Pennsylvania: Experts predict nursing shortage

[nursinghumor]

03/28/2005: Pennsylvania: Experts predict nursing shortage:"Editor's note: This story is the first in a two-day series examining the shortage of nurses predicted in Pennsylvania in the next five years and how local hospitals are addressing staffing issues.More students than ever are selecting nursing as a career, but the Pennsylvania Workforce Investment Board is still predicting a shortage of 17,000 nurses in the state by 2010. "This is the third shortage I've lived through," said Rebecca Amberosini, the chief nursing officer at Uniontown Hospital, the largest of the three hospitals in Fayette County."
http://www.heraldstandard.com/site/n...d=480247&rfi=6
************************************************** ****

Andrew Lopez, RN
http://www.4nursing.com

[edrn4hire]

Do you think that PA actually gives a hoot if there is a shortage of nurses? I'm currently in a PA hospital as a traveler, and it is the worst assignment I've ever had. This facility has had the state in at least 3 times in the past year and STILL they CHOOSE to understaff. The 'staff' nurses seem to be afraid that WE actually WANT their jobs. They don't complain about the shortage, they don't seem to realize that it COULD be better. I wasn't able to read the entire article but this I can say, I doubt that I'll ever work in another PA hospital again unless the money is REALLY big, and even THEN I'd think twice....

[nursinghumor]

Ok, and you've had assignments in how many other states to offer in comparision to your current assignment in PA?

In talking to hundreds of staff and travel nurses nation-wide, I've found administration choosing to understaff nurses is a problem in every state.

So it sounds like you strictly in it just for the money now? Maybe you need to rethink your reasons for going into nursing. Most people just in it for the paycheck are miserable and hate their jobs no matter where they go.

That goes for nursing and most other occupations as well.

Andrew Lopez, RN
http://www.4nursing.com

[Anonymous]

What part of PA is this in?

[lam]

the real reason that there is such a problem in Pa. is because they have a real big physician shortage which has to do with the high cost of malpractice insurance. The hospitals are closing er's for the same reason

[irishrn]

totally agree, throught it was the facility i was in, so this village idiot has had jobs in 3 different hospitals.i'm with you never again.i'm an open heart preceptor and the ratios were ridiculous.floor nurses had greater then 10 pts each . in the unit 3 to 4 pts. was not unusual. so b

[lam]

I worked perdiem in a Harrisburg hospital and went back one year later to see if I could get some refrences and the hospital was closed down.

[nursinghumor]

I work agency in Philadelphia - Med/Surg, Tele in several hospitals. Since I moved into the area I've heard of only one hospital closing in a decade out of close to 20.

Considering 90-95% of new businesses fail within the first year, hospitals are doing pretty damn good. If you think hospitals are concerned with anything but the bottom line, you're being more than a bit naive.

Nursing has always been a cost center, an expense to the hospital. It is to their advantage to minimize that expense as much as possible.

Andrew Lopez, RN
http://www.nursinga2z.com

[Anonymous]

[ QUOTE ]
nursinghumor said:
I work agency in Philadelphia - Med/Surg, Tele in several hospitals. Since I moved into the area I've heard of only one hospital closing in a decade out of close to 20.

Considering 90-95% of new businesses fail within the first year, hospitals are doing pretty damn good. If you think hospitals are concerned with anything but the bottom line, you're being more than a bit naive.

Nursing has always been a cost center, an expense to the hospital. It is to their advantage to minimize that expense as much as possible.

Andrew Lopez, RN
http://www.nursinga2z.com

[/ QUOTE ]Sorry to differ with you but Pa. has lost a lot of their doc's and er's have been closed along with hospitals. One hospital I personaly knew and did my clinicals for the LPN program had lost their trauma rating due to staffing issues, they have since gotten it back. A lot of times a take over occurs and the new company comes in and revamps and combines hospitals, by the time the hospital closes it is pretty much non- functional. Yes the way hospitals are dealing with the shortage is to have less RN's and give more responcibilities to the techs. They are in fact benefiting from the shortage. and these hospitals are not going to want to go back to staffing with RN's. Feel sorry for the RN left there by herself.

[nursinghumor]

Happy to differ with you. I was speaking specifically to Philadelphia, one of PA's largest cities and one which I know well.

Andrew Lopez, RN
http://www.nursinga2z.com