My girlfriend is an ICU nurse and works at a highly reputable hospital in California. She says that the number of nurses quitting or saying they're going to leave relatively soon is quite concerning. The ICU is already pushing for a 1:3 nurse to patient ratio to sustain the shortage. I know this is just one hospital, but this has been a trend since COVID, and the bleed is only getting worse. I see the majority of us are engineers and work in the non-healthcare industry, but this is a problem that will affect us all. Hospitals refuse to pay them better, let alone even treat them better. The current RaDonda Vaught only made matters worse and has honestly scared the living shit out of all the nurses. Do we have any ideas on how to solve the problem, or do we just let it collapse? #healthcare #medical #health #insurance
Have been thinking about the same. I think many functions will be automated and some parts will be outsourced (vc calls from cheaper countries). But overall trend is fairly scary. Where are they going to? What parts are the worst for them?
Imagine wanting to be a nurse and work 12 hours a day to get paid 1/5 of what we do. That’s the real issue
This 100%
But without the cortisol producing fight-or-flight type feeling near deadlines.
Next doctors will quit too. Fire the incompetent administrators.
Same with teachers. I know a ton of teachers who are looking at jobs outside of public education.
Immigration could solve this 🤷 Ah sorry, what am I doing? talking about immigration 🤣 we don’t like it
I don’t see nurse turnover as being a major concern. While I deeply appreciate nurses for all they do, I believe the field is fairly easy to get into and arguably does not usually require very high skill. The ICU can be stressful, no doubt, but compensation there is somewhat higher as well. The pay is very good - $150k on average and up to 250k DOE, overtime, etc. I believe there will always be a new batch to take their place.
Sounds quite similar to tech tbh
Not really. It’s not a high-skill field. You don’t need to perform well to keep your job (you just need to be present and do what’s required. And not screw up). IMO, it’s much less stressful. And there are ample job openings for nurses.
TC or GTFO
Either subsidize nursing schools with grants or expand state schools at lower cost, or import more nurses through immigration. We're fucked otherwise.
Very tough seeing nurses underpaid, over-worked and patients having to sell their houses for ICU treatments - when they can afford to do that. For profit hospitals, greedy pharmas and doctors are ruining healthcare. Someone is making big bucks off people dying
Treat and pay them better?
The medical cost are already high enough in the US