Nurse Staffing Costs

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When hospitals look to cut costs -- as many of them have in the last decade -- nurses are the hardest hit. How has your employer dealt with staffing costs? How has it impacted you?

Does the consulting firm ever suggest the "C suite" take a cut?

yes

Does it ever suggest cutting nursing management?

yes

Or are the cuts all at the bottom?

no

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Academics.

Does the c suite ever take a pay cut?

Is nursing management ever cut?

does the c suite cut at the bottom when consultants haven't even made that rec?

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On a previous thread the OP asked about nurses being placed on call, and how often they were called in.

I think as one AN poster suggested, we are doing the OPs job by telling him what cuts our facilities are implementing.

Okay, yes -- you got me. I logged into allnurses dot com because I wanted to ignore the vast resources at my disposal within my consulting firm...

So far, I've been called a hack and have been accused of poaching information. Are some of you so downtrodden at work that you resort to self-aggrandizing on the internet?

Professionalism and courtesy are overrated anyway, I suppose... cheers.

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Does the c suite ever take a pay cut?

Is nursing management ever cut?

does the c suite cut at the bottom when consultants haven't even made that rec?

Sometimes they implement our recommendations, sometimes they don't.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Academics.

I'm curious and not attacking you.

have you ever heard of the c suite taking a pay cut to cut costs? And I'm not talking about switching salary for stock options. I'm talking about making less money, period.

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
So far, I've been called a "hack" and have been accused of poaching information. Are some of you so downtrodden at work that you resort to self-aggrandizing on the internet?

I'm sorry about the experience you're having while posting in our virtual nursing community. However, please be cognizant that the mere mention of nursing administration evokes strong emotions in many nurses since, traditionally, the changes they implement tend to affect nursing staff in an adverse manner.

Some of these changes include purposeful understaffing, wage freezes, a hyper-focus on all negatives, virtually nonexistent positive feedback, and the unspoken message that "if you do not like working here, we will happily show you the door.

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I'm sorry about the experience you're having while posting in our virtual nursing community. However, please be cognizant that the mere mention of nursing administration evokes strong emotions in many nurses since, traditionally, the changes they implement tend to affect nursing staff in an adverse manner.

Some of these changes include purposeful understaffing, wage freezes, a hyper-focus on all negatives, virtually nonexistent positive feedback, and the unspoken message that "if you do not like working here, we will happily show you the door.

Thanks, and I agree -- which is why I prefaced my question with "nurses are the hardest hit." I cannot make decisions in a hospital -- all I can do is make recommendations based on the analysis of data provided to our project team.

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Specializes in MICU, SICU, CICU.
I don't have shareholders - and the firm that I work for is a private entity.

Is your client a for profit institution?

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I'm curious and not attacking you.

have you ever heard of the c suite taking a pay cut to cut costs? And I'm not talking about switching salary for stock options. I'm talking about making less money, period.

I have, yes -- but when they do, as you suggest in your question, the decrease in base wages might be offset by variable pay. From my perspective, I would prefer executives (regardless of industry) have a greater proportion of "at-risk" pay -- that way, they have to accomplish certain goals/objectives before receiving the full value of their total rewards package. And we frequently recommend both financial and non-financial measures as part of the incentive program (e.g., profitability and employee engagement).

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Is your client a for profit institution?

No - they are a nonprofit organization.

But (in the spirit of transparency) I do have clients across all industries -- energy and aerospace, for example -- not just healthcare. I listed "healthcare consultant" when signing up because that is what is germane to this forum.

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.

Acute care hospitals are available for people who need inpatient nursing care. They, by and large, pay their nonnursing administrators very handsomely. When they need to cut costs the FIRST place they look is on the side of care delivery and that directly affects nursing and the very reasons that people come to the hospital in the first place. It does and will continue to adversely affect outcomes. Sometimes the remaining nurses can minimize that affect but not always.

That strategy is sort of along the lines of an airline strategy of cutting costs by cutting pilots and flight staff. It will enjoy a brief bump in profits but will eventually destroy the reputation of the airline and will result in it's demise. The problem is not that they have too many nurses or pilots, the problem is that they spend too much money on things which are not central to the goal and mission of the work...and in health care that goal and mission should not be to make more and more $$.

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"Are some of you so downtrodden at work that you resort to self-aggrandizing on the internet?"

Sometimes! Does that impact your findings?

Would you EVER say something like that to the big boys?

That disrespectful statement was all I needed to hear ...to not assist you with your research.

P.S. When's the last time YOU saved a life?

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