How can I tell if my unit is going to close down?

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Hello everyone I work on a 16 pt unit. Over the past year I have seen many nurses leave and no new nurses hired. We are working with the bare minimum and it has been hard and stressful these past few weeks. To make it even harder we have three more nurses leaving at the end of the month and one going part time, Making a total of 11 nurses that have left over the past 12 months. We are lucky if we have 2 nurses on the floor and 2 techs each shift. I work on a psych ward the lack of hands on deck makes it scary when the pts get violent, safety has become a big concern for us. Im just wondering why they are not working hard to get us new staff. Their reply for this poor Productivity and not enough money. Our company was recently bought out by another company and I'm wondering if they have plans to shut us down. My gut keeps telling me to transfer to another floor. When I was hired I was under the impression that I would eventually get to work my 3 12 hour shifts back to back so I could spend more time with my family. But they have me flopping between 12 hr day shift and 8 hr evening shifts. Yes this particular floor does 12 hr shifts and 8 hr shifts and it makes it hard for me to spend time with my 8 year old daughter sometimes i go days without seeing her. Thankfully I have made it one year into my contract and I am eligible for a transfer at this point. I would greatly appreciate some advice and some input on this situation and do you believe they may be preparing to shut down this unit and if so should I make my move now?

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I’d transfer just because of the schedule. Your daughter is more important than this job and the stress it generates.

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It's not possible to tell if the unit will be shut down. I have worked on two,where millions of bucks were spent on renovations... only for them to be quickly closed.

" I was hired I was under the impression that I would eventually get to work my 3 12 hour shifts back to back so I could spend more time with my family. But they have me flopping between 12 hr day shift and 8 hr evening shifts. " Soo.. they are using and abusing the few remaining staff members.

I would transfer STAT.

Best wishes.

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They have actually spent a lot of money on renovating our unit as well here recently.

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Girl, get out.

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Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.

Poor productivity? How do you measure productivity on a psych unit?

Here's your reason to get out: they're playing fast and loose with your personal safety. At this point I wouldn't care what their future plans are. I'd be making tracks.

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Specializes in Mental health, substance abuse, geriatrics, PCU.

That sounds like a sinking ship that I would not want to go down with.

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Specializes in Psych, Addictions, SOL (Student of Life).

True story...….. I was running an all female adolescent unit last year that went down to 5 (from 20) patients the week before Christmas left work on Christmas eve came back day after and my unit was closed - kids shifted to a co-ed unit and my unit fill up with adult males who hadn't bathed in Lord knows how long. Took me months to get back to my kids.....

Hppy

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I have had this Concern from a different angle. I work in a rural hospital in the ER and now do some house supervisor shifts. We are only seeing about 60-70 in the ER a day, used to see 90 plus. There are several nurses o the icu they have left with no replacements. House supervisors that have left with no replacement, they cross train so ER nurses for house. The icu is closed more than open a month. They closed our baby floor 2 years ago. We average maybe 9 pts on the med surg floor here lately ( only became aware of those numbers in last 2 months). We have basically almost no specialty physician. Hospitalisit admits all pts. We have so much empty space and they have gotten rid of a lot of management roles and have combined a lot of this roles. But they have spent a lot of money on renovations lately. They have decided to drop our chest pain and trauma certifications with state, due to cost of keeping them up but not getting reimbursed because we do not have a lot that we admit. We are part of a bigger corporation so not sure if that is what protects us and we are the only faculty in the 4 surrounding counties. They say we are not closing, but I wonder?

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