Merriam-Webster: “Churn–a similar process or rate of change involving loss and addition of employees, companies, etc.”
How is the healthcare industry holding up in the aftermath of the pandemic and turmoil of the U.S. labor market?
No matter how hard media and the health industry attempt to spin it, the facts are:
1. There is a high degree of churn.
2. Workers sense a problem on how problems are reported or spinned by media and government “experts,” versus the realities of what they experience each day.
3. In many ways, industry leadership and government involvement has become a real deterient.
“The guidance coming from them is mixed,” said one Texas registered nurse who works for a San Antonio, Texas health system. “Look at what is happening to the Houston Methodist (hospital) when people are being forced out of their jobs because they refuse to take a vaccine they see and know is a high risk experiment.”
“Many of us have serious doubts about the jabs,” she said. “We talk among ourselves but are walking on egg shells around here. For us, we chose this business because we want to help people. It’s not about profits or trying to appease Washington D.C. It’s curing and saving patients.”
“It’s burning us out and the pressure is enormous,” she continued. “We are hopeful and see signs of normalcy and then we hear about people being threatened with their jobs. That’s a big reason doctors, nurses and staff are burned out.”
Among the primary things causing labor shortages in healthcare are worries from the missignals of CDC, FDA, WHO, and government in general.
Lingering concerns are perpetuated by the “flip-flops of idiots like that damn (Dr. Anthony) Fauci.”
“Everything he says points to personal profit and control for him and others who do not have the best interest of us in mind. Big Pharma stockholders, yes. Us? No!”
“Now all we hear about is the delta variant,” the nurse, who has been a practicing RN over 20 years, added. “We need help with finding child care or taking care of our parents, not to gear up for the same things we’ve been told for over a year. We are burned out and we are beyond thinking it’s not by design. We are not stupid.”
Many professionals are exhausted and either making or seeking an exit from the profession: Nearly 30 percent of physicians, nurses and other healthcare workers have considered leaving healthcare altogether because of COVID-19-related burnout, a survey by The Washington Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation found.
“We can tell how bad everything is when the everyday tasks like backups, reports, and file transfers are being done by upper management,” she observed. “When the senior staff ends up doing more production activities, because they are fixing previous issues, covering vacations, or because no one else has the time, you’re really in trouble and big projects suffer. Our work slips into a firefighting gear or mode.”
Early retirements can hit healthcare especially hard, given that nearly a third of physicians are over 60 years old. Some workers with financial cushions and in-demand skills are resigning out of “professional fearlessness” prompted by a year spent with much of life on hold.
These factors have been well-studied, documented and expected: Americans are aging and living longer lives. By 2030, one in five Americans is projected to be 65 or over, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
“What’s really concerning is we have no clue how these vaccines may effect thousands of survivors,” the nurse, by now visibly angry, pointed out. “There is no telling what health conditions are about to overload us. We already see that happening. Wait until flu season.”
At least one quarter of those who had COVID-19 still have at least one condition, but that statistic is growing fast.
It is no secret there has been a nursing shortage for decades perpetuated by aging baby boomers.
In 2009, a team of Vanderbilt University nursing researchers warned that America’s nursing deficit was going to be “more than twice as large as any nurse shortage experienced since the introduction of Medicare and Medicaid in the mid-1960s.”
In 2019, the Association of American Medical Colleges forecasted a shortage of up to nearly 122,000 physicians by 2032. They revised their estimates this year to The AAMC released new figures in 2021, revising the forecasted range of deficit 124,000 by 2034.)
Hospitals are dealing with labor and talent deficits of varying degrees depending on the market. Emergency rooms are feeling the strain of staffing shortages combined with higher-acuity patients who are the result of delayed or deferred care throughout the pandemic.
One medical recruiter in Texas indicates that although her health system is doing “okay with nursing because we draw from other hospitals who may not be treating their staff as well–I blame it on management–we have experienced shortages in environmental cleaning (janitorial) and dietary (cooks, dish washers)
Vying for nurses and other positions, some hospitals and health systems are expanding sign-on bonuses:
Houston Methodist, mentioned earlier has resorted to offering nurses $15,000.
San Antonio Baptist and other Tenet Healthcare System hospitals offer bonuses in the $10,000-$20,000 range.
Piedmont Healthcare in Atlanta is offering nurses $30,000.
A state-operated psychiatric hospital in Oregon was so understaffed it requested and obtained 30 registered nurses from the National Guard.
Inadequate staffing and other concerns are prompting union activity, including in Chicago, Minneapolis and outside Los Angeles.
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A Special Message From Dodie Dennis (Retired RN)
With 40 years experience as a licensed Registered Nurse on a cruise line, a Colorado ski resort, and in Phoenix, AZ, I did everything from Operating Room to Immunology to all levels of Newborn care.
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For example, Omega-3 fatty acids are vitally important to our health. Our Omega-3 to Omega-6 ratio should be 1:1 or 1:2. Sadly, the average person’s is more like 1:20. Not only are we not getting enough Omega-3 from sources like grass-fed meats and fish/seafood, we’re also over consuming Omega 6 (e.g. vegetable oils, excessive nut consumption) – a double whammy.
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Clever Journeys 