Will you be ok jobwise with this nightmare?

[tzolkin]

I read an article regarding 50+ CRNA's being laid off in Boise. No elective cases = no use for anesthesia nurses.

Yup. I run an anesthesia staffing company of CRNAs. Basically my entire job the last week or so has been dealing with constant calls and emails of cancellations and trying to find places where people can work. Fortunately some of the hospitals are planning to use them elsewhere (like PPE education, as ICU nurses, etc), but all of the places where we do in-office or surgery center anesthesia are completely closed down. Things have been changing by the hour in some cases.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

My job is non-essential (software developer) but I am able to work from home. If our company suffers, I could potentially be laid off. But I am also a senior developer and have worked on two different products for this company. I think there would be others to go first. I would hope...

 

[Pea-n-Me]

RN with pressure to come in extra for classes and fit testing and to pick up more hours, etc.

Units with Covid19 patients have greatly increased numbers of staff on per shift.

Union rules are different for every hospital, even within a "system"; or, within a "system", some hospitals may be union and some may not be.

Re: "incompetence" for unionized nurses - there is a period of several months where a nurse is not yet unionized. It's important during that time of training to flush out any problems. Preceptors, or teachers, have to be on their game. That said, nurses are people and sometimes there might be an area where their experience is lower or they need a little extra time or help so that may be given, naturally. With hundreds of applicants, though, for each job, managers can be pretty selective with who they hair and chances are very good new recruits may be highly qualified.

"Floating" is often part of accepted practice at many hospitals. There may be a short period of orientation to a particular unit in order to familiarize a nurse with the area, and measures will often be taken to make an assignment more acceptable so that the "experts" take care of the sickest for that unit and the nurse floating takes care of a more general patient, if possible. If not, nurses usually work together pretty well (at least where I am, but I have worked in places where people who are burnt out, don't.) Some hospitals have dedicated staff that "float" to areas where needed.

I talked to someone the other day who is an OR intake RN whose job was just moved to the bedside since elective surgeries are down. I'd think many hospitals would reassign nurses rather than let them go at this time, but as a pp mentioned, it probably depends a lot on census. But those are atypical times and I think that, from what I see, usual budgetary concerns are taking a back seat to safety, as it should be. Hopefully there will be some governmental help or lessening of usual fines or something to help hospitals get through this crisis.

I'd say that if nurses are laid off or are retired and want to come back, it sounds like there will be openings in various places as this thing heats up and I imagine the pay will be pretty enticing. Those positions will probably go pretty fast as people need paychecks. I read yesterday that in NY the governor ordered that any medical worker can work at any of the NY facilities (or something to that effect) to make it easier to shift staff around as needed. I think we'll be seeing more of this type of thing as things get crazier everywhere.

But one thing I've learned from "hospital" threads here over the years is that things can vary very much from place to place, even in those that are next door to eachother, but we have an awful lot of hospitals everywhere and policies run the gamut.

 

[skyblue17]

Really not sure. My industry can't exist under these conditions, but as of now, I still have work to do and I haven't heard anything yet regarding how they will handle things if this continues long term.

 

[chicagodisneyfan]

Husband works for an airline - but is top 5% in seniority - so even in the event of huge furloughs, he should be ok.
I am essential and have no worries about job security.

 

[RedAngie]

I'm in administration/support for what is considered an essential business, so I should be OK. However, business has declined the past week and certain restrictions are being introduced, so things are still a bit uncertain.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I’m an RN. So it depends on your definition of “OK”.

If I were a young person, I’d be looking right now at jobs that are considered essential and pointing my career choice in that direction.

I've been thinking that, also. Here we have two who work in a hospital, one in medical food and one in security (eventually police work), so we're all essential, I think. I know our hospital jobs will be fine (and pray we live through this ); hopefully food production continues and things need to stay secure.

DH and I marvel that when we went into our careers, they were sort of considered "bottom of the barrel", but later, thanks to TV shows, I'd say (Gray's Anatomy, Food Network, etc.), they came into fashion and many wanted to get into them. We're thankful now we were ahead of that curve.

You might be particularly interested to know that when we went to college fairs several years ago, I was actually shocked at the number of young people that I overheard saying "Nursing" when asked what they wanted to study. Unlike in our day when nursing programs were closing left and right and few wanted to go into it with low pay and tough working conditions. We still have tough working conditions, and they've gotten tougher and tougher, but at least the pay has caught up.

I realized back in the early 80s that nurses can almost always find work when an RN friend of mine was moving to Australia for a year and had a job all lined up before she went. I will say, though, after watching DD for the past four years, that getting through the nursing curriculum is incredibly difficult today; more so than even I imagined. But it makes sense seeing how well prepared today's young nurses are to enter the work force. Those that make it through have worked very hard.

 

[tinatark]

Tourism. We have been shut down for over a week - doing projects so we can keep paying as much of our team as possible. Most of our team has filed for unemployment.

 

[yeahdisney]

My sister has worked for the hospital for 43 years, as of tomorrow.

She was furloughed 89 days ago Thursday. And was to return to work Monday.

She could not get unemployment straightened out until two weeks ago, so she was not getting any type of $.

She found out yesterday her job has been terminated due to Covid, with the hospital trying to eliminate cost; due to loss of income.

A storm hit our area Monday, she only got electricity back this a.m. Friday. Her DH also works for the hospital; they called him Thursday and said your wife is not answering the phone, he replied we don’t have electricity or a house phone currently due to the storm. So she actually had to call human resources on DH’s phone To learn she lost her job.

Today is her birthday. She is worried with only four more years to work, who will hire her.

 

[DisneyOma]

Let's just say no one is going to have job security if this lasts months.

Not true - DH (who just chose early retirement last month, ughhhhh!) had a lot of job security. You can't leave a power plant unattended.

 

[Farro]

I work in Compliance (coding/billing auditing and education, monitoring RAC and other audits) and we are considered a necessary evil. Nobody likes us, but everybody needs us.

Even I'm nervous at this point.

Not true - DH (who just chose early retirement last month, ughhhhh!) had a lot of job security. You can't leave a power plant unattended.

Ha! I didnt even remember posting this.

Happy you didn't need to worry.

To update my posts- hospital ended up doing a lot of furloughs ultimately leading to job elimination.

I got "lucky" by only getting a paycut, among other loss of benefits. So far.

 

[RogueX]

My sister has worked for the hospital for 43 years, as of tomorrow.

She was furloughed 89 days ago Thursday. And was to return to work Monday.

She could not get unemployment straightened out until two weeks ago, so she was not getting any type of $.

She found out yesterday her job has been terminated due to Covid, with the hospital trying to eliminate cost; due to loss of income.

A storm hit our area Monday, she only got electricity back this a.m. Friday. Her DH also works for the hospital; they called him Thursday and said your wife is not answering the phone, he replied we don’t have electricity or a house phone currently due to the storm. So she actually had to call human resources on DH’s phone To learn she lost her job.

Today is her birthday. She is worried with only four more years to work, who will hire her.

I'm so sorry to hear of things like this happening. I wish her luck.

 

[mjkacmom]

My family Is fortunate, DH has been working for the same financial services company for 30 years, he worked from home already, his company offered 90% an amazing severance package, enough accepted that they guarantee no layoffs for 3 years. Dd24 in an accountant and is working remotely. Ds22 works at a business valuations company and is working remotely. Ds17 is lifeguarding. Dd19 snagged a hostessing job at a resort out of state, staying with a friend for the summer (no rent). Dd17 worked at a garden center in the beginning of the summer and has been babysitting (and just got paid $300 for watering a neighbor’s plants for 1 1/2 weeks - and they have a sprinkler system). We are very fortunate.