From Nursing Shortage to Glut: Vanishing Jobs in Economic Daze
June 21st, 2010 | The Blog
The days of sign-up bonuses for nurses are gone. The reverse cycle is now in force, with hospitals closing units due to lack of inpatients. This ridiculous situation has of course nothing to do with unaffordable treatment or the sleazy pseudo business elements which have replaced medical considerations.
At this rate, medical colleges will stop training doctors because it’s too expensive and there’s nowhere for them to practice. The misanthropic process described as health care management has managed, if nothing else, to follow its circular logic a few steps further.
Evidence is emerging of a pattern in nursing employment which is faithfully reproducing the altruistic ethos of “Lower costs, higher fees”. Nurses are finding a blank zone where there was once surging demand. Hospitals are becoming a point of diminishing return for nursing careers. If the management culture doesn’t drive them out, opportunities elsewhere will.
Current Bureau of Labor Statistics figures predict that the lowest area of demand will be in hospitals. The highest will be in private practice, home health, and aged care and nursing.
So much for the theory that social reality gets any attention.
What about the people who need a hospital, maybe even one with people in it to provide health care?
If even the idea of hospital management is an actual concept in any practical form, what, exactly, is being managed?
Sick people or sick spreadsheets? Apparently the spreadsheets are in worse health than the people. They’re getting round the clock intensive care, all the time. My theory is that since people are no longer trained to manage either businesses or people, the only thing these neophytes know how to do is manage spreadsheets. That’s when they’re not in meetings, of course, discussing all the recent disasters since previous meetings.
Obviously, it’s better to have people with contagious/lethal diseases unable to afford even basic treatment than to have a rational and possibly intrusive employment policy.
(Perish the thought that mere relevance should become part of management science in any form. What if somebody on Earth accidentally figured out what they were supposed to be doing?)
There is, however, a compromise position, which will be fully endorsed by even the most uncomprehending manager: Medical conditions with audit trails.
If you’re dead, or trying to be, for example, you could get a receipt from your disease(s) in some acceptable form, like a death certificate, and take it to the hospital. People could spring into advanced apathy mode without needing to hire anyone.
Meanwhile, just keep the plagues coming and the jobs off the market, guys.
It’s such fun.
7 Responses to “From Nursing Shortage to Glut: Vanishing Jobs in Economic Daze”
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“The days of sign-up bonuses for nurses are gone. ”
With too many strikes and issues on nurses lately a bonus is the one that is the last to be expected. Nurse staffing and right nurse-to-patient ratio is better than any bonuses.
[...] From Nursing Shortage to Glut: Vanishing Jobs in Economic Daze … [...]
The annual bonuses at our organization disappeared right after I was hired (did I jinx them?).
No notice, nothing, just gone. No explanation. Really made a lot of loyal employees mad.
For the first time that I know of, we are not hiring nurses or aides.
I am driving farther from home to get to patients.
I’m glad I’m old, I’d hate to be around much longer. I feel for the young people…
superLPN- It’s a pretty trashy situation. Really can’t envy these kids, having to try to create careers in a sector that looks unhealthily like a nuthouse.
I can relate. I am an RN with an reasonably impressive resume. Back in July I quit a very good job. Or what I thought was a good job for the last 3 1/2 years. But when budget cuts,cuts in staffing,and make sure i did not work past 40 hrs a week. Left me totally responsiable for insuring adaquite and very high quality care for 44 residents. I could not continue to function at the level I think a good nurse should. Over the last year I requested to be placed back on the floor. Because I felt burned out. I was told either do the job you are hired for or find another job. Well, this just told me, That our well being as care givers isn’t important to our employers. The bottom line is…money. so I remain unemployeed, and not sure if I want to continue in nursing. I was apart of a great team we recieved 3 perfect DHEC survays in a row..hard to do.A part of a team that didn’t care about it’s nursing staff. Which feels rotten.
More nursing layoffs will come. Hospitals are not doing well financially and nursing schools are still churning out new nurses. The Nursing Glut (visit us on facebook) is here and it is here to stay. Learn more at http://www.nursinglut.com
As a middle-aged man with few local opportunities in engineering or manufacturing I was seduced into entering the highly respected and “recession proof” profession of Nursing. I spent lots of money and effort attending a 2 year RN program, graduated with honors, then served a 2-1/2 year term on a chaotic, poorly managed, stress-ridden medical surgical unit. Although a per diem employee I worked full-time hours and yet was awakened just about every off-day morning to work for “call-ins.” During that period of time the number of patients remained the same while the “paperwork” requirements continually increased. It was sometimes a challenge to treat patients with compassion and dignity when MY feet were constantly held to the fire. The ethical dilemma would arise; do I attend to my patient’s needs, do I complete the paperwork to some reasonably professional standard or, do I go home on time. After considerable discussion with other nurses, some of whom quit their jobs with stress-related illnesses, it almost seems like a paradigm in the nursing profession that you will run around like a freshly beheaded chicken all day, ensuring the safety of your patients, making no mistakes, all the while being told by your manager “we just can’t find nurses to hire.” I believe the truth was that they just couldn’t find nurses willing to do many of the available nursing jobs. This all took place three years ago. Since then that hospital has cut back salaries, eliminated people (including myself without explanation but possibly for not overflowing with appreciation for the job), and “turned over” a large part of their nursing staff. While I am self-employed now I would like to utilize my recent education and return to a clinical nursing position but have gotten the feeling that HR departments have so many applicants they they have gotten to hate them! A common tactic seems to be to post “tons” of jobs on their website which you can only apply for online. They demand all kinds of upfront personal information which is highly irrevalent at that point (and possibly at anytime)before you’re allowed to complete the application. I was told but can’t verify that these apps. are then scanned and sorted with a software program. Where the cherry picking process goes from there I don’t know. I have received varied responses including: very often none at all (a truly perfect vacuum), email responses from third-party pprofessional recruitment software companies, to little form letters signed “The Team.” Wow, that must be one of those trendy new names! While not religious, I pray that I never dehumanized or treated any of my patients with such indignity! The bottom line here is that the economy is suffering and it has affected nursing just like many other professions. Now that they have nurses over the proverbial barrel they will demand more educational credentials. One hospital told me they’re only hiring BS degree nurses and not to bother applying. This is kind of a hoot, the thought of doubling the time and expense of school for the priviledge of doing the same thing. After reviewing some BS nursing curricula it appears to me that they don’t have much to do with much of the nitty-gritty aspects of nursing: advanced A&P, patient assessment, pharmacology, clinical skills, foreign language, etc. I was “forced” to take an academic exit exam after school. I placed ahead of 90% of two AND four year graduates and now they’re suggesting I need to go right back for more school. The educational system of course sees this as an opportunity and has stepped up to the plate. You’ll notice the proliferation of on-line and private programs ostensibly for your convenience but more likely for greater profit on their part. I recently talked with the chairperson of my nursing department and she did admit that the program wasn’t “sugarcoating” the prospects of employment opportunities but nevertheless is going full steam with their four year program. I like and respect that person and didn’t have the guts to suggest that if they really cared for nurses that they shut the schools down for a few years to allow the glut of nurses to clear up a bit. If nurses were truly in demand perhaps the healthcare system would begin to treat them with the respect they deserve. Now I gotta get to back to my non-nursing job. Thank you and good luck nurses.