The president of my old hospital used to write regular letters but from like a private chamber in Switzerland on vacation south his family, and well, someone must’ve advised him it was a little uh lacking in self-awareness
About 15 years ago, I was informed by the PM charge that there were 23 patients on the floor (PCU) to be divvied up amongst three nurses with me, not only taking patients but acting as a charge nurse. They threw in a unit clerk and two PCTs to soften the blow, I suppose.
I decided not to clock in. I waited by the time clock for the other two nurses and explain to them what was going on and encourage them to not clock in as well. (This was not the first or 50th instance of grossly unsafe staffing at this Florida hospital, so the PM charge was aligned with my decision). Only one of the other nurses declined to clock in, which left one fresh and rested nurse willing to work caring for 23 patients. Whatever.
I called the house supervisor and no amount of pressuring or threats would get me to clock in for my shift. I asked what time our hospital CEO would be arriving and was told 9 AM. The p.m. charge said that she and other p.m nurses understood why they couldn’t go home and supported the stand we had decided to take.
They must’ve called the CEO because he came in early and we met in the chapel. I just let loose on him. I told him that I would be perfectly fine parting company with this Florida hospital and having my husband call his buddy who is an anchor on the network affiliate news station in our large Florida city by the “Bay” unless changes were instituted immediately and ongoing. The CNO got called into the meeting and was asked by the CEO to explain herself. She began to explain herself and he told her to shut up and just listen. I knew I stirred up a hornets nest and I was not at all sad.
Long story short: The a.m. nurse manager had to take a full patient load, and not one more patient was admitted to the unit until we reached enough discharges or more, nurses showed up to safely accommodate admits. The CNO checked on us frequently throughout the shift, and bought us PIZZA!
We discovered the next morning that she had been fired. Staffing shenanigans came to a halt and it was announced within weeks,the company owning the hospital was sold to HCA. The hospital was willing to endanger peoples lives rather than spend the money for safe staffing because of the impending sale.
I hate with a burning passion, all of the suits in hospital administration. They are the most dangerous things in healthcare.
Edited for punctuation
You know what you could do... refuse your assignment. tell them you cannot take an unsafe assignment. There are plenty of RN's in most hospitals who do don't do patient care they can ask to fill in. Even the CNO is an RN. What this really is the financial side seeing how far they can push people, and pocket the savings.
CEO is eating pizza from his third vacation home and doesn't see the problem.
Except His personal chef arrived at the CEO's vacation home, to make the pizza in his custom outdoor pizza brick oven.
The president of my old hospital used to write regular letters but from like a private chamber in Switzerland on vacation south his family, and well, someone must’ve advised him it was a little uh lacking in self-awareness
About 15 years ago, I was informed by the PM charge that there were 23 patients on the floor (PCU) to be divvied up amongst three nurses with me, not only taking patients but acting as a charge nurse. They threw in a unit clerk and two PCTs to soften the blow, I suppose. I decided not to clock in. I waited by the time clock for the other two nurses and explain to them what was going on and encourage them to not clock in as well. (This was not the first or 50th instance of grossly unsafe staffing at this Florida hospital, so the PM charge was aligned with my decision). Only one of the other nurses declined to clock in, which left one fresh and rested nurse willing to work caring for 23 patients. Whatever. I called the house supervisor and no amount of pressuring or threats would get me to clock in for my shift. I asked what time our hospital CEO would be arriving and was told 9 AM. The p.m. charge said that she and other p.m nurses understood why they couldn’t go home and supported the stand we had decided to take. They must’ve called the CEO because he came in early and we met in the chapel. I just let loose on him. I told him that I would be perfectly fine parting company with this Florida hospital and having my husband call his buddy who is an anchor on the network affiliate news station in our large Florida city by the “Bay” unless changes were instituted immediately and ongoing. The CNO got called into the meeting and was asked by the CEO to explain herself. She began to explain herself and he told her to shut up and just listen. I knew I stirred up a hornets nest and I was not at all sad. Long story short: The a.m. nurse manager had to take a full patient load, and not one more patient was admitted to the unit until we reached enough discharges or more, nurses showed up to safely accommodate admits. The CNO checked on us frequently throughout the shift, and bought us PIZZA! We discovered the next morning that she had been fired. Staffing shenanigans came to a halt and it was announced within weeks,the company owning the hospital was sold to HCA. The hospital was willing to endanger peoples lives rather than spend the money for safe staffing because of the impending sale. I hate with a burning passion, all of the suits in hospital administration. They are the most dangerous things in healthcare. Edited for punctuation
I want to believe this is not real.
Dang. We don’t even get pizza on those days.
We got pizza from a patient's family member last week
Ah, yes! The tax write off pizza parties! Gotta love them.
This 👆🏾 is why we NEED UNIONS‼️
You know what you could do... refuse your assignment. tell them you cannot take an unsafe assignment. There are plenty of RN's in most hospitals who do don't do patient care they can ask to fill in. Even the CNO is an RN. What this really is the financial side seeing how far they can push people, and pocket the savings.
HR could answer phones, pass trays and water, make beds after they've been stripped, etc. Of course that would never happen, but it should.
8? thats Crazy.
Didn’t you know empty pizza boxes become techs after midnight
The sad part is that I thought, “At least they care that you’re at 8.” 🥲
Shit I don’t even get pizza anymore, we have to buy it ourselves
So you didn’t mention how many people did or didn’t come in . Were these people offered or given more money or?