Anyone work in a hospital? How bad is it?

eheathIt really depends on where you live, in Utah right now it feels like covid doesn't exist.

MinggMe!

I worked covid last spring in a dedicated COVID unit/facility. It was bad. Basically imagine someone using so much energy to bring air into their lungs that their bed would bang against the wall like they were having sex. And eventually they get so tired that they just drown in their own lungs. That's the only way to describe it. The nursing home I worked at had over 100 cases. Maybe 110? 60 residents died within two months. The average deaths that we would see per month was 3-5 for the 120 bed facility. When I say it was bad... it was bad. I'd have 6 patients to myself in any given shift. It's not terrible staffing but when you are trying to keep the patients who are at the end of their life as comfortable as possible, 6 patients is a lot. At this point in time there were no visitors as well so on top of your nursing roles, you also had family-like responsibilities. Like trying to be there to hold their hand while they took their last breaths or taking the time to hold the phone up to the patients ear so they could hear their spouse/children/grandchildren's voices one last time.

We currently have a few hundred cases within our hospital system. It's not "bad" compared to last spring and summer but it is significantly worse than the past 8 months here in NY. Luckily this go around we have PPE so we can initiate isolation precautions on more people prophylactically to hopefully reduce the spread within the hospital. I have not yet gathered my thoughts on the current outbreak nor have I about the delta variant. All I can say is that it's basically the same as last time but we're more prepared, moderately traumatized and still don't want to fucking do it again.

HypeBeastDid you graduate yet? Nurses are making $80-100+ in places. I'm not talking just traveling nurses who were making a fuck ton last year, but regular old nurses. There's a mass shortage of nurses cuz of a lot of people retired or quit when covid happened and also increased demand in surge areas. Depending on the market and demand in your area, this might be possible for you out of graduation.

Obviously it won't last forever but for a year or so isn't unreasonable to bet.

hunterS.dolansonDepends on the hospital and area. I met a night shift nurse who worked 3 12 hr shifts a week and he made 47/hr. Wasnt special or anything. But his hospital was in a very wealthy area so maybe hr there is choosy idk

HypeBeastThat's a lot for a nurse, even in high cost of living areas. Even if that's with shift differential (get paid more for evening/nights), that's a lot.

MinggEhhh it's about standard I would say. I'm in Buffalo, NY so not the most expensive place to live. As a new staff nurse plus covid pay I make about that. Travel/Agency nurses easily make more than that. I know CNA's making more ($50-55/ hour range) depending on where their assignment/contracts are.

HypeBeastYou mean CRNAs? If so that's normal/even below average elsewhere

HypeBeastYou mean CRNAs? If so that's normal/even below average elsewhere

MinggNo, CNA’s are making $50-55 an hour right now. We are so short that’s what some are making right now lol. Travel/agency RNs are in the $60-80 range, honestly maybe even more depending on where the need is.

HypeBeastJesus. That's like what, double to triple a CNA salary. That's nuts for something that only takes 1-6 months to achieve and no college degree. Keep milking it while you can!

MinggMe!

I worked covid last spring in a dedicated COVID unit/facility. It was bad. Basically imagine someone using so much energy to bring air into their lungs that their bed would bang against the wall like they were having sex. And eventually they get so tired that they just drown in their own lungs. That's the only way to describe it. The nursing home I worked at had over 100 cases. Maybe 110? 60 residents died within two months. The average deaths that we would see per month was 3-5 for the 120 bed facility. When I say it was bad... it was bad. I'd have 6 patients to myself in any given shift. It's not terrible staffing but when you are trying to keep the patients who are at the end of their life as comfortable as possible, 6 patients is a lot. At this point in time there were no visitors as well so on top of your nursing roles, you also had family-like responsibilities. Like trying to be there to hold their hand while they took their last breaths or taking the time to hold the phone up to the patients ear so they could hear their spouse/children/grandchildren's voices one last time.

We currently have a few hundred cases within our hospital system. It's not "bad" compared to last spring and summer but it is significantly worse than the past 8 months here in NY. Luckily this go around we have PPE so we can initiate isolation precautions on more people prophylactically to hopefully reduce the spread within the hospital. I have not yet gathered my thoughts on the current outbreak nor have I about the delta variant. All I can say is that it's basically the same as last time but we're more prepared, moderately traumatized and still don't want to fucking do it again.

MinggNurses and CNA's are doing double the work. More patients per assignment plus sicker patients with more needs. No one wants to work short... let alone so short that they're expected to do twice the amount of work for the same pay. Our union is going on strike actually soon. So, the hospital is hiring more agency staff and paying them a FUCK ton. (more on this later) It's kind of wild. I had 10 patients last week. a normal assignment is 5-6. Thats effectively half the amount of time to do everything that needs to be done (but you can't cut corners so basically you're screwed if something happens). Unfortunately all you can do is prioritize and pray that your least sick patient(s) isn't/aren't sick enough to need you within 3-4 hours because thats about how long a round is going to take with that many patients.

So they're hiring more agency staff at a pretty penny instead of hiring more in house staff and paying us better. They'll pay agency 2-3x the amount but we only get a 1-2% raise each year with dwindling benefits #soundsaboutright

TOAST.I dont understand why traveling nurses make so much more than long term staff. Cam someone explain why?

MinggDemand. They are desperately needed. They also generally work a fixed amount of time per their contract. So they’ll “fill in” for a couple weeks to a few months and get paid a ton to do it because they’re so needed. They generally don’t get health insurance through the hospital (they may get it through their agency though).


I’ll never understand how or even if that is more cost effective than hiring your own staff nurses and paying them more. So many staff nurses leave for agency/travel because they can work in the same hospital network, with the same duties(usually less actually) and get paid sooooo much more. The only downside is you don’t have consistent work(but realistically there is always a need) and you don’t always work on the same floor. But it’s a small price to pay for how substantial the pay difference is.

TOAST.Yea I dont understand how its cost effective. Seems like every nurse I know is switching to becoming a traveling nurse. I get if there is a shirt term need for a hospital for more nurses but it seems like everywhere needs fulltime nurses so I would think that hospitals would want to pay their long term staff more so they actually stay.

eheathIt really depends on where you live, in Utah right now it feels like covid doesn't exist.

first_rodeolong island, ny my buddy is a nurse at a local hospital with overtime and crisis pay he is nearly $100 hour during this latest covid wave.

Profahoben_212In my county we are blowing past our case counts/rates from the winter. Suuuuuuper fun! Hospitalizations off the charts too!

HypeBeastYeah health department shows we are at rates comparable to last January for cases and hospitalizations too; nowhere near the top. 98% of hospitalizations are unvaccinated individuals which is pretty consistent with the rest of the country.

CLQ95% of our ICU beds are taken and some nurses and a lot of jobless losers have been protesting outside the hospital about the vaccines all week. My county is a joke

CLQ95% of our ICU beds are taken and some nurses and a lot of jobless losers have been protesting outside the hospital about the vaccines all week. My county is a joke

MinggI don’t know if I necessarily agree with mandatory vaccinations for healthcare workers (or anyone). However as a healthcare professional, you learn about evidence based practices and how to educate patients so that they can make the best, most informed choice for themselves. I feel like all the evidence points to the vaccine being more beneficial than harmful (and I’d argue that it is MUCH more beneficial than potentially harmful but I’m not here to make that case).

Anyways, there are medical exceptions not to get the vaccine. And hospitals/New York state is honoring those exceptions as they should. I guess I just want to know why so many healthcare professionals won’t get the vaccine. I know the vast majority of healthcare workers are already vaccinated (87% I believe in my area) so I don’t wanna hear that the vaccine is dangerous, unsafe, etc. It does no one any good to force something harmful onto those taking care of sick people. We NEED healthcare workers. No one is trying to kill you.


I don’t know. I dont get it. Don’t force people to get it but I genuinely don’t understand why some people won’t. I get for medical reasons 100% but the other people who seem to not want it just because someone they don’t like said they should are stupid.

HypeBeastWhat state? Most places are making it a condition of employment or at minimum preventing annual raises if they don't get vaccinated. Some hospitals require unvaccinated workers to wear a badge that says "I am not vaccinated" (they did this for the flu lol).

Mingg. I guess I just want to know why so many healthcare professionals won’t get the vaccine.

Profahoben_212Idk if you don't believe in medicine then you shouldn't work in medicine. End of story. If you are unwilling to protect your patients you shouldn't work with patients. End of story IMO.

HypeBeastHe touched on it above but ultimately it comes down to understanding of the science behind the vaccine as well as the clinical trial process. It is highly tied to education level so don't be offended but all of this paragraph is why nurses have terrible vaccine rates. It's pretty consistent with the non clinical lower level positions at hospitals as well such as housekeeping. Those with higher education levels, especially in medical or science fields are typically more capable to sort through the bullshit of misinformation and are knowledgeable about where to look for reputable information.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/judystone/2021/06/28/covid19-vaccination-rates-are-poor-among-healthcare-workershow-can-we-do-better/?sh=28fab4e2589e

Also mandatory vaccines have been around for over a century. There's actually legal precedent for mandatory vaccines when the government mandated smallpox vaccines in 1905. In other words the US government could literally force every American to get the vaccine now that it's approved, but they don't because public trust is more important at the moment.

MinggA-fucking-men.


Nursing students and pre-med students take the same science classes at my university. It's also worth noting that there are no additional science/clinical based courses to go from associates to bachelors or a bachelors to a masters degree in nursing. So in theory any RN should be up to speed with this. I have a very hard time believing that education is that impactful. I'm not saying it isn't, just that it doesn't make any sense to me. I guess one thing to consider is that nursing staff incorporates LPNs, CNAs and NAs. In NY state aides(NA) do not need to be certified(CNA) to work in a hospital, only at long term care facilities. It is also only a 100 hour program for certification(CNA) so there is not much education there. Also LPNs generally do not take academic style classes. It's more practical and skill based education so maybe there is a lack of education there? I don't know I just have such a hard time wrapping my brain around why nurses(or maybe general nursing staff) won't get the vaccine lol.

skiermanIts crazy to see hospitals planning together to falsely report COVID cases in order to get more money and to make it look like a natural wave each time.

HypeBeastHe touched on it above but ultimately it comes down to understanding of the science behind the vaccine as well as the clinical trial process. It is highly tied to education level so don't be offended but all of this paragraph is why nurses have terrible vaccine rates. It's pretty consistent with the non clinical lower level positions at hospitals as well such as housekeeping. Those with higher education levels, especially in medical or science fields are typically more capable to sort through the bullshit of misinformation and are knowledgeable about where to look for reputable information.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/judystone/2021/06/28/covid19-vaccination-rates-are-poor-among-healthcare-workershow-can-we-do-better/?sh=28fab4e2589e

Also mandatory vaccines have been around for over a century. There's actually legal precedent for mandatory vaccines when the government mandated smallpox vaccines in 1905. In other words the US government could literally force every American to get the vaccine now that it's approved, but they don't because public trust is more important at the moment.

HypeBeastIt's the classes you haven't taken that make it impossible for you to understand your question. I really don't wanna go down this road because I'm certain it will offend people.

Education level has an association with vaccine receipt or refusal. The easy explanation is smarter people vs dumber people. I'm talking every profession. Pew research has plenty of surveys showing this.

qazwsxedc34Apparently it is a bell curve. Phd's have lower vaccine receipts for some ofd reason.

HypeBeastLol wut. Source?

qazwsxedc34Apparently it is a bell curve. Phd's have lower vaccine receipts for some ofd reason.

XtRemE11https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/americans-with-phds-are-most-reluctant-to-get-vaccinated-against-covid/ar-AANjRHh

MinggMe!

I worked covid last spring in a dedicated COVID unit/facility. It was bad. Basically imagine someone using so much energy to bring air into their lungs that their bed would bang against the wall like they were having sex. And eventually they get so tired that they just drown in their own lungs. That's the only way to describe it. The nursing home I worked at had over 100 cases. Maybe 110? 60 residents died within two months. The average deaths that we would see per month was 3-5 for the 120 bed facility. When I say it was bad... it was bad. I'd have 6 patients to myself in any given shift. It's not terrible staffing but when you are trying to keep the patients who are at the end of their life as comfortable as possible, 6 patients is a lot. At this point in time there were no visitors as well so on top of your nursing roles, you also had family-like responsibilities. Like trying to be there to hold their hand while they took their last breaths or taking the time to hold the phone up to the patients ear so they could hear their spouse/children/grandchildren's voices one last time.

We currently have a few hundred cases within our hospital system. It's not "bad" compared to last spring and summer but it is significantly worse than the past 8 months here in NY. Luckily this go around we have PPE so we can initiate isolation precautions on more people prophylactically to hopefully reduce the spread within the hospital. I have not yet gathered my thoughts on the current outbreak nor have I about the delta variant. All I can say is that it's basically the same as last time but we're more prepared, moderately traumatized and still don't want to fucking do it again.

deathcookieStop posting shitty ass fake news!

[URL]https://www.wnct.com/news/north-carolina/fact-check-setting-the-record-straight-on-claims-about-vaccine-hesitancy-among-ph-d-s[/URL]/

Researchers Robin Mejia at Carnegie-Mellon University and Wendy C. King of the University of Pittsburgh based their study of vaccine hesitancy rates off of results from a Facebook Data for Good survey, reviewing about 1 million responses each month between January and May and analyzing it by race, education, region and support of former President Donald Trump.

A sensitivity analysis found some people answered in the extreme ends of some demographic categories to throw off some of the numbers. King said it appeared to be a “concerted effort” that “did make the hesitancy prevalence in the Ph.D. group look higher than it really is.”

For example, they observed higher hesitancy rates than expected in the oldest age group — 75 and over — as well as the top end in terms of education level.

“We found that people basically used it to write in political … statements,” King said. “So they weren’t genuine responses. They didn’t really complete the survey in good faith.”

There were some other issues.

The study hasn’t been peer-reviewed yet.