Sooo how is your staffing?

txspadequeenRN, BSN, RN · Jun 25, 2007

i have to get ready for a work meeting but wanted to mention this before i left and i will come back later to reply with more. i was a nursing supervisor for many years and one of my jobs was staffing...(i almost pulled out all of my red hair) anyway, i left that job and went to work at small nursing home in a small town that has cna classes...after they pass their test they stay on as prn competing to get a full time job. there is actually a list waiting to get hired for full-time. i don't know what they do to these students, but this is the first facility i have worked at that they actually have to send cna's home every weekend because they have to many!!!..yes , i said ....to many!!!

seems like my facility goes thru these cycles of staffing issues. the census stays the same, but staffing comes and goes. some times the staffing is really, really bad....we hire a bunch...some stay, some are fired, some just leave.
to be honest, our facility would be nice if we could just get some good management onboard. i've worked a couple local ltc and keep coming back to the same caus its the lesser of the evils and feels like home.
just very,very frustrating.. what kills me is that calling the state about staffing doesn't help. we have agency and try to schedule them , but if they call off the facility is still making an effort to staff, so they aren't in trouble.

Kanani_Ikike · Jun 25, 2007

i have to get ready for a work meeting but wanted to mention this before i left and i will come back later to reply with more. i was a nursing supervisor for many years and one of my jobs was staffing...(i almost pulled out all of my red hair) anyway, i left that job and went to work at small nursing home in a small town that has cna classes...after they pass their test they stay on as prn competing to get a full time job. there is actually a list waiting to get hired for full-time. i don't know what they do to these students, but this is the first facility i have worked at that they actually have to send cna's home every weekend because they have to many!!!..yes , i said ....to many!!!

i think that the prn schedule is the key. the reason i say this is because in a nursing home, the staff tends to get very burnt out quickly. i think it has to do with the rigid schedules they are given. i mean most do a 5 day/week schedule with most days scheduled back to back. i don't know about anybody else, but i don't like a m-f schedule. most young people don't. i think that most young people like the 3 12's or 4 10's scheduling. and i think prn is also very popular among the new generation. once nursing homes start to allow more flexible scheduling options, then i feel that that would solve a lot of the staffing issues. going to work everyday with just 2 days off is something i don't like doing in this profession. i will even work 2 16's and 1 8 hour shift if they would let me. it just reduces the number of days you have to come to work.

fultzymom · Jun 25, 2007

our staffing cycles too. sometimes we have an abundance et at other times everyone is about to quit because they are so tired of working short-staffed. and it seems like we are all like, "didn't we just hire a bunch of people? what happened to them?" i have been here for five years almost and it is always the same cycle over and over. it is never just right.

jllister · Jun 25, 2007

My facility pays on-call nurses, and I have been suggesting on-call CNAs for quite some time. It would be an honor to be selected and they'd get extra money if (yeah right) they didn't get called in. I can see their accountability and responsibility increasing.

Cmariehart · Jun 26, 2007

Our staffing is a joke... One night we have 7 aides and 3 or 4 nurses on our unit and the next night we have 1 aide and 1 nurse.... ITS A JOKE:madface: