Hospitals Firing Seasoned Nurses: Nurses FIGHT Back!

I agree whole heartedly with your assessment. I have been saying exactly the same thing to my husband for several months. The experienced nurses are quitting and new grads are being hired. It is scary! I have only been a nurse for 4+ years and rely on the experience of my coworkers. Now we have arrogant new grads. The outcome is that patients are going to die. Administration doesn't care and it is a very unsafe environment for patients. This is exactly why I am quitting and moving to a small non-profit hospital. I am done.

I have worked in a few skilled nursing/rehab facilities in Northeast/central Pennsylvania and corporations that that own these facilities say how the "resident" is the most important thing....well let me ask you if the resident is so important how come ......we have 99 residents in house...2 LPNs---one on East side and 1 on West side...1 nursing supervisor...and 3 CNAs!!!! Granted this is on 11p-7a shift, but we also had 2 "behavior" residents up in the middle of the night which required 1:1. How is this safe and how can they consider it as the "resident" is the most important. Their "Bottom line" is the most important. I feel bad for our older Americans who have to live in these facilities through no fault of their own. 1 CNA with the help of RN Supervisor and/or LPN to take care of 50 residents. Administrators say they care...but their hands are tied thanks to the people in the boardroom or fancy offices with their charts and tables saying we can take care of more resident/patients with less help. I am ready to hang up my nursing cap and go back to office work.

Its unfortunately the truth. Bottom line is that healthcare is a business and if someone younger can be replaced for less to do the same job, then it will happen. Age discrimination is alive and well, its just disguised much better these days. Negative public opinion, lawsuits, and increases in morbidity/mortality can change policies...

..but here is the kicker. As someone in an age-protected class, if I thought I was getting run off, I would still file an age discrimination complaint. Gov't agencies can get more information than you can.

It is COMMON to try to disguise terminations in poor reviews, etc. However, if the employment agencies go through on an age discrimination claim and find out that 75% of the nurses that were fired are over the age of 42 and that 90% of new hires were new grads or nurses with less than one year experience?

Once they started questioning administrators on statistics that fall in line like that, the age discrimination starts to have more weight and therefore, a liability gets created.

It has been nearly one year since I left a staff nurse position that I had held for 25 years.As an RN with over 30 years experience ,I was at the top of my pay scale.If management wants to replace senior staff they have multiple tactics to strongly encourage "retirement".Schedule changes,shift changes,improvement plans,poor evaluations and removal of incentive pay were only a few examples.The predictability of their plan was almost comical.Management thinks we have no idea what they are up to?The blatant disregard for patient safety and staff development will eventually bite them in their dollar driven behind.Healthcare is about individuals,that is why it can never succeed as a business-to many variables.Nursing is quickly losing the very essence of the profession.....young nurses need mentors and the "gut feeling" of an experienced nurse will alarm long before any electronic monitor.As the mother of a nurse I can only hope for improvement as she deals with the ever changing enviroment of healthcare.

Administration cares nothing about the patients or the nurses, especially the seasoned nurses. The bottom line with administration is $$$$$$. They are not interested in hearing from the people on the front lines and they don't want seasoned nurses not only because of the pay, but because they will bring attention to these problems. Rather they would prefer nurses who would rather sit and play on their phones that ones who are concerned about patient care and safety. It is scary to be a patient or have a loved one in the hospital.

What a well thought out letter,,, everyone is experiencing these changes

I agree and believe we need to do something before things get worse.

This article is painfully true. After 25 years working in an acute care setting I was forced to retire. I foolishly made an appointment to voice my concerns with our Vice President of Nursing. I naively believed she would care about my concerns about safe patient care. After all she had 18 years of prior experience of working the ER both as staff and as the manager,surely she would understand my concerns about unsafe staffing levels. NOT! her answer to me was, " perhaps Benefis Hospital is not for you." I walked out, went to HR and started the paperwork to retire. They lost a damn good RN and now 5 years later its only gotten worse. Meanwhile management continues to get their bonuses!

So so very true, after 36 years of trauma, OR, and Clinical Nursing I have quit , due to all that was said in the article. Now I use my experience in making sure my family is taken care of when admitted to hospitals!!!

We just had this discussion last night...it was chilling when I came across this article too actually read the realization of this by so many. I am a float CNA and feel the pressures of my co-workers on a daily basis. Moral is down and people are just going through the motions till the end of their shift. The newer nurses have a different outlook on patient care and seem to be there just for the money. Im scared to see where healthcare is going. My position will be done away with soon just because of the pay factor. No one actually considers job performance anymore.

Well said! Sadly healthcare is no longer just that . It is all about the MONEY! Ambulatory care is no different. My clinic operates at such a bare bones level that if someone gets ill or is out for any length of time it throws the clinic into a dangerous spiral. Administrators look the other way and refuse to help. Never thought it would have turned out this way when I graduated 38 + years ago!

I agree. This is happening everywhere. You can thank the new insurance law, I will not mention it's name everyone knows. However, simply writing about it will not make a difference. Maybe it's time hospital staff unite, not as a union but rally. Do a petition to hospital administrators. I would like to see this type of letter printed in major newspapers calling out the institutions by name. I would like to see complaints filled withe the state boards, acha, osha jacho. Your right hospital administrators sit in their cushy offices lining their pockets. I'm tired of hearing complaints that the hospital is in the red, while the ceo drives a moserati. Meanwhile, the floors are filthy, the nursing assistants are being cut back, and fired if they sit for five minutes to relieve their aching feet. Yet they have 1 assistant for a busy icu unit of 32 patients. Yes patient care is suffering. Let's remind these administrators, government heads, as well as the departments I mentioned before, acha osha and jacho that they will someday be a patient and woe to them if things continue to go the way they're going.

So I agree, but....simply writing a letter and posting it here is not enough. Maybe it's time to let the entire country know what's happening. Lets write letters to the presses, and file complaints with the departments that can do something about it.

Just a thought.

Edited Jul 9, 2015 by edge24bri