Hospitals Firing Seasoned Nurses: Nurses FIGHT Back!

Facilities are firing seasoned, higher paid nurses and utilizing younger less experienced nurses. This cost-cutting measure is putting patients at risk, working nursing and support staff to the point of exhaustion, and causing staff to leave the profession.

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This article was written by a member on allnurses. Due to the controversial and emotionally charged nature of the article, the member wanted the topic out in the open so nurses could discuss it. Because she is afraid of retribution if any of her hospital administrative staff should read this article and link it back to her, we offered to publish it for her anonymously. Please add your comments regarding this issue negatively impacting nurses and the healthcare system.

An Open Letter to Hospital Administrators

I am an experienced nurse that has watched many of my very talented colleagues leave the bedside due to the changes that have taken place in healthcare as of late. I have seen staff cut to the minimum, while patient acuity and nurse to patient ratios increase. I have seen support staff break down in tears because they have not been able to do their jobs properly. I have seen staff pushed to their breaking point, all the while administration stays in their offices, or in the meetings, determining yet more ways they can cut our resources. I see your salaries raised to ridiculous amounts, while we are denied cost of living increases, housekeeping is cut at night, and our benefits cost more, while the services are decreased.

I see our retirement cut while at the same time, the amount matched continues to be diminished or non-existent.

I see ways in which we are constantly blamed for declining patient satisfaction, increased patient falls, late medication administration, all the while we are asked to do more with less. I have seen you fire experienced staff and hire less experienced, cheaper, staff. I have seen that new staff break down because they have no resources, no experience to draw from and I have seen patients suffer from that inexperience. I have seen codes increase, inappropriate admissions to floors, transfers to higher levels of care, all because no one was there initially to advocate for a higher level of care for the patient, to begin with.

I still see you in your office. I do not see you on the floor. I see you with your graphs, your pie charts, your questions about readmission rates when I had already advocated for that patient to stay longer but was simply laughed off by doctors and not supported by you. Yet, somehow, I need to be on a committee to fix the problem.

I am now required to work extra shifts, because staff are getting sick due to stress, or leaving completely because they are tired of dealing with things. I see you develop a culture of fear, where our jobs are at stake and threatened at every turn. Yet, you still look to me for solutions.

"How can we do more with what we have?" I am asked.

My answer: There is no way to do more. We are at our limit. You are losing nurses as fast as you are gaining them, at a time when we need to be building up our profession when the baby boomers are just starting to become a factor in our healthcare environment.

My answer to this is simple. It is time to get real and start valuing your employees. If you want to be reimbursed for patient satisfaction, increase your services. Staff departments with what they need - enough nurses, enough aids, monitor techs, secretaries, ED techs, whatever. Then you will see positive results. Falls will decrease. Medication errors will decrease and medications will be given on time. Patients will get the treatment they deserve and patient satisfaction scores will improve. Your reimbursement will improve and you will stop losing money. Everyone wins: most importantly, the patients.

We need to stop the assembly-line mentality of medicine and return to the service mentality.

Yes, we are a business. But any business that has ever done well has not done well by decreasing the services to people or by mistreating its staff. Otherwise, healthcare facilities are going to see more of the same and suffer more financial penalties, less high-quality staff, and patients will suffer.

I was talking with several of my colleagues just the other day. All of us had many years of experience. Many had been at the bedside for over 20+ years. Many are leaving the bedside due to the unsafe conditions they are seeing. They just don't want to be a part of it. Perhaps this does not scare you, but it should. You must not be a patient yet.

For a follow-up article, please go to Nurses Fight Back! Why Some Hospitals are Despicable

Hospitals Firing Seasoned Nurses_ Nurses FIGHT Back! _ allnurses.pdf

Specializes in ICU, PICC Nurse, Nursing Supervisor.

I could have wrote this article word for word........

Specializes in OB/GYN,PHN, Family Planning.

When in doubt let's blame the President!- Which has nothing to do with the overall problem I worked at a family planning organization that has the same issues as the post that is supported by Obama. We still had senior management making horrible staffing decisions and used "repositioning" to lay off seasoned staff. Unacceptable in any organization - and we would have also benefited from a union.

Specializes in Emergency.

They'll change their tunes when they start getting sued.

Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
nursel56 said:
Thank you to the person who wrote the article! It saddens and angers me that this is so familiar to so many of us from many different areas. It seems like all over the corporate world there is a draining away of a concept I can't quite verbalize other than to say "a heart". It seems to have started in the early to mid-80s with merger-mania.

I marvel to think that a union was able to to garner enough signatures at the first hospital I worked at (in the mid-'70s)to vote the union in or out and the union actually lost. Why? Management was able to make a convincing case that their wages, benefits etc. equaled or exceeded what the union could offer. Those days are long gone.

The NNU was born out of a disagreement within the most influential organization, the ANA (or nursing lobby which I define as powerful compared to other factions of nurses, not anything else). The ANA is against ratios. It would certainly help if members of those two organizations could get on the same page (house divided cannot stand). Here's a recent article if anyone is interested.

Washington Post January 13, 2015 More nurses are better for patients. Why is it so hard to get hospitals to hire them?

Unions offer more than just wages and benefits; they offer job security, a disciplinary process that is fair to the employee (and representation while the employee negotiates the process), protection from floating, mandatory overtime and other management-friendly/nurse-unfriendly practices and a voice.

Specializes in AcuteMentalHealth and preventative care.

I have copied this on my FB site. Every word I recognize. It is time to make noise. Thank you for writing this , publishing this and all those who copy this. Let's set a day we all come together and talk about these issues within our own work settings. 12 May might be a good day !!

I have been an ICU nurse for 10 years. I love my job and I love the people I work with. But I too am at a point where I am so done with our administration that I'm looking for ways to utilize my education without being in a hospital setting or at the bedside. It's frightening to see the changes that have occurred and it's frightening to see the inexperience on the unit. And it makes me afraid for the day I become a patient. I think a union would be a good thing ,but at our facility if that word is even mentioned you should probably start looking for another job.

This must be a reference to Health First (HRMC).

Last week our hospital went through and laid off all but 2 department directors. I heard that the corp that "strategically aligned " themselves with us 6 months ago told them to cut 1 mill in salaries. In doing so they also cut over 200 years of experience. Even more years of experience are being lost as others resign in the aftermath. Only 2 months ago we met with the top Drs from the board and med staff because of their growing lack of confidence in the staff due to lack of experience. So instead of transitioning us back into staff positions we were all called in, one at a time, and with no advance notice were sent home. All are eligible to apply for any job we might qualify for. A slap in my face after 25 years of faithful service. On our med surg units there was a 1:4 chance you would get a brand new nurse and 50% chance you would get one with only 2-3 yrs experience. None of it made sense, and the press release about the assistance we were offered was pure BS.

Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.

Decided it best not to perpetuate the off-topic conversation by replying to it.

As a Chief Nursing Officer I have to disagree. I care about my staff and about what they think and feel. I am their advocate and I can guarantee that all of my nurses would tell you that I am thier biggest advocate and that I have thier back. I will agree that often administration is out of touch. That is why I make it a point to get out to the floor and help as much as possible. I will cover for lunch and I have even covered full shifts when there were staffing problems. I understand your frustration but please don't think that no one in administration cares because that is simply not true.

Nurseilusgirl said:
As a Chief Nursing Officer I have to disagree. I care about my staff and about what they think and feel. I am their advocate and I can guarantee that all of my nurses would tell you that I am thief biggest advocate and that I have their back. I will agree that often administration is out of touch. That is why I make it a point to get out to the floor and help as much as possible. I will cover for lunch and I have even covered full shifts when there were staffing problems. I understand your frustration but please don't think that no one in administration cares because that is simply not true.

There are exceptions to every rule, and you could be a great model of someone in charge who cares and tries to do things to improve the quality of care. Your voice counts in the fight.

Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

Wow. What great responses. It's obvious this is a universal issue. Many very solid proposals from you all.

How many of you are politically active: writing and visiting your senators?

How about committees at your hospitals?

Do you participate in clinical ladder programs?