"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. Nurses COVID Article

  • Specializes in Registered nurse on a surgical specialties unit.

You are reading page 2 of "The Calm Before The Storm" Laying Nurses Off To Prepare For A Pandemic Surge

DeeAngel

830 Posts

No mistress would ever tolerate being treated like used garbage.

LockportRN

248 Posts

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.

CampyCamp, RN

259 Posts

29 minutes ago, LockportRN said:

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.

rzyzzy

389 Posts

2 hours ago, LockportRN said:

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.

maydaymalone, BSN, RN

1 Article; 14 Posts

Specializes in Emergency; PACU, Cath Lab.

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

Good luck!

Specializes in BMT/oncology.

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.

apmarquez

70 Posts

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.

Specializes in Ortho, CMSRN.

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.

Specializes in Retired.

Controlled spread? If people are allowed to pee in a swimming pool, but only in a designated spot, is that a "controlled spread?"

Specializes in Critical Care.

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."

Wuzzie

5,116 Posts

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!

Specializes in PeriOp, ICU, PICU, NICU.
4 minutes ago, Wuzzie said:

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.