If the hospital is inundated with COVID-19 patients, yes, nurses would be reassigned to other duties. But there is a level of specialization that does make it difficult to just swap any RN for any other nursing job. Just as you wouldn’t expect someone who had never set foot in an operating room to be able to assist with a surgery, nurses who have worked 20+ years exclusively in the OR may not remember floor nursing skills they haven’t used since they were in school. But they could help out in other ways with some patient care, bathing, cleaning rooms, etc. that are not as specialized.
We are actually working on that with some of our CRNAs. If there’s no surgery for them to be providing anesthesia for, they may still be able to help out in other areas (like ICU).
That said, right now not everywhere is experiencing this surge in ill patients and some hospitals are relatively empty. So if there are no surgeries being done and no patients to care for then there is no where else for the staff to be reassigned (and no income being generated by the hospital to pay them).
The irony is that if tons of people get sick where you live, then your job is secure. But if your area is relatively unaffected, then you may lose your job.
You didn’t say, “in our socialist medical system”, you just made a blanket statement (“hospital staff will NEVER be laid off”) after quoting me. So it seemed that you were saying I was wrong or lying and that nurses won’t really lose their jobs.
Many people believe that any job in healthcare is totally secure right now. I was simply pointing out that is not necessarily the case for everyone.