"The Calm Before The Storm" Laying Nurses Off To Prepare For A Pandemic Surge
This article discusses the struggles of one hospital’s nurses going through what seems to be just the beginning of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. While many hospitals are overwhelmed, understaffed and without equipment some are laying off their nurses and cutting back their hours.
Throughout the US many hospitals are overwhelmed with the ongoing pandemic of the COVID-19 virus. They are short-staffed on nurses forcing them to work long overtime hours. Many are so overwhelmed that they are hiring travel nurses to make up for the shortage. I am currently an RN at a hospital in Minneapolis MN and am experiencing the complete opposite of this.
Social-Distancing?
I work on a floor consisting mainly of elective, emergent as well as non- emergent surgeries. A little over two weeks ago all elective surgeries were postponed and absolutely no patient visitors are allowed in the hospital. Initially they told us this decision was made to promote people to stay home (social distancing) and to conserve hospital beds, ventilators, monitors and other critical supplies that will be needed for this pandemic. This has left the hospital quiet and very empty compared to the normal chaos of the typical daily pace. Patients are anxious and feeling alone not being able to have family members with them for support. Family members are confused and scared, constantly calling to get updates on their loved ones’ condition. As nurses we are taking on a lot of stress relaying messages between doctors and families, consoling people that are sad or upset, and trying to be positive to help shed some light on this situation.
Hospitals are Unprepared
It seems as though the hospital did not know how to prepare for this type of crisis. After the first influx of patients being tested it took weeks to figure out where they would put these patients and how we would get proper protective equipment. They now have elected one of our medical floors to take all of the COVID rule-out and positive tested patients. In addition, some ICU beds have been dedicated to caring for the critically ill patients needing ventilators. You can see and hear the frustration with this decision because now all the responsibility to care for these patients is only on a select few units. They are putting themselves as well as their families at risk to be exposed to this virus. While these nurses are hard at work and in a high-stress environment, other floors have completely shut down or decreased their patient populations immensely. This includes the OR, care suites, surgical specialties, orthopedic and observation units. This last week many nurses have been called off to stay home or put on low need due to the decreased census of patients throughout the hospital. Nurses are being floated every day to sit at door entrances for hours, screening visitors trying to enter the hospital. Other nurses are teaching classes about how to put on and take off PPE equipment. Some are walking around going to every unit basically begging to find any place they can help. I have done so myself and can speak for most of the nurses that we all feel a little useless not being able to care for patients.
Financial Struggle Equals Threat of Lay-Off
This week we received notice that the hospital is struggling financially due to this pandemic. No surgeries and a major decrease in admissions mean no money coming into the system. In the next month they will be cutting back nurses’ hours, laying people off, or paying them a minimum of 50% of their FTE. The rationale for this is to conserve the hospital revenue as much as they can; all to prepare and utilize it to stock up on PPE equipment for the upcoming months when COVID numbers are expected to skyrocket.
Calm Before the Storm?
It is uneasy and hard to tell if this is truly the calm before the storm or if many nurses will have to apply for unemployment alongside a large number of other Americans. People see the news and expect all US nurses to be the ones on the front line helping patients and communities through this crisis. It is truly heartbreaking to feel that you may have to look for a new job at the end of this or could be thrown back into a completely unorganized surge of ill patients, without proper training or equipment. Nurses are full of anxiety and on edge not knowing what the future holds for us in our career. This pandemic is truly affecting everyone in a different way, causing lots of uncertainty and stress. I just hope that some clarity can be shed soon so we can properly prepare for this and try to prevent the spread of this virus to our population and healthcare workers.
I was going to sign up but look a bit closer at the government site. There it stated the voluntary basis (which was not done on the phone alerts they sent out). You would have to pay for everything, including your hotel. As for pay, all they would commit to is that 'they' were 'looking into how much, if any, they would reimburse you". So that's that.
I cannot afford to just go wherever they need me AND have to pay all expenses. I don't have the money for that. Add to the health risk and I decided to abstain.
I was going to sign up but look a bit closer at the government site. There it stated the voluntary basis (which was not done on the phone alerts they sent out). You would have to pay for everything, including your hotel. As for pay, all they would commit to is that 'they' were 'looking into how much, if any, they would reimburse you". So that's that.
I cannot afford to just go wherever they need me AND have to pay all expenses. I don't have the money for that. Add to the health risk and I decided to abstain.
Loa, I did that after Katrina. Fine. It was one week, my FT job was able to spare the three shifts I missed, and my life was in no peril. I paid for my flight, they housed me in an unused office. This? Even if I was 15 years younger with no kids, I wouldn't do this for free and I have friends on the front lines in NY.
I was going to sign up but look a bit closer at the government site. There it stated the voluntary basis (which was not done on the phone alerts they sent out). You would have to pay for everything, including your hotel. As for pay, all they would commit to is that 'they' were 'looking into how much, if any, they would reimburse you". So that's that.
I cannot afford to just go wherever they need me AND have to pay all expenses. I don't have the money for that. Add to the health risk and I decided to abstain.
If anyone is billing for your services, volunteering isn’t appropriate or necessary.
I would recommend looking into nursing for the VA. In addition to getting to serve Veterans, it's the best nursing job I've had (4 hospitals). More leave, better patient ratios and as a fed, we NEVER get sent home without pay due to census. usajobs.gov
I’m in SLC, UT. The situation is the same here, low census and lots of staff getting called off. The hospital has been generous enough to pay us for days off to alleviate the financial stress until the 15th of this month. In addition, as a thank you to all employees, we received an extra $200. The uncertainties of the situation certainly worries a lot and this is something I predicated a while back. A friend said “No way are nurses going to get laid off. The hospital is the most popular place in town right now.” Except it also is a business, and if/when money’s tight, someone’s gonna feel the cut. It’s unfortunate and scary.
I work in a rural hospital in the southwest Nd my hospitals CEO gave an interview to the local paper in the next town over stating how there might be layoffs or the hospital might shutdown due to decreasing revenue. When confronted by hospital staff he denied it obviously and said the newspaper twisted his words?. I moved halfway cross the country for this job and I have started to look for a new one in my home state.
I agree that flattening the curve is necessary, but I have a few very real questions.
#1. If COVID19 is as contagious as they say that it is, isn't it less a matter of "if" everyone gets sick but more a matter of WHEN than if we get all get sick or are symptomless carriers and develop antibodies?
#2 The longer that this goes on, the more devastation is occurring to our economy. People are losing jobs en masse. We hospital employees (mostly) are lucky to have a paycheck, even if it is our PTO. If our hospitals are empty, wouldn't it make sense to loosen some restrictions so that the hospitals are at least moving at a normal clip but not overwhelmed. They can be tightened if things speed along too quickly.
I agree, coronavirus is dangerous and dealy and social distancing is necessary, but could a controlled spread be done? It's going to have to spread before we're immune. It would be nice if it's done before the economy is completely devastated.
So.... I was laid off from my job in an elective procedural area a few weeks ago (I'm in NYS, for perspective). I was told at the time that we were going to get a massive surge of patients and that I would be redeployed back to the ICU from whence I came (I just left the ICU within the past couple of months). Cool, I don't mind temporarily going back to help with a national public health emergency. The days went by, the cases in my county ticked up at a glacially slow pace, as of today we have a whopping 350 cases in a county of half a million people. We have had 5 deaths. Our hospitals are bleeding money, the hospital I am based at is like a ghost town. We had 12 patients in our COVID ICU this weekend, 4 of whom transferred to a regular COVID floor because they were doing better. Our number of new cases is dropping daily. Statewide, the same thing is happening. The only hospitals that are swamped are those in the NYC area, and let's be real - those hospitals are a zoo to start with, given that NYC doesn't have enough hospitals to care for its population even on a good day.
Meanwhile, we have our governor essentially fear-mongering about this. We have him seizing ventilators and considering DRAFTING healthcare workers to go work wearing trashbags as protection in NYC. We have people calling the cops on their neighbors for letting their kids play outside together, and snitching on those businesses that are trying to remain open to pay the bills and keep their employees from becoming jobless. This economy was due for a correction, sure, but this isn't a correction - this is a government-created crapfest that needs to end immediately. The media has VERY irresponsibly invoked panic in the general population, refusing to focus on the fact that the vast majority of known infected people recover without requiring hospitalization. Instead, we get news article after news article obscuring details - "27 year old, healthy man dies of COVID!" when said man was MORBIDLY obese. Or, "Healthy grandfather dies of COVID!" then admitting later in the article that healthy grandpa had "a few" underlying conditions. Cut the crap. In the words of FDR - "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
So update for us. They are finalizing plans to pay us as they should. If we get sent home for low census we will be paid our full salary out of a disaster bank. If we are quarantined and cannot work from home or we test positive and are sick we will be paid out of a pandemic bank. We will no longer be required to use our personal leave time to cover absences caused by things beyond our control with regards to this pandemic. I am thankful to our union and to our administration for working together for the the greater good. United we stand!
So update for us. They are finalizing plans to pay us as they should. If we get sent home for low census we will be paid our full salary out of a disaster bank. If we are quarantined and cannot work from home or we test positive and are sick we will be paid out of a pandemic bank. We will no longer be required to use our personal leave time to cover absences caused by things beyond our control with regards to this pandemic. I am thankful to our union and to our administration for working together for the the greater good. United we stand!
That is amazing! Hope other organizations follow with the same soon.
.thumb.png.25dc111ae613e658de4a048da55b3337.png){kind=small}
DeeAngel
830 Posts
No mistress would ever tolerate being treated like used garbage.