The hospital system
where I pick up shifts as an RN recently went through a round of asking nurses
and other staff to take ”voluntary severance packages”, or more accurately early
retirement. They needed more than 200 people to accept this offer or they would
need to start layoffs soon. This is not unusual as many hospitals including one
of the largest systems in the country, Kaiser Permanente, has been recently
been doing the same thing at their 37 hospitals and asking people to take
severance packages and leave.
This is a good
and a bad thing for nursing. Why is getting rid of RN’s a good thing? Because a
lot of these retirement packages were aimed at nurses and staff who were
hanging on, and needed encouragement to leave. I can’t blame them when in the
bay area a nurse can easily make over six figures. But, healthcare is a
business in this country and money will always be a factor in how decisions are
made. It is hard to see some of them go because of the wealth of knowledge they
had for newer nurses. However, maybe in a few years this will open up jobs
again for new grads in this area.
The bad is if there was a nursing shortage do you think they would be
getting rid of nurses, even expensive ones? You can Google nursing shortage
myth or not, and get many reasons for the pros and cons of whether there is a
nursing shortage now or in the future. All I know is around here new grads are
not finding jobs. This may be different other parts of the country, but if you
are going into nursing do some research. Because nursing schools will cry
shortage, but they need students and their money. People need to make sure
nursing is what you want to do and not because it is a job or you can’t think
of anything else.
4 comments:
I heard a lot about there beinga nursing shortage before I went to school, but now that I am out, I know plenty of new nurses who have had trouble finding employment,and most new nurses could only get casual as their is hardly anyhting out there. Not much of a shortage if you ask me.
Come to Canada!
Even as a nurse with 4yrs experience, it took me almost an entire year to get a job in northern ca. Definitely not a good area for nursing.
Hi, nice blog Really very interesting post shared above. Awaiting for more posts like this.
Post a Comment