The economy and your job

[StephanieS321]

Hey. I was just wondering your job has been affected by the economy recently? less overtime available, working less days, no raises, etc....

[amjowens]

At our hospital, we are staying busy: radiology, lab, pt, nurse assistant, clerk are all being cut back, they are even laying off the morgue transporters. nurses have been told our jobs are the only ones which wont be cut, good i guess but from my point of view we'll be doing alot more: drawing blood, inputting labs in computer, taking deceased body downstairs and arranging funeral pickup, i better not complain though :)

ooh! Very scary! This is sad for the future of nursing. :eek: Sure, we might have a job, but look at how many jobs. I wonder where patient care fits into all these job descriptions?

[RN4U2MEET]

I have also seen a decline in the number of elective procedures being done. I am a traveler and have maintained the same position for the past year and am taking my turn at being called off. There are some per diem nurses that are looking for work. We are thinking this will all end with the flu season.

[Simba&NalasMom, LPN]

I've been working agency (LPN, mostly LTC) the last few months. So far they have plenty of work for me; NH residents still need care no matter what's happening on Wall Street, but I am surprised that they have not seen fewer call-ins!

[queenjean]

We were just talking about this at work last night. We are seeing fewer elective surgeries, and overall our census has been lower. I think our census is lower that it was a year ago because we are seeing more people refuse to be admitted. Our ER is sending more people home on po abx and home breathing tx. Fewer people being admitted for pain, n/v, etc.

The reasons people give for refusing admission are many, but major ones are that they don't have anyone to watch their children (the other parent/friends/family can't take time off of their job) or that they don't have insurance or simply can't afford it.

We used to be able to get OT whenever we wanted. Lately we've been working overstaffed (can you believe it) and even with that they have been having to call people off. I charge sometimes and I have been oriented to everywhere in the hospital but ICU and ER, so if the medical floor calls me off, I can float to mother/baby, nursery, pediatrics, surgical, etc. I'm glad to have that option!

[madwife2002, BSN, RN]

We have been consistant and labor day was the only day I took a low cencus day. I have gone home an hour or so early on occasions. The pts we are getting tend to be sicker but I do believe we have been admitting some pts who really could be cured as out pts. So I guess my hospital has been admitting to pay the bills. Mind you only a fool would want to do overtime in my facility with the negative atmosphere going on.

[akanini, MSN, RN]

My LTC facility NEEDS people.

[pagandeva2000, LPN]

My LTC facility NEEDS people.

I live in NY, also. What facility is this?

[Jules A, MSN]

What I have found is that although my speciality is still booming with business there seem to be less nurses calling off and also less people quitting jobs so the end result is less open shifts to pick up and fewer job openings.

[locolorenzo22, BSN, RN]

It depends...there are a lot of people who are pregnant at the moment, and that opens up their shifts for others. Also, there are less elective surgeries...but the fact that we are the only area hospital for orthopedics and the only hospital outside of chicago for the area that has neurosurgeons helps. We are usually fairly full...it may go down around the holidays, but there are always people who break hips or bones slipping on the ice....but don't be one of em!

[angel337, MSN, RN]

i have noticed more people are going staff so that they have guaranteed hours, but what this does is shorten hours for agency and registry nurses. we still have enough OT to go around.

[Pudnluv, ASN, RN]

We have lots of open slots in the schedule so there is plenty of overtime available. Also staff has been getting mandated left and right. One floor in our facility has 60 open slots on the next schedule for day shift alone. We get time and 3/4 if mandated for a pre-existing slot. So business is booming. But I still thank heavens I have a job, because nothing is truly safe in this economy.

[ocb_dave_ocb, LPN]

They cut out overtime for about a week at our facility... D/T low census.. By the next week they were calling me and my wife wanting us both to pull overtime...

Buisness is still booming, they just hired 4 or 5 new CNA's and about 3 new LPN's