Working short

Nurses General Nursing

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So I'm noticing now we work short more often than we don't, esp on the pff shifts. The last 2 days I've had 7 pts - on a cardiac stepdown- and nights have had 10 pts apiece. 
It's just not an occasional thing anymore. 
Do other hospitals have some sort of backup in place? Where are they supposed to find staff on short notice- can I get some ideas about what other hospitals do?

And, we already have travelers in that shortage mix ?

It is getting very tiresome and unsafe. Who should be in charge of staffing for inevitable holes?

Y'all are reminding me why I never wanted to work inpatient!

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Specializes in PCCN.
On 9/23/2020 at 4:06 PM, Been there,done that said:

 That would be to boost their bottom line, using the sweat off of nurse's backs. 

You are not kidding there! I had 7 again last night and ran around( plus having an isolation pt and we only have the plastic gowns,) my shirt was literally soaked, like wringing wet soaked.at least I hope I lost some weight...

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The hospital admins are pretty sure that nurses will not speak up and/or if they do nothing will come of it legally so they continue on abusing the nurses. The feel they make up for it by tossing a few gift bags, with a few candy bars the nurses way. Right now the admins excuse is the pandemic.

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Specializes in Emergency medicine.

Beentheredonethat user is 100% right. I’ve worked at several hospitals and they are rarely, if ever, fully staffed. I casually spoke to my brother’s best friend about it who used to work a job dedicated to saving businesses money and he said, “It’s cheaper to deal with lawsuits from malpractice or neglect than to hire more staff which is why you guys are never fully staffed.” As soon as I found this out my heart dropped. I was naive to think management was just having issues hiring and keeping people because nurses don’t get paid well and because we get overworked but nope it’s on purpose. Leave, get used to it, or unionize. 
I am now working as a unionized paramedic I get ONE pt at a time (some exceptions) always have at least one partner to help me, I get to finish my charting before going on to next patient and best of all I get paid more. In fact, I got paid more my first year than I did with two years experience as an RN in the ED. I will get paid more as a unionized paramedic once I’m at three years than I ever will as a non unionized RN. I tried to get nurses to unionize and they weren’t having it. So glad I left, but it breaks my heart to see nurses bombarded with pts when I’m dropping my one patient at a time. Once again, unionize or get a job where they are already unionized. 

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Essentially, this is management using patents like hostages.  That is a little dramatic, but I can't think of a better comparison.

Management knows that you will do your best to protect your patients from their abject failure to provide safe staffing.  And, every time you do, it reinforces their belief that there is no real problem.

Of course, even when you do your best, the patients suffer- just less directly, and more challenging to connect to management negligence.  More bed sores, fewer MD mistakes caught, that sort of thing.

Think of a commercial flight.  There are laws and regulations regarding staffing.  And, unlike nurses, pilots and other critical staff cannot just work more hours.  So- every flight is fully staffed by staff who have had the prescribed break time, etc.  Flights don't run short a co-pilot or engineer.

Any nursing shortage or hole in a schedule can be fixed with money.  If a regulatory agency threatened fines for unsafe staffing,  it would not happen.  If there were more lawsuits tied to unsafe staffing, it would not happen.  Hospitals make a simple financial decision based on risk benefit, and as it is currently structured, there is financial benefit to short staffing, and minimal risk.

 

 

 

 

 

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