no new grads now, but huge influx later?

[jxRN]

Do you guys see a similar problem i'm seeing with hospitals not hiring new grads these days?

Right now hospitals halt hiring new grads yet still remain way understaffed. When the budget and economic times are better, i will predict that hospitals will hire in masses. There will be a huge influx of new grads into the hospital. do you guys think the units will eventually get a little chaotic if they suddenly push 50 new people into the hospital- with fewer experienced nurses wanting to precept. I could only imagine that units will get a little crazy with so many new people on the unit (say 10 new nurses on med surg unit).

Do you guys think hospitals that are hiring new grads slowly right now are actually doing the right thing. they are slowly trying to meet their staff requirement and avoiding that huge hiring vacuum. I could only imagine how overwhelming it might be to have a dozen of inexperienced nurses on the unit all at once!

[bill4745, RN]

The people who run hospitals aren't known to be geniuses.

[PostOpPrincess, BSN, RN]

We have new grads, but we "grow" them (our hospital) There will be no sudden influx, they trickle in.

Most preferable that way. Too many new grads equal many, many problems.

We're learned our lesson.

I am just lucky enough to say that we do not, have never, don't ever plan to hire new grads in our area (post op).

[netglow, ASN, RN]

Well, no. When things were more normal, many, many more grads were hired routinely.

A sign of better planning would be that hospitals that can't seem to orient a new grad well even if their lives depended on it (LOL) would be actually revamping their process and putting more effort and time into the NGs that they do hire. Unfortunately if you tool around on allnurses, this is less the case. It's got to the point where the people who are already working are so overburdened that they look at a newbie as a huge hassle. Management does nothing to help the process along it seems.

[kellyc034]

We have new grads, but we "grow" them (our hospital) There will be no sudden influx, they trickle in.

Most preferable that way. Too many new grads equal many, many problems.

We're learned our lesson.

I am just lucky enough to say that we do not, have never, don't ever plan to hire new grads in our area (post op).

Wow. I understand that a new grad should not be in PACU, but I sure hope no one had that attitude when you were a new grad.

Kelly

[IHeartPeds87]

Kelly, I completely agree with you!

It's funny how so many people forget what it was like to be a new nurse graduate. Possibly because in better economic times, many new graduates didn't have as hard of a time to find jobs.

I think a better solution to this problem are more extensive orientations, which hospitals don't like because it costs them more money, short term anyway. But longterm, what they don't understand, is that more extensive orientations generate more productive (time-management skills, more confidence, etc) nurses.

I think the best solution is those nurse residency programs. More hospitals should have them, with the commitment that a nurse should work in that particular hospital for XXX amount of time (more with an increased residency!). That way, the nurse benefits from the extensive training and the hospital benefits by having the nurse they trained so well....have to use that training at that very hospital! The issue with lots of nurse residency programs, from a hospital point of view, is that they spend all this time/money training a nurse only to have the nurse leave shortly after training!

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

wow. i understand that a new grad should not be in pacu, but i sure hope no one had that attitude when you were a new grad.

kelly

that's been the prevailing attitude for a lot of years. folks who want to work in pacu generally have to work up to it.

[lkwashington]

Hello all, while in school you may want to work as a patient care tech, maybe a one or two days a month on a unit. By doing this you having your feet in the door. The nurse manager and/or clinical coordinator may have an opening when you are finished school. They know you...hoping its in a good working manner. They may do everything in their power to help you get a job. Toward the end of school apply to work as a patient care tech. This may also help. Just a thought.

[RNperdiem, RN]

Give nurse managers a little credit here.

Most managers have enough sense to realize that an influx of new grads can be a problem. It is a scary feeling to look around the unit and realize you are the most experienced nurse there and you don't have all that much experience.

I wonder if the projections of a "nursing shortage" includes a large number of retirements. What if the older workers have no immediate plans to retire?

[NickiLaughs, ADN, BSN, RN]

I can say that I was a New Grad in a hospital that over-hired, and they suffered consequences as a result of it. Yes, we all got approximately 35 to 40 shifts of orientation, plus our new grad "in class." It was about 4 months for an ICU. Some needed longer, some needed less time.

The problem: they hired 13 of us at the same time, in the same month, there was actually a period of about 5 months where they were hiring at least 5 new grads a month, ours was the largest group. But you can figure out there was a good 35 to 40 new grads in ICU. The next problem, is that sometimes, a lot of us were scheduled to work the same night. Our ICU is a little odd, we have the "new" open heart side then down the hallway in a completely different area is the "old" side (about 18 bed), which takes the more chronically ill side and all the "dirty" patients go here, and then lastly, we have another "old" side which has 10 beds further down the hallway. On this 10 bed side, there was 6 patients, and me and two other new grads on our own. I had been on my own for about three months, same with another girl and the last one had just got off orientation.

Do you see the problem with this? You have three nurses very new, by themselves, sort of "cut off" from the Charge Nurse with six critically ill patients. I actually called the Charge nurse and informed her. She send the resource over who had to spend most of the night on our side, answering questions. Because even on your own after a couple months, sometimes you do have a question. I was fine thankfully my LVN experience had allowed me to be proficient and I had good critically thinking skills, and my patients were fairly stable.

Since then they have made every effort to now allow this happen again, but you can figure it would be hard when you have a night where there are 10 nurses working with less than 6 months of experience.

This really does need to be avoided, even with a shortage, they should hire at a slower pace. The experienced nurses get burnt out, from answering questions, precepting, etc. They leave, and then you just have more new nurses. I'm not saying new nurses don't have their place. But we definitely can use the experience of that nurse with 10 plus years of experience who just has excellent advice and excellent knowledge on the unit.

[NiesyLuv0o]

I will be a new grad in a couple of days and it is kind of frustrating to have nothing planned as a "just in case." However, the hospital that I will hopefully get a job at is has a 4.5mths residency program. They hire over 100 new grads every 6 months that are required to attend this residency program. From the upper management, they are doing this to plan for the future. They dont want to be stuck in a runt in a couple of years when things get better and they plan on opening a few urgent cares and a new hospital. From my immature understanding of healthcare management, it is all about strategic planning. If hospitals are not hiring new grads at all, that's because they are not looking for by 2015 when baby boomers are retiring; or at the new reform where hopefully access to care will increase so patient number will also increase. At the end of the day...it's all about safety. Can't have too much new grads, but at the same time, you cannot completely cut off hiring new grads for a year or two.

Just my 2 cents...I dont completely understand management...

[Moogie]

Give nurse managers a little credit here.

Most managers have enough sense to realize that an influx of new grads can be a problem. It is a scary feeling to look around the unit and realize you are the most experienced nurse there and you don't have all that much experience.

I wonder if the projections of a "nursing shortage" includes a large number of retirements. What if the older workers have no immediate plans to retire?

The problem is not with nurse managers. The problem is with pointy-haired administrators who don't understand nursing, who think a nurse is a nurse is a nurse, regardless of education or experience, and have no concept of the realities of direct patient care. Oooooh, let's provide good customer service, encourage the "guests" to think of the hospital as a four-star hotel, put a mint on the pillow of every diabetic and NPO patient. These people who don't have the common sense to know the difference between a DNR order and the Department of Natural Resources (also abbreviated as DNR, just so the pointy-haired administrative types get my drift). The bean counters are the ones making the decisions about nursing and they don't give a rodent's posterior about the needs of a new grad in orientation. Just throw 'em on the floor and let the managers and preceptors help 'em out---or let them try to swim for themselves without drowning.

There are some administrators who have their heads in such a difficult anatomical place that I wonder how they're able to sit for eight hours in their comfortable chairs in their nicely decorated offices.

Who the hell is going to be able to retire? Nurses, I mean, not the CEOs.