We’ve shut down 2 full floors and don’t have staff for our others to be at full capacity. ED hallways are filled with patients because there’s no transfers to the floor. Management keeps saying we have no beds but it’s really no staff. Covid is rising in the area again but even when it was low we had the same problems. I work in the OR and we constantly have to be on PACU hold bc they can’t transfer their patients either. I’m just wondering if everyone else feels like this is just the beginning of the end for our healthcare system or if there’s reason to hope it’s going to turn around at some point. I just don’t see how we come back from this, I graduated May 2020 and this is all I’ve known. As soon as I get my 2 years in July I’m going to travel bc if I’m going to work in a shit show I minds well get paid for it.
And one of the commenters:
My hospital is about done.
All the RT’s left.
Losing Trauma center designation.
Only 3 RN’s left that aren’t travelers. Willing to pay $2550/week for a traveler, but only give staff RN’s a snocone and 55 cent raise.
New CNO is under 40, hasn’t worked a floor in near a decade, and caused 3 ER nurses and 1 floor nurse quit in the last month, but keeps it secret from the CEO.
CEO has a townhall meeting and tells all nurses, RT’s, and the 2 CNA’s that haven’t left that we’re a dime a dozen.
Can’t hire regular staff because region is remote mountain desert with a cost of living 7% higher than national COL avg. Gas $4 in Texas type expensive.
I got sick and called out one day. I have an ADA protected disability. CNO texts me that, “you know you won’t get paid”, and follows with “I just wanted you to know”. So, I resign and have filed with EEOC for ADA harassment/discrimination.
I get that hospitals are a business, but it’s clearly time for a change when administration is shitting up the works this bad. I mean, it’s so bad that everywhere I go in the region people have heard about the drama and they worry about their loved ones because of the lack of people. We service a vast area larger than 2 states and Puerto Rico.
God damn America, news at 10.
Man, this stuff is terrifying, feels like if I get hurt or sick with something that is treatable but serious I will just die.
Pretty much. And with a 4-10+ year lagtime before they replace the nurses and doctors, if the hospital infrastructure still exists for them and they haven’t emigrated. If a broken leg isn’t set and it becomes infected but there isn’t an ICU bed or surgical table for the sepsis, we’re back to dying of broken bones.
Don’t forger all the new nurses graduating this year will not be anywhere near the level of competency needed for replacing these retiring/leaving nurses (also betting these new hire nurses will be quickly burnt out and move away from any critical care fields for greener pastures after experiencing all this abuse).
(also betting these new hire nurses will be quickly burnt out and move away from any critical care fields for greener pastures after experiencing all this abuse).
One of the big lines that stands out to me is:
Only 3 RN’s left that aren’t travelers. Willing to pay $2550/week for a traveler, but only give staff RN’s a snocone and 55 cent raise.
If I was doing the same job as the person next to me and they made twice as much, I’d quit immediately. Nurses graduating into contracts are going to be so burnt out. My old nursing home had an LPN programme where they’d pay for it if you accepted a two year contract at like $18/hr. Less than they currently pay CNAs. My life would become Catch-22 as I find wacky new ways to escape the war.
We’ve been doing frontier medicine for a while but it really seems like we all need to learn some more advanced shit like how to set a bone or pack a wound.
Depending on the type and location of a fracture, setting a bone isn’t as advanced as you’d think. It’s not ideal without imaging and other tools, but it’s… doable if you don’t have any other choice.
I am a doctor. Please do not even consider “setting a bone” without a medical license. It is a lot more complicated than you think it is. It isn’t “doable” or " not ideal" you could maim or kill someone.
