MedicRN230

Brandy1017, most of what you said is true, with the exception of the above statement. My problem was with the fact that I had zero communication from anyone…that I took personal. I had to reach out to 6 different people after I was left hanging on my hire date, and that was the crux of the problem. I wouldn’t have minded if they gave me a heads up, or at least answered me when I contacted them. I’m well aware of my place as a new hire, and I was hired for a telemetry floor. I was going to do several weeks full time training, followed by months working with a preceptor. I had already made arrangements in order to make that happen with my other job. Again, a little communication would’ve gone a long way. I think in this case, they’re just too big, and don’t really care. To put it into perspective how big they are, this is a HUGE health system with their own inhouse recruiters. In fact, this place is so big that they have their own temp/contract employment service that hires nurses and then places them in travel contracts within their own facilities. The system employs 75,000 people….yes 75k! My experience aside, I’m just not so sure there is a real effort to solve the supposed nursing shortage. Every facility I go to, the nurses in the trenches claim they’re short staffed and drowning in patients. Meanwhile, they also tell me these places aren’t hiring enough. So call me a conspiracy theorist, but sometimes I think it’s deliberate. I think the administrations might be doing it because they can, and it saves them money. The nurses make it work, regardless of how short they are. I’ve seen a level 1 trauma center with a 33 bed er, run with 3 nurses on New Year’s Eve, one of those nurses was the triage nurse…that’s absurd! Like I said in an earlier post, nothing makes sense to me anymore.

I guess that makes sense, and is contributing to the problem. But I see this as a similar situation to the supply chain crisis. Everyone seems to recognize there is a problem, and they all blame each other, yet there is no bold solutions to solve it. Nothing makes sense to me anymore, it’s like living in the upside down.

Let me also make clear, this is a part time job for me. I have no intentions of leaving my full time job. Maybe they are less focused on part time jobs, although I suspect there is just no impetus to solve the shortage.

Post covid- as in the opposite of pre covid I turned the job down because I jumped through all the hoops and was left without any communication. It’s a sellers market, or so the news says, I deserved the respect of a heads up that my hiring would be delayed for 6 weeks. If I had been leaving my current job, I’d have already given 2 weeks notice and then been screwed without an income. Therefore, I decided not to work for a massive conglomerate, because they clearly do not value their prospective staff. This leads back to my question- does anybody really care about the shortage? lastly, I understand my experience is limited. Although I am not just a medic, I did work in an RN capacity as a transplant coordinator. So yes, I get that my skill set does not completely transfer to the bedside nursing world, but it all leads to my initial question. Where is the nursing emergency, if most places don’t even acknowledge applicants, yet cry that all their staff is leaving for the travel/contract world? If they want to solve the shortage, there has to be some give on their end. All I asked was to be treated with some respect. I was more than willing to arrange my life to make the situation work with them, and in fact I had already done that, they need to make some effort on their end. In defense of the nursing manager, it was all the fault of the HR onboarding and corporate staff. Again, if it’s such a dire situation, where are the creative solutions? The status quo won’t solve it.

I’m questioning if there is really a nursing shortage? More specifically, I question if there is anything being done to solve the nursing shortage? I’m pretty sure it is real, my triage wait times have increased, sometimes it’s over an hour wait. So yes, I answered my first question, it’s yes! However, I wonder what’s being done to address it? I have applied to over 50 listings for nursing positions and received only 3 callbacks by recruiters. The phone interviews led mostly nowhere. I’ve had only one in person interview, which was actually an interview day that one recruiter invited me to attend, this led to a second interview a few days later with a floor manager and an offer of employment. After the hiring process being delayed on their end with little to no communication, I decided to rescind my offer to work for them. All this being said, where is the supposed emergency for nurses to fill vacancies? Not to blow smoke up my own ***, I realize I have no “real” bedside nursing experience. However, I’ve been a paramedic in a busy area for 17 years. I’m a licensed RN with bcls and ACLS credentials, as well as many other ems specific credentials. I also have experience as a transplant coordinator. If there were such a shortage, wouldn’t these facilities be looking to fill these vacancies any way possible? Are there any management/hr folks that could shed some light on this? Is there really a crisis? Wouldn’t you be better off training a part time nurse willing to work for the long term as opposed to a traveler getting triple pay on a 12 week contract? Am I deluded or does nothing make sense any more, post covid?