be branching out a bit now and looking out for yourself.

The new owners are likely looking for nurses who will quickly forget the old regime and people, and eagerly jump on their bandwagon...so if you want to stay, that attitude will likely take you far. :)

flowerchild · May 24, 2003

azgirl · May 24, 2003

This scenerio is going on at a hospital here as well. Asking the nurses to reapply and test for their current positions and their pay will be adjusted...down. They are doing it department by department and it isn't scheduled for mine until July but rumors abound and one person who chose to stay downstairs took an $8 an hour cut.

fab4fan · May 24, 2003

Any questions why morale in nursing is so low?

Hard to encourage people to go into the profession when you see this kind of crap going on.

funnygirl_rn · May 24, 2003

This article came from Nursing Spectrum, dtd 19 May 2003. The article is a bit long...but, some of the comments that this writer made...really irks me! One of her comments that I didn't care for was, "Do we really want nurses whose main goals are travel & job security?" I sent her an email.

Attached is the following article.

Nursing-Not for Everyone

Cynthia Saver, RN, MS

Masthead Date May 19, 2003

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What does it take to be a nurse? Nurses far wiser than I have tried to answer that question. What's more important is how the public answers it. In the past, the public viewed a nurse as someone, usually a woman, with a "calling" to help others. What other explanation is there for the almost mystical depictions of what we do, epitomized by Florence Nightingale and her ubiquitous lamp? People equated nurses with Nightingale, roaming the dark wards with her lamp, wiping soldiers' fevered brows. Nursing was something only a chosen few could do. It meant long hours, hard work, and self-sacrifice.

With this image, it's no wonder that young men and women turned away from nursing to enter fields where they could put their talents to use and, not incidentally, earn wages commensurate with their responsibility. Now, in the face of the continuing shortage, everyone is jumping on the bandwagon to recruit people into the profession. Nursing is presented as a hip career option where you don't have to worry about finding a job, you can travel widely, and by the way, you can "make a difference" in people's lives. The problem is that on this last point, the pendulum has swung from "calling" to "job." That's why there's a push to retrain laid-off maintenance workers and an influx of job candidates who seem more interested in vacation days and overtime pay than the types of patients they'll care for.

To a certain extent, I welcome this change. I see nothing wrong with nurses finally realizing that they can't be consumed by their jobs and that they deserve a decent wage. But I worry that we're forgetting a key part of what it means to be a nurse-compassion, the trait that enabled Nightingale to turn the impossible into reality. It's the real reason she was able to almost single-handedly establish the field of epidemiology and organize the logistics to care for thousands of soldiers in the middle of a war. It seems that the strength of a exceptional leader lies not in the brain, but in the heart.

So what place does compassion have in today's nursing world? Recently, I spent several hours in the ED with my friend Rich, who had been brought in by EMS because of severe back pain. Rich was given a shot, told that he needed to "get up and walk around," and then left alone. When I arrived, he didn't know what he had been given or the name of the person who had talked with him.

Later, the person came in. (I don't know if she was a nurse because she never introduced herself.) She was clearly irritated that Rich had failed to get out of bed. "You need to get moving because you'll have to at home," she said.

Trying to break through that hard shell, I asked her how her night was going. She proceeded to tell me how busy it had been, partly because it was Monday, and people were coming in to get physician orders so they could get out of working. A light bulb went on-she thought my friend was malingering!

Unfortunately, as I talked with my nurse friends, I heard too many stories similar to mine. Nurses are disappointed when their loved ones in the hospitals are treated with disrespect or disinterest by their colleagues. "They never even looked at her," one nurse said. We all know that the nursing shortage is critical at many facilities around the country, but how long does it take to smile and carry on a brief conversation-even if it has to be combined with changing IV tubing? Nurses may be frustrated by short staff (and rightly so), and many blame burnout for their actions. But is it fair to take out our feelings on our patients-or, just as bad, treat them with indifference? If we find we are burned out, maybe the best thing we can do for our patients-and ourselves-is know when it's time to move on to one of the other opportunities nursing provides.

When recruiting others into nursing, we must remember that not everyone is cut out to be a nurse-just as not everyone is meant to be a lawyer, carpenter, or tollbooth worker. It doesn't mean any of these jobs are less than worthy. It simply means we have to be careful that in our haste to secure more "warm bodies" for the profession, we don't lose track of the essence of nursing.

That's why, though I first embraced the need to focus on the science of nursing to recruit others into the field, I'm more cautious now. Yes, the science is important, but we want more than that. Do we really want nurses whose main goals are travel and job security?

Let's go back to the question of what it takes to be a nurse. It takes intelligence, curiosity, and a sense of humor. More important, though, it takes compassion. No, I don't want to return to the days when nursing was considered a calling, but let's keep our standards high. Remember that when a patient is lying in a hospital bed, alone in a place teeming with activity, what matters is not the pill or the procedure, but the quick smile and the touch of a hand-compassion. Nursing isn't for everyone: It's for a chosen few.

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Cynthia Saver, RN, MS, is corporate editoria/production director for Nursing Spectrum. E-mail: [email protected]

Nurse Ratched, RN · May 24, 2003

Originally posted by -jt
Every RN there should refuse to re-apply, refuse to be treated this way & just resign enmass.

Gotta agree with this.

mattsmom81 · May 25, 2003

It would be nice to see the kind of solidarity JT and Ratched describe. If one works with nurses committed to this, it is wonderful indeed. :)

In my part of the country (nonunion, employment at will state) the OP's situation has become an 'every nurse for herself' thing... Even to the point of backstabbing ones' friend/coworker to get/keep a position. Which is why it's wise to look out for oneself in these situations. JMHO.

Guess I've been burned one too many times down here trying the solidarity approach, and being left the only one standing with her neck out.

Edward,IL · Jun 2, 2003

I went through a buy-out several years ago, successfully. When the hospital is sold, so ends your relationship with the Sisters of Mercy and Mercy Hospital. Finalize that relationship by going on COBRA for health insurance, get your 403(b) or other retirement funds rolled over into your own personal account and take a little time off to decide your next move. If you lie where I think youlive, there are plenty of employers around. Just tell the people at work that you think that this would be a good time in your career to take a break. A new employer won't look disfavorably on this as it is a natural time to break a relationship with an employer. Keep in touch with your co-workers and in a few weeks, see if you really want to go back there. Like someone else said, interview at least 5 different places. The ones represented by the state affiliates of the ANA in your area have some decent contracts, although the working conditions in any hospital are bleak these days.

Also, you may want to consider working part-time at a couple of different facilities. DO NOT SIGN A NO-COMPETE AGREEMENT OR ANY AGREEMENT WITH A BINDING NON_COMPETE CLAUSE unless it is quite limited and your attorney goes over it. Some companies these days are really awful. Your new employer is NOT the Sisters of Mercy (although they will want to lead you to believe that they are the Little Brothers of the Poor).

Stay cool. Take your time. COBRA benefits last for 18 months.

Good luck, Edward, IL.

Wendy Psych RN · Jun 3, 2003

I had a similar situation at work. I worked on psych unit that had to be consolidated from 4 units to 1 unit. There were 29 RN's applying for 7 positions. To make a long story short, I was laid off, along with 21 other RN's, from a job I thought I had. Who wants to work for a hospital that would do that to you?