Why does Nursing put up with short staffing?

Nurses General Nursing

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I am wanting to get a little feedback as to why Nursing (in general) allows short staffing to be an issue? I am on our research committee at work and would like to get an idea of where to take my project. I would like to find an answer to the problem and not just more complaints. Thanks in advance for any insight.

Specializes in Emergency.

I agree with most of what all of you have said. I, too, work in an ER that is short staffed all the time. (except when JACHO comes!) The acquity is very bad these days and you never get lunch or a potty break! But, how do we attract nurses these days? More pay, more incentives? If we get more pay, the CEO's will want more pay!!! At our facility, the CEO gets a new car every year and the hospital pays for his rather large eloquent home!!! Not much left to trickle down to the help!!! I have refused to take more than what is safely designated as a nurse:patient ratio; but, other staff get upset with me! I have no answers. I just know that management is so ineffective. The whole place is unsafe!!!:scrying:

Specializes in SRNA.

The CEOs will want more pay regardless of whether or not nursing gets more pay or not. Not sure how that factors into anything. Attracting more nurses is a trivial matter - all you need to do is pay better and they will come. This is true of any profession.

-S

Another thing to remember is that the nursing dept. is the largest part of a hospitals budget. That's why they go after us first. Nickel and dime their budgets to death.

It never includes them (administration). Many places give them bonuses for for their performance as well. When the going gets rough all they care about are their jobs and bonuses.

We don't walk because are very easily manipulated by the "you can't leave the patients without a nurse" mentality. Firemen and policemen walk when they have to, to get what they need. Emotions are left out of it, women let guilt eat them alive. Male dominated professions don't give in when it comes to money. And there's your answer as to why the hospital admin. won't give in either-male dominated. Nothing against men, just the way it is.

Specializes in Mixed Level-1 ICU.

The nursing shortage is just one symptom of a much larger health care problem.

Several years ago I worked as a house supervisor. I learned a few interesting things.

The county I was in had 5 hospitals. Reported profits ranged from negative 6% to 15%.

Each hospital paid JACHO around 24 thousand dollars to survey them on the same things that the state and Medicare surveyed them on. How much preventive care could be provided for this money?

One hospital closed due to inability to pay its bills. The bankruptcy papers reported over 30 million in debt.

Drs admit patients and order additional tests to cover their backsides. They are afraid of being sued.

Families insist that "everything" be done for the terminal patient. I've always wondered how insistent they would be if they had to pay 10% of the costs after the patients are diagnosed as terminal? Except for hospice care, of course.

Every baby must be born perfect or someone has to PAY!

Families insist that Granny be admitted, though Granny isn't any sicker but the family wants/needs a break and can't/won't spend the money for private care or can't find safe reliable care.

No one has pay for the error of his or her ways. Alcoholics receive liver transplants, smokers get lung transplants and the overweight, high cholesterol, and non-exercising heart failure patients get a heart transplants.

The hospitals in the county footed the bill for an extra 60 nursing students per semester at the local colleges. They could only accept 30 due to a shortage of instructors.

Patients use the ED as their primary care provider because they don't have insurance or have inadequate coverage. Guess who pays? Each hospital in my county reported providing approx 5 million dollars a year in un-reimbursed or charitable care.

Drinking and driving.....need I say more?

Nurses are getting older, average age 45. Schools aren't turning them out as fast as we retire.

Women have more career options. We are no longer limited to teaching, nursing and secretarial work.

As a society we expect that all of our ailments, even those that are self-inflicted be treated and cured at whatever cost necessary. Do you think that if we had to foot more of the bill we might take better care of ourselves?

You will notice that none of the above has anything to do with hospitals trying to save money.

Our healthcare system has serious problems. We need to figure out solutions before there is no one to care for us when we are in need.

We need to recruit more young people into nursing and figure out who will teach them

We need to figure out a way to hold healthcare workers accountable for negligence and malpractice without having to resort to a legal system that continues to drive up costs without making our systems any safer.

We need to figure a way to provide basic preventive care and treatment of minor or chronic problems in order to decrease hospitalizations.

We need to be involved in addressing these problems or the nursing shortage is not only going to get worse, it may be the least of our problems.

We need to recruit more young people into nursing and figure out who will teach them

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I don't know how about recruiting more young people. The problem is to make them stay.

Specializes in LTC,Psych,M/S,HH,brief Peds.

Dear Tazzi ,

Where ever that prayer came from ,I have to tell you it is hilarious ! Surely someone will whine about it- ( "Statistics show that 15% of domestic abuse victims are men,and many more don't admit to it,whah whah,etc." ) .Tough ---- for them. Jonathan Winters got it right with something like,more than nuclear arms ,plague or anything else ,what frightens him is a person w/o a sense of humor.

My wife doesn't read allnurses , so maybe I'll just quote the 1st sentence to her ,though. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA ! !

God bless You for a Much needed chuckle.

Happy St. Valentine's Day !

But only my Wife gets a V Day card--if I can find it among all these Binder&Binder papers.

Sincerely , and freezing in 4 Corners,

T.

Specializes in Geriatrics and emergency medicine.

okay,,let's take last night for example. Here in PA we have a major snow/ice/sleet/whatever else it can think of storm. We started out with one CNA for the facility. Granted it is a very small (70) bed LTC, but with 2 LPN, 1 RN 1CNA,,not doable or most importantly safe. Roads were terrible, people trying to get there, DON downstairs in her office, Admin in her office, they all left at 3 and okay,,,where we to go for this.

The "dress up nurses" need to come out of their office, don a set of scrubs and get in there and HELP. Not just deligate, but get some gloves, and get into the thick of things. We did make it thru the night, meals in rooms, ect, but thank goodness no falls or crash and burns. Had some people eventually make it in. But,,,we all pulled together and kept them safe, warm, fed, and clean.

"but what kind of trouble will I be in."

I'll tell you what we know for sure...when you accept that untenable assigment, and you screw up, you'll be hung out to dry. Be sure to submit a from stating that you are being forced to work unsafely. Otherwise, you'll be on your own in court.

Documenting that you informed management that staffing is unsafe puts the onus on the facility not the nursing staff.

Copy the language from one of these forms. Give one the the supervisor ordering you to take too many patients.

Have all staff who agrees sign it. If you are the only one you will probably suffer retaliation.

When it is everyone working that unit on that shift what are they to do? You will have your documentation that you did your best under the circumstances.

Keep a copy and go make copies at Kinkos. One for everyone. It could save your license.

It is important to be educated and unified. As nurses we have the obligation to do no harm and to not allow harm to our patients.

Safe staffing saves lives.

For California - http://www.seiu616.org/docUploads/ADO_form.pdf

For Maryland - http://www.1199seiu.org/docUploads/assobjection%5Fpdf%2Epdf

Virginia - http://www.virginianurses.com/vna/WPADocuments/AssignmentDespiteObjection%20Form.rtf -

http://www.uannurse.org/resources/objectionform.html

http://www.uannurse.org/resources/objectionform/ado1prn.pdf

okay,,let's take last night for example. Here in PA we have a major snow/ice/sleet/whatever else it can think of storm. We started out with one CNA for the facility. Granted it is a very small (70) bed LTC, but with 2 LPN, 1 RN 1CNA,,not doable or most importantly safe. Roads were terrible, people trying to get there, DON downstairs in her office, Admin in her office, they all left at 3 and okay,,,where we to go for this.

The "dress up nurses" need to come out of their office, don a set of scrubs and get in there and HELP. Not just deligate, but get some gloves, and get into the thick of things. We did make it thru the night, meals in rooms, ect, but thank goodness no falls or crash and burns. Had some people eventually make it in. But,,,we all pulled together and kept them safe, warm, fed, and clean.

Three cheers for you for doing your job and adverse conditions. As for managment, used to be they could do the job of the people they supervise. There are still a few that can do that. But most of them want out of the mud and blood and vomit that is why they took that job. They have no intention of getting their hands dirty.
Specializes in Cardiothoracic Nurse,Nurse Educator.

I live and practice in Nigeria,I think nurses all good in improvising,where there is no equipment to work with,they improvise,where there are shortage of nurses,they also improvise. I wonder.

Specializes in Cardiac Medical, surgical, medical, more.

Australia have both private and public hospitals and we often work short, they say that they can't find agency nurses to cover. Pay here in australia is a little better, but still with heavy elderly patients and such people just don't want to do our jobs. We continue to care for the patients the best we can. At least in Australia we are not forced to do overtime unless we want to. We do have nurses unions, but in state where i live we have one of the weakest unions in Australia.

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