The Economy and your job as a nurse

mykrosphere · Feb 11, 2009

i have been working at an LTAC for a little over 2 months now and am very grateful to have a job.

it took me 6 months.

no job is recession proof, apparently.

eriksoln, BSN, RN · Feb 11, 2009

Shoot.

Just......shoot.

Got word today that contracts were being cancelled at the hospital I work at. We are being given a 4 week notice. Thats nice of them. Some places just tell you the day before.

So, I have gone from thinking I was going to go staff at a hospital I liked, go into the ICU and live out the dream of living in WA to realizing we have to go back to PA and find whatever staff position comes along, probably in M/S. Nice.

husker_rn, RN · Feb 11, 2009

I started my job mid-September and have gotten 1....that's one.... full paycheck in that time; been called off at least one shift each pay period. I'm still making more than I did 40 hrs a week at my last job so I'm not worried yet. But I wonder how bad it could get.

pagandeva2000, LPN · Feb 14, 2009

I am currently working in the OB/GYN clinic and we have run short of 24 hour urine bottles, U/A cups and urine culture cups. Two major hospitals have closed their doors in our area and we are a city hospital that is getting the backlash. They completely closed our inpatient pediatric unit because it only held 8 beds and are now using it for med-surg beds. I strongly suspect that they will extend the clinic hours in order to handle the volume.

The lab has been making numerous mistakes...they have been saying that the samples sent are old, but the real deal is that they are short, also, and maybe overlooked many of them.

The Patient Care Associates in the GYN clinic are so overwhelmed because many of them are calling in (they are TIRED). The male doctors have to be chaperoned, but, now, the aides and nurses are so spread thin that the doctors have just been doing the paps without chaparoning, but this is leading to the mislabeling of pap smears. There have been 5 unidentified pap smears this week alone. Meanwhile, we know that the many nurses that are suddenly displaced will be lining up here at our facility (which has a hiring freeze), so, management is threatening us with "You CAN be replaced". Sometimes you wonder...who is really better off? The displaced patients are suddenly thrust into our facility, who is busting at the seams to deal with our own, but the sudden growth of the catchment area is scary. These patients will be victims of the mistakes that will occur due to overburdened medical staff. And, daily, our licenses are at risk.

SDS_RN, RN · Feb 14, 2009

At our facility if people quit their jobs their positions are not being filled. It will be filled by the current staff. Our housekeeping and maintanence depts have had their hours cut. We also rotate to SDS, they have a few full time people, and the rest of us rotate up their. They have been putting us (the ones who rotate through) on call for SDS and the FT poeple up there are taking the hours. Sometimes we work 2-3 shifts every 2 weeks up there and that really hurts the hours if you get call 1-2 shifts. I'm thankful I have my job right now but I don't know how secure I feel in my job.

eriksoln, BSN, RN · Feb 14, 2009

I am currently working in the OB/GYN clinic and we have run short of 24 hour urine bottles, U/A cups and urine culture cups. Two major hospitals have closed their doors in our area and we are a city hospital that is getting the backlash. They completely closed our inpatient pediatric unit because it only held 8 beds and are now using it for med-surg beds. I strongly suspect that they will extend the clinic hours in order to handle the volume.
The lab has been making numerous mistakes...they have been saying that the samples sent are old, but the real deal is that they are short, also, and maybe overlooked many of them.
The Patient Care Associates in the GYN clinic are so overwhelmed because many of them are calling in (they are TIRED). The male doctors have to be chaperoned, but, now, the aides and nurses are so spread thin that the doctors have just been doing the paps without chaparoning, but this is leading to the mislabeling of pap smears. There have been 5 unidentified pap smears this week alone. Meanwhile, we know that the many nurses that are suddenly displaced will be lining up here at our facility (which has a hiring freeze), so, management is threatening us with "You CAN be replaced". Sometimes you wonder...who is really better off? The displaced patients are suddenly thrust into our facility, who is busting at the seams to deal with our own, but the sudden growth of the catchment area is scary. These patients will be victims of the mistakes that will occur due to overburdened medical staff. And, daily, our licenses are at risk.

This wont last forever. And when it goes back to the shortage being bad, they will lose good workers as nurses move on for more humane treatment. They'll be on their high horse for a year or so, then things change again, and they find themselves scambleing to figure out why people are leaving and trying to remedy it with crap incentives (a plastic embem on your 10th year anniversary, bonuses for not calling off that add up to nothing etc).

Just as I always said "Dont take too much advantage of the nursing shortage, or it'll come back on you." , they should remember how it was when they couldnt get workers cause it'll be that way again soon.

pagandeva2000, LPN · Feb 14, 2009

At our facility if people quit their jobs their positions are not being filled. It will be filled by the current staff. Our housekeeping and maintanence depts have had their hours cut. We also rotate to SDS, they have a few full time people, and the rest of us rotate up their. They have been putting us (the ones who rotate through) on call for SDS and the FT poeple up there are taking the hours. Sometimes we work 2-3 shifts every 2 weeks up there and that really hurts the hours if you get call 1-2 shifts. I'm thankful I have my job right now but I don't know how secure I feel in my job.

What does "SDS" mean? Similar things are happening at my place. The job postings are for transfer opportunities, only...not for outsiders. I can see the place becoming dirtier and dirtier, no food for the patients, running out of vaccines, supplies and bandaging wounds with toilet paper.

pagandeva2000, LPN · Feb 14, 2009

This wont last forever. And when it goes back to the shortage being bad, they will lose good workers as nurses move on for more humane treatment. They'll be on their high horse for a year or so, then things change again, and they find themselves scambleing to figure out why people are leaving and trying to remedy it with crap incentives (a plastic embem on your 10th year anniversary, bonuses for not calling off that add up to nothing etc).
Just as I always said "Dont take too much advantage of the nursing shortage, or it'll come back on you." , they should remember how it was when they couldnt get workers cause it'll be that way again soon.

I can see that happening as well...crap incentives. People are so tired that many are feeling that the laid off nurses are doing better than we are.

eriksoln, BSN, RN · Feb 14, 2009

I've already talked to my wife. We are going back to PA to go full time. If nothing.....acceptable comes along for me, I'll go do landscapeing again. I'm not afraid of it.

What I mean by acceptable is, I wont work in nurseing homes. I just dont. I'd rather return to my roots and do landscapeing again.

pagandeva2000, LPN · Feb 14, 2009

I've already talked to my wife. We are going back to PA to go full time. If nothing.....acceptable comes along for me, I'll go do landscapeing again. I'm not afraid of it.
What I mean by acceptable is, I wont work in nurseing homes. I just dont. I'd rather return to my roots and do landscapeing again.

I can understand your disdain for nursing homes. I hope not to have to resort to that, either. My conscience would not be clear taking care of so many patients with so little support. These poor patients are supposed to be in the prime of their lives...they should not have to endure their golden years in such shabby conditions, shortage of staff and the frayed nerves of the few that continue to come to work.

DoeRN · Feb 14, 2009

I have not seen anything at the hospital that I work at thank goodness. Around the holiday's I was worried because our census was so low that our unit closed and we were being floated to the house. But now we are understaffed which I am grateful because I can pick up extra shifts for a rainy day. But nursing is not recession proof. It may not hit us but I am sure it is hitting our family members because it has hit some of my family. So that is another way to look at it. Especially if a spouse is laid off we have to support the family now when it used to be 50/50.