Nursing Shortage

Mary-Ruth · Jan 17, 2006

i'm sorry. that is a horrible situation to be in. I'm not a nurse yet... but if i were you, i'd leave too.

rjflyn, ASN, RN · Jan 17, 2006

Id have to go with what the other poster said. If they are not keeping up with their promises. Leave. My question is what is administration going to do when all the states have California like ratios.

Rj

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Jan 17, 2006

Unfortunately you are in Oklahoma, a state that is well known to pay some of the worst nursing salaries in the entire nation. Apparently your hospital is not offering enough incentives to keep and retain their nurses. Only the hospital can solve this problem by providing lower ratios, better working conditions, and perhaps some other perks. Good luck to you. I hope things improve soon.

pickledpepperRN · Jan 17, 2006

Twenty six patients, only one RN, only four licensed nurses, only one CNA, and no secretary is unsafe for even the lowest acuity patients.

I cannot fault the nurses who left. You have only one license. there are many employers.

This is especially sad to me because my beloved uncle died in Oklahoma almost exactly a year ago. I was very impressed with the high level of care he and our family were blessed to receive from the RN, LPN, CNA team.

He was a DNR so moved to a "comfort care room" in Med-surg.

I thought perhaps unsafe staffing and dishonest management was not a problem so they didn't need a union. Seems like you do.

Here is a copy of your Nursing Practice Act:

http://www.ok.gov/nursing/actwp.pdf

Hospital Standards:

http://www.health.state.ok.us/program/medfac/hsp667.pdf

Under ENFORCEMENT it states that the license may be suspended for practices detrimental to the welfare of patients.

I think not having access to a nurse because that nurse cannot be in 26 places at once is detrimental to the patients welfare!

Page 27 has the Nursing section of hospital requirements. It includes "Registered Nursing Services shall be available for all patients at all times."

You may want to report the unsafe staffing to the Oklahoma Department of Health.

Is this a small town? If so do the residents know about the unsafe conditions at their hospital?

If it is a city I would quit and work elsewhere. I would also try to get a group of nurses together to plan how to save lives. Try to involve clergy. Here in California a nurse actually wore a sandwich sign on the sidewalk in front of the hospital after she quit. She did it on her days off after getting another job. State inspectors went in and cited that place with deficiencies. It was on the TV news.

**RosesrReder, BSN, MSN, RN** · Jan 17, 2006

seriously consider looking for another (better) job.

Good luck

SmilingBluEyes · Jan 17, 2006

Thread is about 4 years old, yet the issues still plague us.

JKDON · Jan 18, 2006

Am I the only one who has a problem with a nurse who would walk off the job, or give only a 2 week notice? What kind of a professional only gives 2 weeks? We require 30 days from everyone in our facility.

This is an ongoing problem and many small towns are plagued even worse as we can't even get pool nurses to our areas, let alone afford them. I know my days are numbered as a supervisor, I can't keep up with it all. I've had one opening on evenings for over a year. That's a big deal in our size of facility.

However, it bothers me to think that a whole floor would call in intentionally and I'm not sure that is what was meant. Or that a floor would just quit. How does this help the patient? It's abandonment. I admire the author of this thread for sticking with it, there must be somethign salvageable in this place. Someone has to care for the patients and the management is probably stumped as to what else to do. But the smart thing to do would be to put the cap into effect, and watch the acuity accepted. Sit down and talk to the nurses and see what it is. WAges aren't everything. People will stay in a job they like for less pay. I doubt the real troopers are concerned about that, there are probably deeper issues like lack of gratitude and the upper crust not respecting the staff. Funny that the powers that be have not asked those who stay, what is going on. Sounds like truly poor management and not being able to keep staff happy. Happy staff = happy patients. But when is the last time you spoke to a nurse who was truly happy where she was?

DADENTY · Jan 18, 2006

Ok, where I work (surgical + peds) unit there can be 34 patients. our staffing compliment is 1 peds nurse sonetimes 2 if there are 8 peds patients, 2 LPN's 2 RN's and 1 charge we always have 6 to 7 pts each. Is this abnormal? I am a new RN and this is the only place I have worked so NM keeps telling us this is national standards. The surgery unit has general surgery, ortho surgery and gyne surgery. peds is a mini medical ward with respiratory, gastro and ortho kids. Also not uncommon for the 2nd peds nurse to have 2 kids and 4 other surgery patients. what are your ratio's like?

hipab4hands · Jan 18, 2006

Am I the only one who has a problem with a nurse who would walk off the job, or give only a 2 week notice? What kind of a professional only gives 2 weeks? We require 30 days from everyone in our facility.
----------------------------------------
I'm one of those nurses, who has not even given a 2 week notice to an employer. One of my former employers ran a "sweatshop" like medical practice- Long hours,verbal reprimands, when you requested a meal break, etc., and low pay.
My contract with that particular employer was "at will". I was not required to give them a 2 week notice any more than they would have given me a 2 week notice, if they were going to fire me.
When I found an another employer, who was willing to give me an instant $4 dollar an hour raise for half of the work, I took it immediately.
I gave my employer the opportunity to match the new employer's pay. My former employer declined and I left 4 days later.
This was not patient abandonment and I have no guilt about leaving.

pickledpepperRN · Jan 18, 2006

Quotes by kristi-lpn2
Every time I come to work is is getting worse and worse. More people are quitting and they are not hiring people to keep up with the ones leaving. This weekend we had 26 patients. We had 1-RN and 3-LPN and 1-CNA working the floor. Is this how it is everywhere?

I think that hospital is violating their licensure requirements. Who will volunteer to be the ONLY RN for twenty six medical surgical patients? Can you understand why it was the last shift for that nurse?

We have went to administration and the nurse over all the nurses said they would put a cap on our floor so we would only have 20 patients until we got enough staffing that was a month ago and it lasted for 2 days.

They made a promise and either could not or would not keep it. A month of suffering for patients and nurses.

It has been so bad they had to close one of the floors-2diff. times because a whole floor of nurses quit and walked out and the other time because a whole floor called in. All they say is that they are sorry and cant do anything about it.

I am guessing the patients from the closed floors went to another hospital. If so GOOD if they can get nursing care.

As I said before you have only one license. One report to the board and your nursing skills can be forever denied to future patients.

One lawsuit you can lose your home and all you own.

No one can be accessable and available to 26 patients at a time.

The definition of abandonment is accepting a patient assignment and leaving without reasonable notice.