What happens in your NICU when you are short staffed?

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Our unit has been chronically short staffed forever. However, lately the situation has gotten really,really bad. Last week the RN's had assignments ranging from 4 ICU babies each plus admissions to 8 special care babies without any NA/extern help. And I'm talking sick and tiny babies. And the charge nurses are often taking a full pt. load too. Fulltime nurses already have to work a mandatory OT shift. What does your unit do as an incentive to get nurses to come in when they know they will be slammed with a high pt. load/acuity? Do you have incentive or crisis pay? Do you use agency or travelers?

In the hospital I work at there was an incidence the other week where there was a short staffed nursing-unit. Our unit offered up some of our RN's, but they declined because one of their on-call nurses was coming in. So thats what my hospital does I guess. It was a matter of scheduling issues, they said. Best of luck. :)

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