I'm an ICU nurse. We've been running short staffed in every department for 2 years straight since COVID started. They fired and slowed hiring and never returned to normal. Pharmacy techs, the folks who make STAT meds for us when patients are crashing like blood pressure meds or sedation, are short. There are usually 1-2 on at night for a 400+ bed hospital. They make $12.50 an hour. For reference gas station clerks here make $16 starting.
Sterile processing is closed after 10 now along with central supply. Out of IV fluid? We need to walk 2-3 city blocks to get more from elsewhere in our facility. Biomed is only here from 8a-4p. Our ultrasound machine went down and nobody knew how to fix it last night so we had to place a central line in someone blind.
But the REALLY unforgivable shit? The travelers running our MRI machine had their contracts dropped, and they don't want to hire more EEG techs at $14.50 an hour (tools we use to diagnose neurological disorders) meaning we need to ship these patients several hours away. Often these patients are intubated and no ground transport is available to take them as it requires special crews and equipment. So they are transported via helicopter. For those who don't know, air ambulance rides are virtually never covered by insurance and cost 20-80k, easily.
We are saddling disabled patients and their families with tens of thousands of dollars of debt, because a hospital won't pay someone less than a McDonald's worker to be on call to do an EEG at night, something that takes 20 minutes and costs pennies. This “industry” is evil.
Our CEO and COO have gotten 200% raises the past 2 years and they're offering us a 4% pay cut with inflation. I can't wait for I and my fellow nurses to strike.