Layoffs/Restructuring of 1990s/1980s - Affects on Nursing Shortage

pickledpepperRN · Apr 8, 2006

Research regarding the causes of the "shortage" of nurses

http://kucinich.house.gov/UploadedFiles/PharmaStudy2.pdf#search='IHSP%2C%20restructuring%2C%20layoffs'

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Regarding Massachusetts

http://users.rcn.com/wbumpus/sandy/seachange77.htm

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From a detailed article:

"Hospitals now have a cadre of RNs who are taking care of the charts, not the patients," says Jean Chaisson, a clinical nurse specialist at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. "On a floor with fewer RNs spread thinner, when I'm busy rushing one patient to the operating room, these case managers or utilization reviewers are not there to help make sure another patient isn't falling on the floor." - http://www.prospect.org/print/V11/7/gordon-s.html

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Allnurses" has discussed this: https://allnurses.com/forums/f195/abc-news-covers-nursing-shortage-139297-3.html

Tweety, BSN, RN · Apr 8, 2006

Here in Florida it wasn't as acute as you're describing (massive layoffs and striking in the streets). I only remember the 90s when for a few years in the mid-90s there was a glut of nurses here (which included a bunch of people fleeing the north and their lack of job opportunities). There were nursing jobs available, but in nursing homes and other non-hospital settings, and even those were getting hard to come by.

During that time my hospital took a cost cutting measure and laid off a bunch of nurses. They immediately regretted it because the glut ended soon after that, nurses who were insecure with this hospital quit because they didn't want to be the next to be laid off, and there was a natural number of people who quit for a variety of reasons.

They felt the fallout from their lack of insight for years. So yes the layoff of the 90s did affect them for a while.

Hopefully, they remember their mistake and don't layoff nurses in that number ever again. In Florida, the shortage is being eased a bit each and every year as new grads are lining up for years to take RN positions and cramming nursing schools to the max. But there's still plenty of RN jobs to be had.

VickyRN, MSN, DNP, RN · Apr 9, 2006

One of the best, well-documented articles on this subject:

DeMoro, D. (2000). Engineering a crisis: How hospitals created a shortage of nurses. Revolution Magazine, 1(2).

http://www.calnurses.org/publications/revolution/

The Heathcare Industry and its proponents play a role in the origins of the RN shortage. Trends indicate that RNs have lost trust in the industry, have left the hospital setting and are not coming back. Guided by market-driven cost-cutting, profit making and large-scale mergers and acquisitions to increase market share have resulted in concentration of healthcare resources in the hands of a shrinking number of very large companies, consuming $453 billion in healthcare with a rise in profits and executive stock portfolios, resources that could have been better spent elsewhere. Virtually everything has changes, nursing is no longer prioritized as the healthcare industry deskills, displaces and deprofessionalizes nursing. Under enormous economic pressure, nurses are forced to delegate work to persons with very little training. Exhausted nurses run ragged by too many patients cause mistakes.

You may need to contact CNA using the link above to get a copy of this article. This link also has some great information:

https://allnurses.com/forums/f8/about-nursing-shortage-49090.html

Selke · Apr 9, 2006

One of the best, well-documented articles on this subject:
DeMoro, D. (2000). Engineering a crisis: How hospitals created a shortage of nurses. Revolution Magazine, 1(2).
http://www.calnurses.org/publications/revolution/
You may need to contact CNA using the link above to get a copy of this article. This link also has some great information:
https://allnurses.com/forums/f8/about-nursing-shortage-49090.html

Yup. How true! I went to nursing school in the late 1980s. Schools were begging for students. I literally applied and got in at the last minute (decided I wanted to be a midwife). No waiting lists anywhere! This was large midwestern city. Primary nursing was the trend (LVNs were being laid off -- another big mistake!), DRGs were passing, HIV/AIDS was settling in, Reagan ... ugh. Then out of school, the 1990s, wages started going up, hospitals started massive mergers and layoffs of RNs as part of their futile "cost cutting measures." Staff positions were hard as heck to come by, except for night shift. I had massive job problems and did agency work, mostly due to this climate. They also tried "drive through deliveries." Remember those? Congress put a stop to that. Insurance co's briefly tried to stem the tide of c-sections (too expensive vs. vag births) by lowering reimbursement costs. Ha! Now it's the exact opposite: the insurance and legal climate is that c-sections are (falsely) believed to be more cost effective and safer due to potentially less litigation and bad outcomes. As far as I'm concerned, the hospital- insurance industry has created this situation. The nurses who are left live with the consequences, as do the general public, who has lower quality and access to care compared to most other first world countries.