Please help me understand.....

Sounds to me like they want better trained staff. RNs were retained while lesser educated staff were let go and offered a training path. Perhaps they had too many under qualified people and the workload was too much for the RNs.

But did they hire additional RN's? Or do the current ones now have a greater workload?

They reduced the number of beds to 60 and there are 90 RNs.

in the long run, it wil be better for the patients.

in the long run, it wil be better for the patients.

Not when RN's think they are above "grunt work" as one nursing student called patient care in another thread. I was recently in the hospital in the states and was lucky if an RN came in once during a shift. The vast majority of my care was provided by LPN's & CNA's, who were great while the RN's acted like it was a real inconvenience to answer any questions or interact with me. I hope I don't need to go into the hospital here!

in the long run, it wil be better for the patients.

Not when RN's think they are above "grunt work" as one nursing student called patient care in another thread. I was recently in the hospital in the states and was lucky if an RN came in once during a shift. The vast majority of my care was provided by LPN's & CNA's, who were great while the RN's acted like it was a real inconvenience to answer any questions or interact with me. I hope I don't need to go into the hospital here!

I agree with divinggirl.
Nowadays, RN's with their degrees and all do think patient care is not part of their job anymore. The old time nurses, who learned actually learned about patient care is one I would like to take care of me if I'm ever hospitalized. They give you a nice back rub with lotion and then put some baby powder on your back 🙂
(At least that is what they were taught in the states when they went to hospital run schools, not colleges.)

in the long run, it wil be better for the patients.

Not when RN's think they are above "grunt work" as one nursing student called patient care in another thread. I was recently in the hospital in the states and was lucky if an RN came in once during a shift. The vast majority of my care was provided by LPN's & CNA's, who were great while the RN's acted like it was a real inconvenience to answer any questions or interact with me. I hope I don't need to go into the hospital here!

I agree with divinggirl.
Nowadays, RN's with their degrees and all do think patient care is not part of their job anymore. The old time nurses, who learned actually learned about patient care is one I would like to take care of me if I'm ever hospitalized. They give you a nice back rub with lotion and then put some baby powder on your back 🙂
(At least that is what they were taught in the states when they went to hospital run schools, not colleges.)[/quote

How are nurses supposed to do patient care with the ratios now? Tell me that and patient care involves critical thinking. We don't get a Bachelors degree to give back rubs. By the way I did a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) course to get into nursing school and CNAs learn about the back rubs with lotion like you described. That was a 1 month course not 4 years of school. The hospital just fired those people that were supposed to give the back rubs.

We learn how to delegate at the RN level and when we take the NCLEX delegation is a huge part of the exam. You will get the question wrong if you assign an RN to do a back rub.

If hospitals staffed better we could provide better patient care. I feel sorry for the RNs on STX. I finially got in touch with one today and this person said the last two days have been hell. They cannot provide proper care as there is just NOT enough staff.

 

i didn't realise RN's were above doing the job assigned. I do think that in the next year it will be worse for the hospital and patients, after that it will get better-dont forget that they also want to get traveling nurses down to 10% of all nurses within a certain time period.
i heard they are doing this either to stay or get accredited to be able to get paid for medicare/medicaid ( dont remember which one is which ) Correct me if i am wrong

The RNs that were taught in hospital run RN nursing schools, usually lived in dorms next to the hospital. After one month, they were thrown on the floor to take care of patients. While you are still reading books.
These RNs were giving out medications, starting IVs, reading and writing in medical charts (no computers then), washing patients, cleaning bedpans, etc. I can go on and on. There was no assistants to do the so called "grunt work".
These nurses are one in a million. Too bad these nurses are probably now retired or have gone on to a better place.
Times have changed unfortunately.

I suspect that RN to patient ratios have changed significantly (nationwide, that is), so that an RN no longer has time to do everything for every patient. And it only makes sense to delegate the things that require less skill to those who are less skilled and pay each staff member accordingly. (Those who complain about your hospital bills, are you listening?) That said, it is too bad that there are nurses out there who feel that getting an occasional blanket, etc. is beneath them when it takes just as long to fulfill the request as it does to delegate it.

The RNs that were taught in hospital run RN nursing schools, usually lived in dorms next to the hospital. After one month, they were thrown on the floor to take care of patients. While you are still reading books.
These RNs were giving out medications, starting IVs, reading and writing in medical charts (no computers then), washing patients, cleaning bedpans, etc. I can go on and on. There was no assistants to do the so called "grunt work".
These nurses are one in a million. Too bad these nurses are probably now retired or have gone on to a better place.
Times have changed unfortunately.

We were in the hospital within 4 weeks of starting nursing school. It is an accelerated program and all of us already hold Bachelors in other fields so we got right down to nursing straight away. And yes we learned how to bathe patients, etc but that was in Fundamentals of Nursing and after that one 4 unit class if you want you can apply for your CNA. But the next trimester it is straight into med surge.

And "back then" there were certainly not the same ratios of nurse - patient then there is today on STX.

...and remember with the advent of new technology, drugs protocols etc etc ...there is a lot more to the technical side of nursing than there ever used to be. Those of you who are mourning the good old back rub days might consider how much closer to mid-level providers the RN's of today are than their counterparts of yesterday.

Back then, there was a greater 'knowledge and decision making-ability' gap between doctors and RN's....with RN's very rarely allowed to make clinical decisions etc.
Today, RN's have a far greater scope of practice than ever before - there are less of them to go around, but they have become highly specialized.

In many cases, the LPN's of today perform many of the tasks of the RN's of yesterday. The pay of RN's has also increased to reflect the new technical and scientific demands of the profession.
It is apples and oranges in the fast changing world of medicine.

I believe the article stated that the RNs would be given a $15K raise to compensate for the extra work and make the salaries here competitive with Florida.

the hospital would like to become a Magnet Hospital which in the long run should be better for the patients. Right now it is probably no where near that status.

I believe the article stated that the RNs would be given a $15K raise to compensate for the extra work and make the salaries here competitive with Florida.

Ha, yeah right. No they recently got that 8% decrease. My friend said nothing about an increase just more work. But more work to the point that EVRYONE is suffering as the patients are not getting the care they need.

They laid off nurses because they're bankrupt and cant afford to pay them. End of story.

I believe vicanuck has the right story. Money. And they couldn't lay off the more expensive/experienced RN's because the current staffing is actually under what is required for the ratio of patients to nurses (90 nurses for 60 beds is not enough when you remember that it is 24 hour care we are talking about). They actually have to hire more RN's in order to stay 'certified' or whatever. It's a disgrace that nursing staff is what gets cut, along with teachers and police ... when the government needs to cut costs. They could easily instead cut 5 senators and save triple the dollars. We know we don't need them.

Yep, It's a numbe's game. The same game is played in public school with "class size" limits and teacher/student ratios. The obejiect of the game is too juggle the staffing staffs in such way as to retain funding. Looks good a paper anyway.

Sorry to hijack this thread. Anyone know if they are hiring? I though there was a hiring freeze but their website listed a few positions still.

Sorry to hijack this thread. Anyone know if they are hiring? I though there was a hiring freeze but their website listed a few positions still.

Word of mouth is they are hiring RNs. The current RNs can't keep up with the demand.

What type of job were you thinking of?

Doctor of pharmacy/clinical pharmacist. Its for my wife.

Doctor of pharmacy/clinical pharmacist. Its for my wife.

That I don't know. But I know they laid off LPNs, CNAs, and my friend said they are getting rid of a bunch of administrative staff. But I think they are hring in other areas. Not sure about pharmacists though.

okie: Have a look at the Schneider website for St Thomas and St John: http://www.srmedicalcenter.org/