true or false?

[lmc512]

At my hospital recently a lot of staff in all departments, not just OB, have been getting canceled or floated due to low census. One unit last week had an estimated 60 cancellation/floats in one week. The hospital says this is due to the "downturn in the entire economy." They are also not just canceling staff but increasing the nurse to pt ratios and the charge nurses are having to take full assignments despite the fact there are no techs or sec's on. Admin tells us there is a drop in census in hospitals all over the country now. Have you all found this to be true at your hospitals? I feel like there are so many salaried administration types (excluding nurse managers) that are not on the "front lines" that continue to work their worthless 9-5 positions (maybe that was too harsh) while nurses get stretched dangerously thin and they cut staff in other vital depts such as laundry so you can't even get any linens delivered for over 24 hours because there literally isn't anyone to bring it so your patients lay there on dirty, bloody sheets and you try your best to cover the blood with chux and apologize over and over. And how does admin explain babies having no shirts or blankets after they are just born because there are none! It's getting absurd! That was a little ranting...sorry. What have been your experiences?

[dodgemama]

I too am feeling your pain... our unit is very small (297 deliveries last year) and includes GYN and PEDS. So far for the year we are down 60 deliveries, there aren't as many hysters staying over, and the peds admissions are few and far between (hopefully RSV season will help out a little in the coming months!). Our hospital has been through a lay-off at the beginning of this summer and we're still struggling. Being that our unit is also a closed unit, we have always taken call (at minimum wage) on a rotating basis to help dispel the costs of when we have no patients. This can really put a damper on the paycheck - one paycheck I had 6 call shifts out of my 9 scheduled.... OUCH!!! Thankfully we usually have an overflow of pts come in the next week and there are chances to double for the overtime which can help a little!

[babyktchr, BSN, RN]

Small hospital here, always seems to be on code max. I have to justify OT on a daily basis, make sure staffing matches census..blah blah blah blah blah. No change in exec. management, added MORE actually. As one poster said, patients are being charged premium money for CARE. Why doesn't ANYONE understand that if you cut those that are taking CARE of the patient, then there are COMPLAINTS and dangerous situations. It is ridiculous. Nursing is the easy budget cut, sorry to say and I do agree that more people need to know about it. Lawsuits abound for so many things...why not for understaffing???