Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

KBAR1942 t1_ixaqwl1 wrote

Reply to comment by KevinCarbonara in WA Patient Dies in Understaffed ER Lobby, County Council Pens Letter of "Disappointment" by vegetefubberyhi01

I have mixed feelings about the travelers. I have family that works in the medical field and I am constantly told how muc more they make above the regular staff. Not only that, paying them so much more is draining the budgets of hospital departments. At some point the hospitals will need to end the use of travelers or, at least, cut down on the amount of time they are used. It simply isn't sustainable to employee such people at high rates.

27

KevinCarbonara t1_ixasps8 wrote

> Not only that, paying them so much more is draining the budgets of hospital departments.

I agree, it's not ideal. But it's a very not ideal situation that the hospitals are 100% responsible for. I would be fine with ending travel nursing if they also ended stupidly low pay caps. But I don't know why there are any nurses who aren't travel nurses at this point. Those are the ones being rewarded by the hospitals.

30

KBAR1942 t1_ixau7ip wrote

There are those staff members who have family and therefore cannot travel. You can't do that if you have kids and a partner who also works.

8

creativelyuncreative t1_ixav3ms wrote

Every single hospital system in the area uses travel RNs, and I myself do local travel. If we’re going to be understaffed and overworked wherever we go (and still in a pandemic), I’m not going to pick a job that’s $39 vs $69/hour

16

KBAR1942 t1_ixavf8g wrote

Which is your right. And, yes, I am well aware of the use of travelers. That doesn't change the financial impact on the medical in system. It still isn't sustainable.

4

creativelyuncreative t1_ixavw6m wrote

I agree that it’s not sustainable at all, and until hospital admins start paying their regular staff more, there’s just going to be more travel positions everywhere. Unfortunately most of their heads are up their own asses and they continue to give themselves bonuses while refusing to increase wages. At my last job we got a 4% raise in 2 years (when inflation in one year was 8%) and 2% of the raise was from our union bargaining :(

12

KBAR1942 t1_ixawn8o wrote

Oh I agree with you about the management issues. More often than not management, especially middle management, is oblivious to anything that is not staring them directly in the face (and even then that's not always the case).

2

UncommonSense12345 t1_ixb4kja wrote

Ya travelers often aren’t ready to work from day 1 need an orientation period at no fault of their own, they are just new to a job. It is frustrating when the person needing to be trained makes 3x the trainer and more than the provider writing the orders tho. Gets old fast for the permanent staff who either can’t travel (life, kids, house, etc) or like their job. Traveling needs to end as it drains the budgets and perpetuates…. More traveling and lower and lower morale at work.

4

KBAR1942 t1_ixb5sls wrote

Exactly. This is what my family members have told me.

1

eastwestnocoast t1_ixbdsf6 wrote

So, I asked an acquaintance of mine who worked as a hospital admin why they keep getting travelers instead of paying core staff more and their response was that after considering all the benefits they have to pay for their core staff, travelers are actually cheaper (short term). I don’t know how true this is or if I was getting smoke blown up my @ss, but that was what I was told. Issue is, travelers aren’t really temporary anymore, they seem like they’re here to stay unless they can actually keep core staff, which they won’t be able to unless they pay them more.

16

KBAR1942 t1_ixbejlv wrote

I find that very suspect, but admittedly I don't know. Also, each hospital may be different in terms of where they stand with a budget. As far as travelers being more than just temporary I would also doubt that from what I have been told. Again, this could be a hospital by hospital basis.

3

eastwestnocoast t1_ixbf9er wrote

Yeah, it probably def depends on the individual hospital or system. I am also suspect. The ED I used to work at brought in a ton of travelers during COVID, supposed to be temporary to “get us through” but now, according to my friends who are still there, they’re still hiring majority travelers. An inpatient floor I was recently at at Prov had maybe 50% travelers for day shift and nights was 90% travelers. Though supposedly they are trying to get rid of travelers, which should be interesting considering they’re hemorrhaging core staff right now. Not sure who will be left to care for patients.

6

KBAR1942 t1_ixbfw14 wrote

And this is my concern as well. If a hospital can't afford with regular staff and/or travelers then what will it do?

1

eastwestnocoast t1_ixbgp2v wrote

That’s the million dollar question.

I mean, I’d happily volunteer to teach an overpaid administrator how to insert a foley cath, hang IV meds, calm down a pt in the middle of a mental health crisis, etc. if they think it’s such an easy job. Hell, I’d PAY to teach them how to care for a pt with a leaky rectal tube.

8

KBAR1942 t1_ixbgxzo wrote

Yeah, I wouldn't get your hopes up on that! 😂

3

whitepawn23 t1_ixds63z wrote

Part of the issue is working conditions. Violence. Hospitals really should do weapons screenings at the door. Few if any want to. It will take a state mandate.

Ratios. Oregon is golden. California is golden. Washington is flailing.

The language needs to be stated correctly. There isn’t a nursing shortage. There’s a shortage of nurses willing to work bedside.

Sure, OR takes 9-10% in state income tax. But I’ll happily pay it on those contracts for the better, safer working conditions.

3

whitepawn23 t1_ixdr7s5 wrote

The other issue is many contracts pay less than staff so there’s no reason to go. Especially out here. Stipends for Seattle Metro / west side if the sound do NOT cover rentals and the taxed pay isn’t worth it.

1

jojoclifford t1_ixfxj56 wrote

It’s cheaper than raising wages permanently for all staff. They will do anything to continue screwing healthcare workers over. The joke is on them too though. They have fucked us all into a corner and we will never hire enough non contract staff to sustain the workload.

2

whitepawn23 t1_ixdqtq6 wrote

Travelers get health insurance. 401k is payed by the agency.

1

islandlalala t1_ixdyumn wrote

But this is all on admin. Pay your staff well, boom-no need for travelers. Admin is promoting staff cannibalizing travelers. Keeps the poo off of them. Keep the serfs infighting, give themselves another raise.

1