staffing issues

SmilingBluEyes · May 3, 2004

Take advantage of the nursing shortage? I don't know. Do they abuse nurses in the process of coping? Well, do bears poop in the woods?

**canoehead, BSN, RN** · May 3, 2004

My thoughts exactly

purplemania, BSN, RN · May 3, 2004

I fail to seewhat the nursing shortage has to do with intentionally understaffing. If that is the philosophy of the facility then they would understaff all the time, irregardless of the shortage. Do you mean are they intentionally understaffing and BLAMING it on the shortage? Possibly.

RosieGlow · May 3, 2004

I've definitely come across a few places that do that. They feel like they suddenly have a great excuse to cut corners and overwork their own staff.

Not a very good long term plan, though. I just want to shake this one manager and yell at him "if you think there's a shortage now, just you wait until I get tired of your sh*t!"

I'm suspicious of any place that does not seem to be actively looking to hire more if they are short. My office recently put an ad in Monster.com and we're getting some strong resumes flowing in!

NannaNurse · May 3, 2004

The less staff a facility has.........the less they have to pay out........if we keep letting these facilities get by with this........and letting them think we can constantly work 'short'......well, do we speak up? Do we bind together as one voice?

I really don't think it would matter. I know several nurse friends who have put applications out every where and nothing yet....they are very good nurses. I think that we are just getting really sick and tired of all the petty games that are going on with our lives.......example: we had a call off (in case your not familiar with that term, PM me and I'll explain it further.... :rotfl: :rotfl: ) we could not find another nurse to come in (imagine that ) until noon. Our nurse manager had to fill in for 4 hours.......OMG---work??? Anyway, we were all 'chastised' in that we all had to be willing to come in and help out anytime we are needed, regardless, because the nurse manager had 'a life outside of work and 'things' to do and couldn't be expected to help out 'all the time' and we would have to just deal with it and work short...... :rolleyes: It's a double standard and we are just pawns....they don't have a clue as to why there is a shortage and nurses are finding others jobs to do.......hummmmmmmmmmm!!

imenid37 · May 3, 2004

The more we "work short" the more money we are saving for the facility. That's all we're doing as well as taking chances w/ pt's lives and cheating them out of the care they deserve. Have you ever noticed when you are expected to work short, the hospital doesn't offer you extra $ or offer to cut the pt's bills because they don't get the appropriate care. So...guess who benfits! Sorry having PMS today and this is a sore subject w/ me.

Hellllllo Nurse, BSN, RN · May 3, 2004

I fail to seewhat the nursing shortage has to do with intentionally understaffing. If that is the philosophy of the facility then they would understaff all the time, regardless of the shortage. Do you mean are they intentionally understaffing and BLAMING it on the shortage? Possibly.

I agree. I live in an area where there is a surplus of nurses. Lots of nursing schools here, lots of new grads, few jobs. Facilities staff based on $$$, period.

CHATSDALE · May 3, 2004

in our area we have one tech school that churns two classes of lpn s yearly and we have a college and a university with rn grads both ad and bsn and we NEVER seem to have enough nurses

teeituptom, BSN, RN · May 3, 2004

welcome to the wonderfull world of nursing

Chibi Baka · May 3, 2004

welcome to the wonderfull world of nursing

lol you know what, i think i;ve seen you write that in every topic on this board.

Tweety, BSN, RN · May 4, 2004

Unfortunately I've seen my hospital take advantage of us when we are understaffed. I've heard of agency nurses being willing to work, but the hospital cancels them and makes us work short staffed.

We had a big layoff about 8 years ago of nurses to save the hospital many and we've been chronically understaffed since.

It seems I work for an organization where nurses are an expense. I'm feeling a little sour about this because my manager came in and looked at her "numbers" and I had to answer for how I staffed the unit, she thought I could have done without a nurse to save money. I didn't think so and I justified it (a vent, five trached patients, three wound vacs, one patient restrainted, 8 isolated patients). It's aggravating even when we aren't short staffed, or we can get an agency nurse in, they don't want to pay for them, or want to cancel nurses to look good on paper. I guess it's cheaper to pay lawyers and insurance payments than hire adequate staff.