I work in Healthcare, where theres been a Dr./Nurse shortage since before the pandemic. During and after the pandemic we hemorrhaged some of our best and most experienced clinical staff because they were just over it all, I know this happened all across the country.
We are consistently short staffed and stressed about how to cope with the high volume of patients with the staff we currently have. Recently our executive team announced in an effort to cut costs, people will now be getting their hours cut. Which essentially means floors who are already stretched thin with 5 floor nurses will probably only have 3-4 on any given day because they implemented a “no overtime” policy.
I’ve being hearing worried murmurs all over the Hospital because all these 20-30 year olds have young families to support, are already essentially getting paid the bare minimum to work in the field, and used overtime as a way to make decent money with the rapidly rising costs of todays world.
We are also getting repeatedly drilled by management to conserve supplies because they are so expensive. They’ve also reduced the par levels for these supplies and as a result we are running out of extremely basic things like disinfectant wipes, skin antiseptics and briefs for incontinent patients. I can literally see the life draining from the nurses eyes as they are forced to work short staffed, take more patients than they can handle, and now can no longer expect the hospital to carry supplies we need. It’s all too much.
I have no idea and cannot comprehend how the solution to higher materials costs is to cut nurses hours when we are already chronically understaffed.
I have been so stressed from it all Ive started having trouble sleeping at night and have been getting sick. I’m sure the executive pay is secure though.