OT- article about nursing shortage/challenges in MS and the many

[mstateglfr]

This isnt intended to be political, though politics clearly play a role in some of the challenges mentioned. I saw an article that focuses on the challenges of nursing in MS right now and thought some here may find it interesting. A similar story is playing out in hospitals across the country, but it appears some of the challenges mentioned are unique to MS.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/23/h...pi-nurses.html Its a paywall, but if you stop the page from loading, you can read the full article. Sometimes it takes a few refresh and stop attempts. Main points are below. Bold is me.

“We have staff members dropping like flies from Covid so there was no way I was going to leave her on the side of the road,” Ms. Sison said a few hours later as she walked the corridors of her 350-bed hospital, which has been steadily filling with Covid patients after a monthslong lull.
On Sunday, 106 coronavirus patients were being treated at Singing River Health System, a county-owned network of three small hospitals along the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, up from a dozen or so patients at the beginning of the month. With 40 percent of all Covid-19 tests in Pascagoula coming back positive and about 100 hospital employees out sick, Ms. Sison was trying not to think about what the coming days would bring.

At Pascagoula Hospital, the city’s only acute-care health facility, a wave of departures has left 80 unfilled openings for registered nurses, forcing administrators to mothball a third of its beds. By the end of last week, every remaining bed was full, prompting an alarming systemwide backup.

The nation’s frontline medical workers were running on fumes even before the arrival of Omicron. Successive waves of illness and death have left them exhausted and numb; nearly one in five have left the profession over the past two years. And they are angry — at the patients who refuse to get vaccinated, at the hospital executives who won’t spend the money needed to maintain safe nurse-to-patient ratios, and at the political leaders who call them “health care heroes” while opposing mask and vaccine mandates that might blunt the tsunami of new infections.Continue reading the main storyThe labor shortage has been especially brutal for the small, nonprofit safety-net hospitals like Singing River where millions of Americans seek care. Financially fragile even before the pandemic, they have been unable to match the lofty salaries dangled by travel nurse agencies and large health systems, further accelerating the personnel drain that threatens their ability to provide quality care. Travel nurses can make more than $200 an hour, far more than the $30 earned by most staff nurses in Mississippi.

The labor shortage has been especially brutal for the small, nonprofit safety-net hospitals like Singing River where millions of Americans seek care. Financially fragile even before the pandemic, they have been unable to match the lofty salaries dangled by travel nurse agencies and large health systems, further accelerating the personnel drain that threatens their ability to provide quality care. Travel nurses can make more than $200 an hour, far more than the $30 earned by most staff nurses in Mississippi.

The financial strain has been exacerbated by the refusal of Mississippi and other southern states to embrace Medicaid expansion. For Mississippi, that would mean an additional $600 million in annual federal aid, according to the state economist, and an additional 11,000 new jobs each year, most of them in health care.
Gov. Tate Reeves and other Republican leaders who dominate the state’s government have also resisted calls to devote a significant portion of federal coronavirus relief aid for bonuses that could help stanch health care worker departures.

Kelly Cumbest, 45, a registered nurse who manages patient care in the E.R., said that in recent months he had received only one application for 24 openings in his department. “It’s not just Omicron that worries us,” he said. “What scares us is that we don’t have people to take care of heart attacks, strokes and car accidents, and that’s something the politicians and general public really don’t understand.”

For a while, a dogged loyalty to community went a long way in persuading many nurses to stay put, despite wages that are among the lowest in the country and the worrisome rates of vaccination. Just 46 percent of county residents are fully immunized.
That devotion began to dim during the calamitous Delta surge last summer, when administrators were, for the first time, forced to hire travel nurses.

The departures have had a pernicious knock-on effect, forcing the hospital to hire even more travel nurses and threatening its already precarious finances. On some days, nearly 80 percent of the nurses on some wards are on short-term contracts, hospital leaders say. As a result, Singing River has racked up $30 million in additional expenses during the pandemic, Mr. Bond, its chief executive, said.

He and other hospital officials have been pressing Mississippi state leaders to use a quarter of $1.8 billion in federal pandemic relief funds to provide $20,000 retention bonuses to nurses who agree to remain in the state for two years. Lawmakers have countered with a far less generous proposal that would fund bonuses of around $1,000.

[Dawghouse]

Biggest issue I've seen (from outside looking in) is the traveling nursing program. Why work for $30 an hour when you can get 2-7x more.

From what I've read local nurses are signing up to be travel nurses then getting hired by the local hospital because the local hospital can't find nurses willing to work for the going rates.

If the hospital is willing to contract with travel companies they should also be willing to just pay more.

I'm considering getting my RN and becoming a travel nurse once my kids are gone so I can see the country and make serious bank.

I'm sure there are lots of other issues as well but it always comes down to money.

[Dawg1976]

My niece was a traveling nurse for several years. Her and hubby finally settled down in San Fran of all places but she must have made a boatload of money as they just bought a nice townhouse which ain't cheap out there.

[Leeshouldveflanked]

The big hospitals in Mississippi cut wages/hours before the Pandemic across the board. Big money in Travel Nurses now. Also there is a ton of incompetence in Middle Management at hospitals

[Smoked Toag]

I'm considering getting my RN and becoming a travel nurse once my kids are gone so I can see the country and make serious bank.

I have the same idea except I want to be a long-haul trucker. See the country, get paid nicely and listen to podcasts all day? Sign me up.

[aTotal360]

Also there is a ton of incompetence in Middle Management at hospitals

The amount of wasted admin money in the hospital racket is absurd.

https://www.healthline.com/health-ne...-doctor-092813

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/18/s...-big-cost.html

[johnson86-1]

The amount of wasted admin money in the hospital racket is absurd.

https://www.healthline.com/health-ne...-doctor-092813

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/18/s...-big-cost.html

Yes, it is "wasted" in the sense that it doesn't improve patient outcomes, but not in the sense of hospitals throwing it away (although there is some of that also). Hospitals are complicated organizations that have complex billing requirements because of our third party payment system and also have a very high regulatory load.

[johnson86-1]

This isnt intended to be political, though politics clearly play a role in some of the challenges mentioned. I saw an article that focuses on the challenges of nursing in MS right now and thought some here may find it interesting. A similar story is playing out in hospitals across the country, but it appears some of the challenges mentioned are unique to MS.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/23/h...pi-nurses.html Its a paywall, but if you stop the page from loading, you can read the full article. Sometimes it takes a few refresh and stop attempts. Main points are below. Bold is me.

I think there's a lot of projection going on in that article. Nurses in South Mississippi generally aren't going to be mad at political leaders who oppose mask and vaccine mandates. Certainly there will be some, but hospitals weren't fighting the CMS mandate because their employees welcomed a vaccine mandate. They fought them because they were going to lose more employees, nurses in particular, having a vaccine mandate. If that wasn't generally true, then there wouldn't have been a need for a mandate. Hospitals could have just required vaccines as a condition of employment.

[aTotal360]

Wasted. Same in higher learning.

[horshack]

I feel like you just reinforced that Tate's refusal to expand Medicare is idiotic. I concur.

[johnson86-1]

Biggest issue I've seen (from outside looking in) is the traveling nursing program. Why work for $30 an hour when you can get 2-7x more.

From what I've read local nurses are signing up to be travel nurses then getting hired by the local hospital because the local hospital can't find nurses willing to work for the going rates.

If the hospital is willing to contract with travel companies they should also be willing to just pay more.

I'm considering getting my RN and becoming a travel nurse once my kids are gone so I can see the country and make serious bank.

I'm sure there are lots of other issues as well but it always comes down to money.

The "smart" hospitals are refusing to put any travelling nurses on contract who have worked or lived within a certain radius of the hospital in the last few years.

A lot of the traveling nurses are paid not by the local hospital but by the state emergency management association or some other funding source.

The pay is crazy now, but when you put in the cost of short term housing and account for the fact that you generally aren't getting benefits, it's typically not as good as it seems at first glance, although it's still good.

It's also not unusual to get paid really well to travel and stay away from home weeks or months at at time. The only thing that's different for nurses is that they are often working beside people who are local and not getting paid to be away from home and lack of continuity. For some people, it really is a great tradeoff. But most people don't like living in short term rentals, being away from family, etc., which is why jobs that require you to be away so much generally are paid well.

[Maroon Eagle]

"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong."

-- H. L. Mencken

[the peeper]

Yes, it is "wasted" in the sense that it doesn't improve patient outcomes, but not in the sense of hospitals throwing it away (although there is some of that also)

Substitute "students" for patients and "schools" for hospitals and you have the same outcome. You can also substitute teachers for nurses in the same sense too, they are sick of putting up w/ ridiculous acting students and quitting their jobs as well. The states been throwing money at school systems and hiring unqualified non-certified teachers for years and other than an occasional "do good story" you seldom hear anything but negative stories about test scores and district ratings. Politicians can't seem to grasp that money doesn't fix everything, it just shuts up some groups for awhile

[dorndawg]

Yes, it is "wasted" in the sense that it doesn't improve patient outcomes, but not in the sense of hospitals throwing it away (although there is some of that also). Hospitals are complicated organizations that have complex billing requirements because of our third party payment system and also have a very high regulatory load.

If only somebody could think of a far better, less expensive way to do it.**********

[johnson86-1]

If only somebody could think of a far better, less expensive way to do it.**********

It's easy to come up with a better one, but much less than half the country would politically stomach a system that leaves you exposed for your own decision, and less than half the country would politically stomach being on something like Medicaid (especially when so many of them already have such a relatively better deal in Medicare).

[johnson86-1]

I feel like you just reinforced that Tate's refusal to expand Medicare is idiotic. I concur.

Medicaid, not medicare. But yes, it's a shit sandwich either way. Probably a slighlty less shitty sandwhich to take the expansion and try to figure out how to push that 10% back onto hospitals/providers, although I'm not sure how feasible that would be.

[The Usual Suspect]

Substitute "students" for patients and "schools" for hospitals and you have the same outcome. You can also substitute teachers for nurses in the same sense too, they are sick of putting up w/ ridiculous acting students and quitting their jobs as well. The states been throwing money at school systems and hiring unqualified non-certified teachers for years and other than an occasional "do good story" you seldom hear anything but negative stories about test scores and district ratings. Politicians can't seem to grasp that money doesn't fix everything, it just shuts up some groups for awhile

My wife has been a teacher in TX for almost 30 years. This past year she has put in more time than any year I can remember. I really do not see how they get young people to become teachers these days. You teach for 30 years and only make $25K more than a 5th year teacher. And, if you do a breakdown per hour, counting grading papers, lesson plans, meetings, etc. that are not in the standard day, they are really getting the shaft. I feel there is going to be a national shortage in a few years after covid.

[mstateglfr]

I think there's a lot of projection going on in that article. Nurses in South Mississippi generally aren't going to be mad at political leaders who oppose mask and vaccine mandates. Certainly there will be some, but hospitals weren't fighting the CMS mandate because their employees welcomed a vaccine mandate. They fought them because they were going to lose more employees, nurses in particular, having a vaccine mandate. If that wasn't generally true, then there wouldn't have been a need for a mandate. Hospitals could have just required vaccines as a condition of employment.

Are you referring the the part of the article below?

nearly one in five have left the profession over the past two years. And they are angry — at the patients who refuse to get vaccinated, at the hospital executives who won’t spend the money needed to maintain safe nurse-to-patient ratios, and at the political leaders who call them “health care heroes” while opposing mask and vaccine mandates that might blunt the tsunami of new infections.

If you are saying that is projection, I guess it could be a bit?...but the link the article provides backs up the comment. You can click and read the imbedded link in that comment, or just look at the graph below, which is from the article.

'Lack of safety measures during the pandemic' and 'lack of appreciation or respect from patients' are reasons for leaving given by over 25% of workers interviewed.
As for the last sentence, well thats just reality. Politicians have absolutely called school teachers and healthcare workers 'heroes' while opposing mandates that would reduce exposure for both groups of workers. That really isnt controversial or projecting, its just recent history.




I am anything but a healthcare expert. The spiderweb that is healthcare confuses the 17 out of me. I am thankful I havent had to personally experience it to much extent yet as what little I have experienced is tough to sort out.

[dudehead]

Medicaid, not medicare. But yes, it's a shit sandwich either way. Probably a slighlty less shitty sandwhich to take the expansion and try to figure out how to push that 10% back onto hospitals/providers, although I'm not sure how feasible that would be.

There was a plan worked out that would not have cost the state anything to do Medicaid expansion but because it is associated with Obama, it was roundly denounced by our state leadership. At least Waller, Hoseman, and Hood had reasonable plans that would have net billions in health care money to MS.

And people wonder why MS is firmly ensconced at 50 in all major economic metrics...

[GloryDawg]

I have the same idea except I want to be a long-haul trucker. See the country, get paid nicely and listen to podcasts all day? Sign me up.

They are short like 68K drivers. What's crazy you can drive a CDL license truck from Meridian to Vicksburg if you are 18 but you cannot cross the River unless you are 21. That needs to change.

[Hot Rock]

Substitute "students" for patients and "schools" for hospitals and you have the same outcome. You can also substitute teachers for nurses in the same sense too, they are sick of putting up w/ ridiculous acting students and quitting their jobs as well. The states been throwing money at school systems and hiring unqualified non-certified teachers for years and other than an occasional "do good story" you seldom hear anything but negative stories about test scores and district ratings. Politicians can't seem to grasp that money doesn't fix everything, it just shuts up some groups for awhile

The problem with our schools is who runs them. We charge our principals with hiring and keeping qualified teachers. They are to regularly evaluate teachers and then address their weaknesses as needed. They are to guide teacher development through either professional development classes, extra training, mentoring or just regular guidance so they can be the best teachers possible. The problem is our principals are not real teachers themselves. They are former coaches that have no idea what a good teacher looks like, nor have they made teaching their life's passion.

Their passion was coaching a sport, not teaching. Every coach I ever knew had a goal to get our of the classroom as soon as possible and get to the gym or fieldhouse. They would just tell people to read something and sit behind the desk dipping snuff and still get promoted because they are popular. I certainly have never seen one be worthy of promotion to principal in my lifetime. Not one I tell you. If you are a former coach in a principals role or heaven forbid superintendents role, it's possible to learn the job and get by. Hopefully, you have hired some teachers to guide you but you are not prepared and you most likely are what's wrong with your school. The leader has to be focused on education, not sports. Even the hiring practices by these former coaches are based around what coaches are needed first so they can place the coaches spouse as well and I find it disgusting.

It was not like that when we I was a kid. Principals my have coached something at some point but they were teachers first. Somewhere along the way coaching became the goal instead of the extracurricular thing it was meant to be.

Paying teachers is a good idea but as long as we keep putting coaches as our leaders of our schools the situation won't improve.

[patdog]

Turning down free money to help our poor. How stupid is that. Of course, I realize there's no such thing as free money, it all comes from increased Federal taxes and debt, but we're getting that without the money for Mississippi.

[GloryDawg]

Medicaid, not medicare. But yes, it's a shit sandwich either way. Probably a slighlty less shitty sandwhich to take the expansion and try to figure out how to push that 10% back onto hospitals/providers, although I'm not sure how feasible that would be.

I think if the Federal Government would guarantee the 600 Mill in credit to the state forever going forwards then they would expand.

[SteelCurtain74]

They are short like 68K drivers. What's crazy you can drive a CDL license truck from Meridian to Vicksburg if you are 18 but you cannot cross the River unless you are 21. That needs to change.

The federal government is already trying to make that happen.

https://www.thetrucker.com/trucking-...s-set-to-begin

[Dawghouse]

That's option 2 but then I'd have to have my wife in the truck with me all day. I need some space.

[Dawghouse]

I plan on living in an RV but yeah that's the dealbreaker for a lot. Damn near impossible with kids.

[Dawghouse]

Article is from NY Times and poll is nationwide. Not disagreeing with the poll but I suspect the numbers are much lower in MS when it comes to mandates.

[WalkTheDawg]

This isnt intended to be political, though politics clearly play a role in some of the challenges mentioned. I saw an article that focuses on the challenges of nursing in MS right now and thought some here may find it interesting. A similar story is playing out in hospitals across the country, but it appears some of the challenges mentioned are unique to MS.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/23/h...pi-nurses.html Its a paywall, but if you stop the page from loading, you can read the full article. Sometimes it takes a few refresh and stop attempts. Main points are below. Bold is me.

I have a spouse that is a BSN in MS. I’m going to make it short and sweet what the problem is and make the time reading that a waste.

1) current nurses don’t give a shit about vaccination status of the public. Did early on…. Don’t now. At least that’s the majority. The whiney few gets the airtime though.

2) current nurses are grown adults and know if they want to take a vaccine or not. If they have had the virus…. They don’t want the vaccine. Making someone take a vaccine to something they have superior natural immunity to is freaking idiotic. Again. They are trained and they are adults. Stop acting like they are a bunch of Typhoid Marys.

3) Hospital admins are breathtakingly incompetent in Mississippi Healthcare Institutions. They can’t fix any problem without throwing money at it and at the same time they don’t want to spend any money. They can’t plan staffing to save their lives. They can’t plan a meeting without a meeting. Yet they are paid handsomely. There is also way too many “bosses”. Mrs. Walkthedawg can go three levels of management up in the same building and they report to two or three more outside of that. The entire place she is at should have two in house at most and that includes the charge nurse.

4) Hospital admins have set the wages based on supply and demand. Wanna quit? Fine. They say they will replace you tomorrow from a rookie graduate from one of the many community colleges, MUW, University of North Alabama, UM, Southern Miss, etc. experience walks off the job out of state and you get a green nurse using your arm as a pin cushion trying to start an IV and can’t remember the difference in many of the meds they have access to. But when you are bruised from 5 IV sticks and you don’t get the right med in the right quantity on the dr’s order… remember…. good nurses are expensive to MS hospitals.

[ckDOG]

I have a spouse that is a BSN in MS. I’m going to make it short and sweet what the problem is and make the time reading that a waste.

1) current nurses don’t give a shit about vaccination status of the public. Did early on…. Don’t now. At least that’s the majority. The whiney few gets the airtime though.

2) current nurses are grown adults and know if they want to take a vaccine or not. If they have had the virus…. They don’t want the vaccine. Making someone take a vaccine to something they have superior natural immunity to is freaking idiotic. Again. They are trained and they are adults. Stop acting like they are a bunch of Typhoid Marys.

3) Hospital admins are breathtakingly incompetent in Mississippi Healthcare Institutions. They can’t fix any problem without throwing money at it and at the same time they don’t want to spend any money. They can’t plan staffing to save their lives. They can’t plan a meeting without a meeting. Yet they are paid handsomely. There is also way too many “bosses”. Mrs. Walkthedawg can go three levels of management up in the same building and they report to two or three more outside of that. The entire place she is at should have two in house at most and that includes the charge nurse.

4) Hospital admins have set the wages based on supply and demand. Wanna quit? Fine. They say they will replace you tomorrow from a rookie graduate from one of the many community colleges, MUW, University of North Alabama, UM, Southern Miss, etc. experience walks off the job out of state and you get a green nurse using your arm as a pin cushion trying to start an IV and can’t remember the difference in many of the meds they have access to. But when you are bruised from 5 IV sticks and you don’t get the right med in the right quantity on the dr’s order… remember…. good nurses are expensive to MS hospitals.

"Nurse" is a bit broad. Not suggesting your spouse's observation isn't real, but my guess would be that nurses paid to treat inpatient Covid cases are going to have a very different experience and opinion than those that don't.

[WalkTheDawg]

"Nurse" is a bit broad. Not suggesting your spouse's observation isn't real, but my guess would be that nurses paid to treat inpatient Covid cases are going to have a very different experience and opinion than those that don't.

Doesn’t directly treat people that know they have Covid, but comes in continuous contact with people with Covid. She has had it as well as Influenza A so far this winter. They, as well as the patients, wear masks the entire time.

They know the vaccine doesn’t prevent transmission of the virus…. So what difference does it make if the patients are vaccinated or not when it comes to them getting it? People are not just coming to get medical care for Covid… they bring it with them for treatment for other things like treatments, screenings, surgical procedures, etc. Patients are not canceling appointments for.. say.. an ENT procedure when they feel they may have Covid. Because they cannot get another appointment when they need it. That happens a lot. Teachers were coming in come hell or high water in late December because they were already off.

[ckDOG]

Doesn’t directly treat people that know they have Covid, but comes in continuous contact with people with Covid. She has had it as well as Influenza A so far this winter. They, as well as the patients, wear masks the entire time.

They know the vaccine doesn’t prevent transmission of the virus…. So what difference does it make if the patients are vaccinated or not when it comes to them getting it? People are not just coming to get medical care for Covid… they bring it with them for treatment for other things like treatments, screenings, surgical procedures, etc. Patients are not canceling appointments for.. say.. an ENT procedure when they feel they may have Covid. Because they cannot get another appointment when they need it. That happens a lot. Teachers were coming in come hell or high water in late December because they were already off.

Folks are set in their ways and everyone knows the risks at this point. But I do feel bad for the nurses and docs that treat inpatient Covid patients. They are burned out and tiring of venting folks and watching them suffocate to death. That now is vastly driven by unvaccinated patients who had a simple choice and chose poorly.

Part of the job, but has to be frustrating having to watch the same stupid story over and over. No clue if they support vaccine policy, but I would put a lot of money on them wishing the public were mostly vaccinated so they can return to a normalish life. Sadly, they'll just have to tough it out as we adapt to the virus and they can eventually stop shoving tubes down throats to today's extent and hand out antivirals instead.

[johnson86-1]

Are you referring the the part of the article below?


If you are saying that is projection, I guess it could be a bit?...but the link the article provides backs up the comment. You can click and read the imbedded link in that comment, or just look at the graph below, which is from the article.

'Lack of safety measures during the pandemic' and 'lack of appreciation or respect from patients' are reasons for leaving given by over 25% of workers interviewed.
As for the last sentence, well thats just reality. Politicians have absolutely called school teachers and healthcare workers 'heroes' while opposing mandates that would reduce exposure for both groups of workers. That really isnt controversial or projecting, its just recent history.




I am anything but a healthcare expert. The spiderweb that is healthcare confuses the 17 out of me. I am thankful I havent had to personally experience it to much extent yet as what little I have experienced is tough to sort out.

No, it didn't. Literally zero data or even anecdotes were provided to indicate nurses were upset at politicians that weren't forcing mask or vaccine mandates. They didn't even mention mandates or politicians except for that one, throw away, unsupported statement. I suspect most of those nurses have been through this enough to recognize that masking makes no discernable difference in their work load. And while they might would like more people to get vaccinated, but with so many of them not wanting to get vaccinated, I have to think that's not real high on their list of frustrations, at least on average. Nurses obviously aren't monolithic, but the hospital executives have pretty good incentives right now to try to understand what would make the job more attractive to nurses. If they thought their nurses wanted vaccine mandates, they wouldn't have to wait for the government to tell them to mandate them. They might would like medicare and medicaid patients to have a vaccine mandate. Statistically, those would be relatively at risk populations. But that hasn't even been a consideration politically, so I doubt nurses are particularly mad at politicians not wanting to force them or their coworkers to get vaccinated while simultaneously not requiring patients that they pay for to get vaccinated.

[BoomBoom]

It's easy to come up with a better one, but much less than half the country would politically stomach a system that leaves you exposed for your own decision, and less than half the country would politically stomach being on something like Medicaid (especially when so many of them already have such a relatively better deal in Medicare).

That same less than half the country would rather take horse paste than real medicine, so I guess it figures.

[Smoked Toag]

I think if the Federal Government would guarantee the 600 Mill in credit to the state forever going forwards then they would expand.

That's the kicker, they didn't want the state to get saddled with the bill later on. It's valid, but I'm guessing we'd have stayed on the federal payroll somehow, that's usually how it works. I have no idea what the answer is for that, both sides have merit.

[bulldoghair]

Israel is experiencing record COVID cases after approving the 4th booster shot. I hope they realize that they need a 5th booster now more than ever. This is a time to stay vigilant against this deadly virus. I will never understand why people refuse to take simple health and safety measures like permanently masking toddlers and banning all consensual public gatherings. As for our nurses testing positive, they should require all staff members who tests positive to take Remdesivir and relax on a ventilator for 48 hours. Then they could retest and come back in three days.

[BoomBoom]

I

2) current nurses are grown adults and know if they want to take a vaccine or not. If they have had the virus…. They don’t want the vaccine. Making someone take a vaccine to something they have superior natural immunity to is freaking idiotic. Again. They are trained and they are adults. Stop acting like they are a bunch of Typhoid Marys.

While I disagree with some of what you wrote, you are correct that there is an issue, a knowledge gap I guess, around how to treat those with prior infections in regards to a vaccine.

[ckDOG]

Israel is experiencing record COVID cases after approving the 4th booster shot. I hope they realize that they need a 5th booster now more than ever. This is a time to stay vigilant against this deadly virus. I will never understand why people refuse to take simple health and safety measures like permanently masking toddlers and banning all consensual public gatherings. As for our nurses testing positive, they should require all staff members who tests positive to take Remdesivir and relax on a ventilator for 48 hours. Then they could retest and come back in three days.

Glad you find the humor in it.

[Smoked Toag]

I have a spouse that is a BSN in MS. I’m going to make it short and sweet what the problem is and make the time reading that a waste.

1) current nurses don’t give a shit about vaccination status of the public. Did early on…. Don’t now. At least that’s the majority. The whiney few gets the airtime though.

2) current nurses are grown adults and know if they want to take a vaccine or not. If they have had the virus…. They don’t want the vaccine. Making someone take a vaccine to something they have superior natural immunity to is freaking idiotic. Again. They are trained and they are adults. Stop acting like they are a bunch of Typhoid Marys.

3) Hospital admins are breathtakingly incompetent in Mississippi Healthcare Institutions. They can’t fix any problem without throwing money at it and at the same time they don’t want to spend any money. They can’t plan staffing to save their lives. They can’t plan a meeting without a meeting. Yet they are paid handsomely. There is also way too many “bosses”. Mrs. Walkthedawg can go three levels of management up in the same building and they report to two or three more outside of that. The entire place she is at should have two in house at most and that includes the charge nurse.

4) Hospital admins have set the wages based on supply and demand. Wanna quit? Fine. They say they will replace you tomorrow from a rookie graduate from one of the many community colleges, MUW, University of North Alabama, UM, Southern Miss, etc. experience walks off the job out of state and you get a green nurse using your arm as a pin cushion trying to start an IV and can’t remember the difference in many of the meds they have access to. But when you are bruised from 5 IV sticks and you don’t get the right med in the right quantity on the dr’s order… remember…. good nurses are expensive to MS hospitals.

These are the things that happen when chaos strikes. I wish most people would just 'accept' and understand that COVID happened, it's here, and in general, hospitals just have to treat people like numbers. It isn't personal. I've had family members die during this, as many others have. I saw a person today complaining on facebook about not being able to see her newborn babies after she gave birth (which is awful), but she also was unvaccinated, and around her other daughter last Friday who tested positive. What is a hospital to do?? It's just chaos.

I wish people would just get this. There's no one to blame. The medical field is in turmoil. Of course, if it were me, I think I'd have viewed this as an opportunity to work as much OT as I ever wanted and get a bunch of raises. Instead, so many have just gotten angry about having to work so much, blamed others, told people to stay at home and virtue signaled about it (L4 Shankass), refused vaccination, etc. So I understand why people are mad at the healthcare system. Holy hell what a mess.

[mstateglfr]

I saw a person today complaining on facebook about not being able to see her newborn babies after she gave birth (which is awful), but she also was unvaccinated, and around her other daughter last Friday who tested positive. What is a hospital to do?? It's just chaos.

I wish people would just get this. There's no one to blame.

I think that part of the issue is that there is always someone to blame and it is much easier to place blame on others than self assess and realize you are at fault.
Your quoted example is a perfect one- a woman is unvaccinated and recently exposed, but is complaining that she cant be around newborns(and presumably staff as well as others on the birth floor).
Complaining about the injustice of the situation means she is not recognizing the actual issue, or not accepting it.

That is terrible to hear- a new mom cant be around her newborns. But like you said, what is a hospital supposed to do?

[johnson86-1]

That same less than half the country would rather take horse paste than real medicine, so I guess it figures.

Well, I referenced two largely different although overlapping populations. And the population of people that have taken animal invermectin is probably somewhere south of 0.001% of the population, so not sure they move the needle much politically.