Why haven't hospital systems in hard-hit areas reached out to state BONs to find out if there are former ICU or other high-demand specialty nurses?

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Pure curiosity here, but surely there has to be some way for the state BONs to track nurses who recently used to work in ICU nursing or other very high demand areas pertaining to COVID crises.

For instance, I used to work ICU and adult inpatient hemodialysis. Now I work in psych. Here in Houston there's apparently a severe shortage of active RNs in this area who specialized in either of these areas. One would think I would be getting letters in the mail attempting to recruit me to temporarily join or something. We live in an area where people will randomly call you asking to buy your house and whatnot. Weird they never did such a thing with specialty nurses.

Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.
9 hours ago, A Hit With The Ladies said:

At the very least, they ought to be offering free and immediate ACLS courses for those who used to be ICU RNs!

What exactly is it that you think the BON does? It sets standards, sets curriculum for and approves nursing programs, licenses nurses, and protects the public. It does not provide education (although it may be involved in approving providers). ACLS classes are provided by training centers; primarily in my neck of the woods by the American Heart Association approves those centers. The BON are government run and government funded. They don't have the manpower to do all that you've mentioned they should be doing in this thread.

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Specializes in Critical care, tele, Medical-Surgical.

Why haven't people followed the recommendation that people wear cloth face coverings in public settings and when around people who don’t live in your household?

Couldn't that have prevented people who have COVID-19 from spreading the virus to others thus keeping them well instead of in hospitals, intensive care units, and the mortuaries and refrigerated trucks?

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Specializes in Psych.
15 minutes ago, herring_RN said:

Why haven't people followed the recommendation that people wear cloth face coverings in public settings and when around people who don’t live in your household?

Couldn't that have prevented people who have COVID-19 from spreading the virus to others thus keeping them well instead of in hospitals, intensive care units, and the mortuaries and refrigerated trucks?

Nope. Failed miserably in authoritarian systems like in Bolivia and California.

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On 7/10/2020 at 11:34 PM, A Hit With The Ladies said:

Pure curiosity here, but surely there has to be some way for the state BONs to track nurses who recently used to work in ICU nursing or other very high demand areas pertaining to COVID crises.

For instance, I used to work ICU and adult inpatient hemodialysis. Now I work in psych. Here in Houston there's apparently a severe shortage of active RNs in this area who specialized in either of these areas. One would think I would be getting letters in the mail attempting to recruit me to temporarily join or something. We live in an area where people will randomly call you asking to buy your house and whatnot. Weird they never did such a thing with specialty nurses.

I have read of some nurses in positions of influence expressing comments that suggest to me that they are concerned that those who currently have jobs may be replaced by volunteer recruits. I think this may be part of what you are seeing.

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Specializes in oncology.
Quote

Here in Houston there's apparently a severe shortage of active RNs in this area who specialized in either of these areas. One would think I would be getting letters in the mail attempting to recruit me to temporarily join or something.

Probably the acquisition cost of actually luring a nurse with the skill set needed from another employer is way too costly. And wooing those who currently are not working in the specialty would cost too much in orientation costs. After all those nurses are not currently working in ICU for their own reasons. There are much more cost effective ways to find interested or targeted employees including cross training those already employed in different areas of the acute care spectrum.

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People retire for a reason. I imagine many of those nurses would be in their golden years and fall into higher risk groups, too. Beyond that, covid hasn’t been a quiet occurrence. Absolutely everyone knows what’s going on, and it would make more sense for retired nurses who are qualified and interested to step up on their own.

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Specializes in Dialysis.
3 hours ago, Sour Lemon said:

People retire for a reason. I imagine many of those nurses would be in their golden years and fall into higher risk groups, too. Beyond that, covid hasn’t been a quiet occurrence. Absolutely everyone knows what’s going on, and it would make more sense for retired nurses who are qualified and interested to step up on their own.

I'm not retired, but have many years of ICU experience. None of it is current. I'd be more of a hindrance being brought up to speed on protocols and other things. Probably many others who are in the same boat as me. In the area of Indiana where I live, cases are up, hospitalization is way down, deaths are way down. In Indy, where I work, the info varies by media source, ISDH, etc

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6 hours ago, Hoosier_RN said:

I'm not retired, but have many years of ICU experience. None of it is current. I'd be more of a hindrance being brought up to speed on protocols and other things. Probably many others who are in the same boat as me. In the area of Indiana where I live, cases are up, hospitalization is way down, deaths are way down. In Indy, where I work, the info varies by media source, ISDH, etc

The OP's area apparently is, according to the OP, experiencing an actual shortage of ICU and dialysis nurses. And areas that aren't currently experiencing shortages of specialty nurses could do so in the future. It appears that the Covid-19 Pandemic is still in the early stages. So shortages of specialty and other nurses may become widespread.

Because of the above, it makes sense to me (as I believe it does to the OP) to start reaching out to specialty nurses now, including those who are Board Certified and aren't currently practicing in the specialty, and taking steps to ascertain if they are interested in helping and what training/education would be needed for them to be able to competently provide care under appropriate clinical supervision. Online education is feasible and practical. Facility protocols/policies and procedures can be made available online to selected nurses. Specialty nursing organizations have recently provided some excellent clinical education resources to nurses, free of charge, online.

We are talking about a Pandemic Crisis situation, where by necessity some things are done in ways they are not usually done because of the constraints of the situation.

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Because most states already have a pandemic response team coordinated by the State Board of Nursing which is going to be able reach everyone and are already providing this info to care facilities throughout their states.

You didn't know this and yet here you are posting approximately 87 messages a day on COVID promoting your alleged expertise. How odd.

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11 hours ago, Hoosier_RN said:

I'm not retired, but have many years of ICU experience. None of it is current. I'd be more of a hindrance being brought up to speed on protocols and other things. Probably many others who are in the same boat as me. In the area of Indiana where I live, cases are up, hospitalization is way down, deaths are way down. In Indy, where I work, the info varies by media source, ISDH, etc

https://www.coronavirus.in.gov/

your best source. I watch all our bordering states including yours.

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On 7/12/2020 at 7:18 PM, herring_RN said:

Why haven't people followed the recommendation that people wear cloth face coverings in public settings and when around people who don’t live in your household?

Couldn't that have prevented people who have COVID-19 from spreading the virus to others thus keeping them well instead of in hospitals, intensive care units, and the mortuaries and refrigerated trucks?

Obviously it could have. The irony is that the protestors that coordinated with teh President to stampede all our state capitals and harass as "tyrants" Governors that were tirelessly trying to keep their citizens alive, attacking public health officials, and pushing to reopen prematurely and unsafely on the grounds it was supposed to save the economy, are the very ones who put millions of small businesses under and have tanked the economy.

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Specializes in Dialysis.
1 hour ago, OinksNemisis said:

https://www.coronavirus.in.gov/

your best source. I watch all our bordering states including yours.

This is one of the sources that I already use

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