Nurse shortage...how is it in your area?

[nursefromquebec]

I'm from quebec/canada and OMG this is just out of control. I work in a labor-delivery, mother-baby care and intermediate care nicu ward and on one of the week-ends (evening shift), there are only 4 regular staff members to cover the whole 3 units !!!! we would need 10-13 nurses depending on the number of patients admitted.

nurses always have to double shifts (we are obligated to)

we are overworked, tired, stressed out and have no quality of life and no family time.....I'm just sooo close to abandon the prefession all together....(even though I love what I do)

what's the situation in your area

Karine

[OC_An Khe]

Employers that respect nurses, reward them appropriately for the work they to and recognize them for the professionals they are really, have no difficulty staffing their facilities. Is there a growing shortage, demographics would say yes. Yet those employers that do the above will continue to survive and thrive and those that don't will slowly go out of business.

[barefootlady, ADN, RN]

I do not think there is a shortage with the number of nurses in this area, there is a shortage of nurses who are still willing to work for the wages they pay here. Lack of respect and abuse from doctors, administration, families, and other coworkers have a part in the lack of employed nurses.

[Xbox Live Addict]

At every place I have worked, and every place I have considered working at, turnover is > 100%, and recruitment is difficult. Employers will go for months without finding suitable candidates, to the point of making their employees wonder if the employer WANTS to work short-handed to save money.

It doesn't help things that we have some of the worst staffing ratio laws in the US - any California nurse would refuse to work under the conditions common in Oklahoma - and among the lowest wages and weakest benefits for nurses here. I don't know any floor nurses that make even the minimum $42,000 recently cited by Yahoo as a salary range for nurses (this was being discussed in another thread). The nurses are out there, but a lot of them don't want to be found...

[nurseshepherd]

I do not think there is a shortage with the number of nurses in this area, there is a shortage of nurses who are still willing to work for the wages they pay here. Lack of respect and abuse from doctors, administration, families, and other coworkers have a part in the lack of employed nurses.

This describes the system where I currently work. We have several nursing programs in the area cranking out new nurses every 4 - 6 months but many of the new grads don't last till their first anniversary. They can recruit but they can't retain them when these new grads realize what they are going to have to do (high patient loads, little support, bare minimum orientation, etc.).

Now that our system is watching their pennies, admin has decided they will put a freeze on hiring any more nurses unless it is in an area critically understaffed. We have been stripped of our techs and saddled with MANY non-nursing tasks and yet admin can't figure out why the employees rate the hospital poorly on surveys they put out to gauge employee satisfaction. Marginal benefits (especially health care), no cost-of-living raises, tiny annual raises with eval, and a sense that admin simply could care less about any of the staff nurses keeps morale at a very low level overall. We support ourselves in our units on our shifts and that is what keeps most of us coming back night after night. Thank God for good co-workers!

[oramar]

I can't really speak for personel experience about the greater Pittsburgh area because I am unemployed by choice. However, there are signs of heavy recruitment all over the place which would indicate a shortage. That is odd considering the fact that we have loads of nursing schools in the area that graduate tons of newbies yearly. From what people that are still in the game say I gather a lot of experienced people and newbies leave the area due to low wages and high work load. That would mean that nothing has changed much in the year and a half since I decided to pull out of the game except maybe that they are worse.

[maryparkwell]

Ugh! I took the reply about the nursing shortage as the responsibility of the administration in the jaw. I am a nurse and own a home health care company specializing in medically intensive home health care. Our legislature sets (or allows any increases to the budget) the reimbursement for medicaide clients. Medicaide is 85% of our client base, so if we pay our nurses more than what we're reimbursed for the care, we will not financially survive. Any business must balance income and outgo of funds. From my perspective, the nurses are not doing enough legislatively to influence the government people who have the power to increase their wage. It was very disheartening when the Governor of our state (Washington), gave the state employed nurses a 25% increase, but the private duty nursing industry a 10% increase. Private Duty nurses should be hopping mad. But until these nurses advocate for themselves they will continue to be ignored. A new organization called www.wheelingandhealing.org is a newly developed organization for private duty nurses in Washington State to organize for legislative and educational purposes. I encourage Private Duty Nurses unite and create a voice together, through this organization, or start one in your state, to promote your industry, and yourselves. Your patient's will love you for it!!!

[CorgiMom]

The nursing shortage is real. It is multifactorial. Nursing programs have been under fire for not producing enough nurses. But as one poster indicated, retention of new nurses is a problem. The solution must also be multifactorial. In addition to increasing access to nursing education, we must address the working conditions that force nurses out of the profession. We also need legislation to increase funding for health care and health care eduation. I believe the US health care system is broken and needs a major overhaul. Without that, we will never have enough health care workers.

[FroggyMama]

I'm from quebec/canada and OMG this is just out of control.

Ah, the joys of socialized medicine....and everyone down here still seems to think it would be a good thing.

[registerednutrn, BSN, RN]

Here at the 2 major hospitals there is almost always a minimum of 70 RN positions opens over 70% of which are at the for profit hospital and the remainder at the non profit hospital. i have worked at both that the non profit really respects their nurses and treats them well so most of the positions open are temp and per deim. And then there are the speciality hsopitals that we have here 2 or three of them and the clinics and doctors offices so a nurse can almost always find work here if they want it. Where I work now we seldom work short and if we are it is just for a short time. Where I used to work we were short all the time.

[hope3456, ASN, RN]

I'm also trying to figure out the 'shortage.' For example, my unit has 2 medsurg positions open. However, they have 2 travel nurses in those positions. The 'travelers' come from neighboring towns and need a job just as much as I do. However, they have figured out that they make substantially more money as a 'traveler'.

So I am wondering, for all the 'open' positions there are, perhaps it is just because so many nurses are working as 'travelers?' But technically those positions are filled? It doesn't really make sense to me.

I'm not a big believer there is a 'shortage.'

[lpnflorida]

Does not appear to have shortage in southwest florida, nor in the Ocala area as I understand it.