As More People Get Hospitalized, More Nurses Are Leaving Their Positions And This Former ICU Nurse Explains What Goes On Behind The Scenes
The pandemic has made people realize that until a couple of years ago, they had ignored a lot of problems in their lives and in our society. One of the things that this worldwide health crisis has showed is that we never really appreciated the medical staff enough and it just got more severe during these trying times.
Medical professionals rarely speak up about it in public and when they do, it drowns in the flow of other information. But one former ICU nurse attracted quite a bit of attention when he shared a couple of videos summing up his experience of working in a hospital and explaining why he made the decision to quit as many nurses do.
More info: Twitter
A former ICU nurse shares why so many nurses are quitting their jobs even though they are so needed during these times
Image credits: intellegint
The Twitter user Andrew worked as a nurse in the intensive care unit. But he recently quit his job and wanted to bring light to why he did it because many medical professionals experience the same.
He started by explaining that usually, in the ICU, nurses have two patients to take care of. Because of the pandemic, more people are hospitalized and the norm has become three patients per nurse or even more. That doesn’t sound that bad when on other floors, nurses are given 8-12 patients per shift. However, every patient in the ICU requires great care, so raising the patient-to-nurse ratio means that they won’t get the proper treatment they need.
Image credits: intellegint
He starts by saying that the patient-nurse ratio is too high to properly take care of every patient a nurse is supposed to during a shift
Image credits: intellegint
Andrew gives an example that in order to keep a post-cardiac arrest patient or a post-code blue patient alive, he can spend 14 hours a day caring for them because there is so much to do.
But for the last almost 2 years, he had to take care of a couple of more patients that are intubated because of COVID in addition to the ones he already had. The former nurse says that this is a nationwide problem and it doesn’t seem to be getting better.
Image credits: intellegint
Especially in the ICU where one patient can require 14 hours straight
Image credits: intellegint
But actually the issue of staff shortage was a problem even before the pandemic; it only made it more visible and fatal. And now even more nurses are leaving their jobs or becoming traveling nurses because then, instead of $35 per hour, they can earn $80 or even $120 per hour.
But Andrew doesn’t consider the temporary nurses to be helpful because they are not a part of the full-time staff so they need training, getting familiar with the patients, coworkers and the hospital policies. And even though they are not fulfilling their job as efficiently as the full-time personnel, they get paid significantly more.
Image credits: intellegint
Another problem is that nurses realize they can earn more if they go work for travel agencies or contract agencies
Image credits: intellegint
Because the more experienced nurses quit their jobs at hospitals and become traveling nurses, the hospitals are trying to fill in those staff gaps with people freshly out of nursing schools who also need time to adapt and get the hang of their professions. It’s not easy in general, but during a global health crisis it’s even more of a challenge.
But that means they come to hospitals for short periods of time and that just results in the full-time staff working even more because the traveling nurses must be trained
Image credits: intellegint
Hospitals are also hiring graduate nurses and they also require attention and training
Image credits: intellegint
The staffing shortage has been discussed in the media for quite some time and we came to a conclusion that actually, there are people who want to work, but they are not willing to do that if they won’t be paid a decent wage.
It’s a thing in a lot of fields, but what’s special about the medical field is that people’s lives depend on whether there is enough staff or not.
Image credits: intellegint
Andrew acknowledges that staff shortage because of low wages affects all fields, but for nurses, it means they see people die
Image credits: intellegint
Andrew is of the same opinion but when nurses talk about going on strike, they are called irresponsible for abandoning their patients, which is very frustrating as it’s not at all what nurses want.
But if hospitals paid more, more nurses would come to work and that would lower the workload for each individual employee. Andrew made a good point: “They took something that we are good at and we are proud to do and they made us bad at it because we’re stretched too thin.”
Image credits: intellegint
The former nurse would like to see better laws, walkouts, strikes for nurses to be able to take care of their patients properly
Image credits: intellegint
Andrew talks about this problem in the US because it’s what he experienced but it’s actually a worldwide phenomenon. Howard Catton, CEO of the Geneva-based group that represents 27 million nurses in 130 national associations, said that there was a shortage of 6 million nurses before the pandemic and nearly 5 million are reaching their retirement in the next few years.
Image credits: intellegint
Here you can watch the first part of Andrew’s video
I quit my ICU job.
1/2 pic.twitter.com/6dltQEiXjA
— andrew (@intellegint) December 21, 2021
The fact that most countries can’t manage their medical staff so as not to burn them out doesn’t make it right and it actually makes it even more alarming. What do you think could be done to make more nurses come and work full-time and for young people to choose this career? Did anything in Andrew’s speech surprise you or were you aware of the circumstances nurses have to deal with? Share your thoughts and reactions in the comments!
Other Twitter users completely agreed with what Andrew said and realized that there is a problem to be fixed
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I'm an ICU nurse, and FYI there's been a >50% turnover at my job since March, 2020. 2020 burned too many people out, there was a mass of retirements, people took jobs in safer units or became travelers because travelers are making HUGE money right now, or took desk jobs. Because of my age and medical history I'm trying to get a desk job too, and hopefully before Omicron hits big. And this is in an area where nurse-to-patient ratios are protected by state law, and which has never been overwhelmed by COVID. It's been *far* worse elsewhere.
My friend is an ICU nurse and recently quit to do travel nursing. Her hospital offered to double her wage if she stayed, but by then she was fed up with their bullshit. If they can afford to double her wage to keep her, they should properly staff the hospital!
Load More Replies...
It's more like 5 these days.... For us. We have too many cost-cutting "administrators" (read: desk-jockey paper-pushing profiteers), and not enough actual staff with the skills/training. The minute you get bought by some network/or so-called "care provider"? You can assume your MDs wil be replaced by NPs, your RNs by NAs, and the family better be handy for the rest.
My brother quit his job as an ICU nurse to become a travel nurse. He and his wife are both nurses, and for the past two years they haven't seen their kids or each other much. My brother finally burnt out and may the antivaxx/ anti mask crowd go to hell because of it.
I feel this hard. I work providing direct care at a retirement home for adults with intellectual disabilities and our staffing is nothing short of scary. We've actually remained COVID-free (residents, some staff have caught it and stayed home) this entire time, and still have received no hazard pay. I make $11.33/hr. And I have a master's degree (not required for the position, but still) and 3 kids. It's insulting pay, honestly, but I love them so much!
This is one of the reasons 250k people in America die every year in the care of the medical profession. It’s a good thing that our fir departments don’t run the way medicine is or we would l be burned to a crisp. I got a huge dose of bad mediocre over the last 5 years, I trust nobody in the profession. The best people I met were physical therapists which doctors and surgeons readily ignore or dismiss their work. Hell if I treated myself the same way that my doctors have, I would be locked up for self harm
Hey, I owe a ton to a physio, so I don't dismiss 'em. Function! it's important! And, yeah. I had a surgeon say I wasn't clinically 9interesting enough (his words). So I could've ended up not walking again. Go Physio.
Load More Replies... It's the same here in Scotland, I work in a private care facility. There is the deputy as the day nurse and myself as the night nurse, the other shifts are filled by agency (similar to your travelling nurses), some are excellent, some, I even wonder how they got their license... we struggle on... Merry Christmas
How is it that cleaning staff in my company gets paid more than a nurse in the US? But your government will make sure your bankers don't miss their annual bonuses...
,Andrew nothing has really changed I mean I trained in 1964 - worked in a local hospital built in the early 1940's we ran our asses off like you people 8-10 patients to look after in 38 patient ward. Heart patients could do nothing but their own private baths and feed themselves, a lot of strokes needed complete care - No bathrooms in rooms - had what we called a hopper room where bedpans were emptied. Two bathrooms on the whole floor and one tub! Nothing automatic like BP machines, temperatures plus we were assigned other duties like cleaning and refilling sterilizers. We worried about or patients because they needed more care than we had time for. I do realize your patient are a lot more critical than some of ours and I think I would be burned out in a day looking after 2or3 COVID patients in a day. This is no life for anyone I think quitting is the only way out. The trouble with hospitals is there are too many chiefs and not enough Indians. They have clerical up the wazoo!
As an ex-nurse, I can relate. This is the situation not only for nurses, but also the doctors. About a year ago an anesthesiology doctor died after a 48 hours shift, and I kid you not he is around 30 years old. Why covid in my place in in peak, a shift of 3 nurses had to attend to 40 patients which almost all is in severe condition. The good thing is they got hazard pay, but they still having insane work hours.
Being an ICU nurse doesn't mean you should have to sacrifice your family, life, and your own health, mentally or physically. Pay people what they are worth and follow the Covid protocols such as masks, vaccines, social distancing, an boosters and then we may see some improvements.!
I truly believe that they should stick to the correct ratios and don't allow any nurse to work overtime, then use their already-established rules to determine who is left out of care. Of course, unvaccinated people would have lowest priority (except those that CAN'T get vaccinated of course), but since most of the COVID patients would fall into that category, then fall on the rules that all hospitals would already have in place: prioritizing based on age, chance of survival, etc. Maybe if people actually start dying due to hospitals being overwhelmed and turning people away, then some people would FINALLY realize that vaccinating and wearing a mask is a good idea. But instead, they just make the nurses work harder and harder and pull the crap that the OP discussed.
For a time, the US state of Idaho went to that ---- save only the ones we can, everyone else is a do-not-resuscitate ----- and it didn't change a thing in Idaho.
Load More Replies...
Same in my country and: Good for them!! Just because somebody decides to be a nurse they are not society's slave, having to sacrifice themselves on the altar of our negligence and stupidity. We as societies decided to treat nurses and their wages like a nuisance; we decided to let people not vaxxinate, and so we take the brunt of it and will die of preventable causes. Yes, it is sad, if this hits innocent people, but overall it is more than fair.
The government doesn't give a f*CK about people, it's why they don't staff hospitals properly. I work in an ER and half of it is shut down daily because we just don't have the staff. Then patients and nurses are put in dangerous situations, if someone was to code they could die because of the er being so badly understaffed. Patients collapse in the waiting rooms etc it needs to end
Cooperations and states don't want to pay. Thr whole millenial generation is running on fumes and employers are just dying "oh well what can you do it is what it is"
Aw man I feel bad for all these nurses I bet they can't even make as many Tik Toks as last year. 😭
I've been an RN for 30 years. I planned another decade before retirement. Then COVID hit. I have 2 remaining shift between today and retirement. I expect the US Healthcare system will crash completely in the next 2 years. Good luck without us.
A few family friends work night shift psych as RNs and have said over and over how lost they would be working ICU. These nurses are UNDERPAID. Friends make 35$ an HOUR where they work handling night shift rotation for patients that can be volatile but mostly sleep during the time they are there save intakes. And don’t get me wrong, psych nursing can be hell on earth, but they’re in a very reputable hospital that does not understaff [took them years to get there though]. All have said ICU is a different kind of volatile from what they remember from clinical, but it’s still stressful af…these people deserve better staffing or at least, something needs to be done management-wise to help nurses.
I honestly don't know what's going on in the areas where covid is this bad. I live in South Carolina and it's never been bad here. Hospitals haven't experienced much increase at all... From the beginning. I had to take my wife to ER night before last. I was talking with some of the staff (they were bored and just hanging out). In the last month they said there's been maybe 3 people TOTAL in the entire upstate area that have been in for covid. The night I was there, there were TWO people in ER, my wife and a car wreck. I personally know 2 people who have had covid in my area and only 5 total who've had it. ALL were very mild cases. I went earlier this year and got an antibody test. Well, apparently I had covid sometime in the last two years. Could have fooled me.
Correct. You don't know what's going on. So don't comment.
Load More Replies...
I know what will help the ICU staff shortage, quitting! Selfish idiot, not like people on ICU are particularly active, he's making out like 1:3 ratio is the worst thing in the world, ridiculous!!
That's what happens when you don't have enough staff to begin with and then fire more over the vaccines. Kind of messed it up for anyone left and made it like this is over. What did anyone expect?! We see this in other jobs too.
Well, if the Govt and media hadn't blocked Dr's from treating patients for covid BEFORE they needed to be hospitalized, then the ICU 's wouldn't be full. Yes they were actually BLOCKED from treating covid patients. It was POLICY to send covid positive patients HOME until they actually were dying. Drugs being used off label was banned and Dr have lost their licenses over it. This is a FACT not some conspiracy theory.
We are talking about human beings under an unrelenting amount of stress and anxiety. This is more than being "stretched thin". Hospital administrations that trot out the "abandoning your patients" line are simply using guilt and emotional manipulation in order to continue the vicious cycle these people are under.
Load More Replies...
I'm an ICU nurse, and FYI there's been a >50% turnover at my job since March, 2020. 2020 burned too many people out, there was a mass of retirements, people took jobs in safer units or became travelers because travelers are making HUGE money right now, or took desk jobs. Because of my age and medical history I'm trying to get a desk job too, and hopefully before Omicron hits big. And this is in an area where nurse-to-patient ratios are protected by state law, and which has never been overwhelmed by COVID. It's been *far* worse elsewhere.
My friend is an ICU nurse and recently quit to do travel nursing. Her hospital offered to double her wage if she stayed, but by then she was fed up with their bullshit. If they can afford to double her wage to keep her, they should properly staff the hospital!
Load More Replies... It's more like 5 these days.... For us. We have too many cost-cutting "administrators" (read: desk-jockey paper-pushing profiteers), and not enough actual staff with the skills/training. The minute you get bought by some network/or so-called "care provider"? You can assume your MDs wil be replaced by NPs, your RNs by NAs, and the family better be handy for the rest.
My brother quit his job as an ICU nurse to become a travel nurse. He and his wife are both nurses, and for the past two years they haven't seen their kids or each other much. My brother finally burnt out and may the antivaxx/ anti mask crowd go to hell because of it.
I feel this hard. I work providing direct care at a retirement home for adults with intellectual disabilities and our staffing is nothing short of scary. We've actually remained COVID-free (residents, some staff have caught it and stayed home) this entire time, and still have received no hazard pay. I make $11.33/hr. And I have a master's degree (not required for the position, but still) and 3 kids. It's insulting pay, honestly, but I love them so much!
This is one of the reasons 250k people in America die every year in the care of the medical profession. It’s a good thing that our fir departments don’t run the way medicine is or we would l be burned to a crisp. I got a huge dose of bad mediocre over the last 5 years, I trust nobody in the profession. The best people I met were physical therapists which doctors and surgeons readily ignore or dismiss their work. Hell if I treated myself the same way that my doctors have, I would be locked up for self harm
Hey, I owe a ton to a physio, so I don't dismiss 'em. Function! it's important! And, yeah. I had a surgeon say I wasn't clinically 9interesting enough (his words). So I could've ended up not walking again. Go Physio.
Load More Replies... It's the same here in Scotland, I work in a private care facility. There is the deputy as the day nurse and myself as the night nurse, the other shifts are filled by agency (similar to your travelling nurses), some are excellent, some, I even wonder how they got their license... we struggle on... Merry Christmas
How is it that cleaning staff in my company gets paid more than a nurse in the US? But your government will make sure your bankers don't miss their annual bonuses...
,Andrew nothing has really changed I mean I trained in 1964 - worked in a local hospital built in the early 1940's we ran our asses off like you people 8-10 patients to look after in 38 patient ward. Heart patients could do nothing but their own private baths and feed themselves, a lot of strokes needed complete care - No bathrooms in rooms - had what we called a hopper room where bedpans were emptied. Two bathrooms on the whole floor and one tub! Nothing automatic like BP machines, temperatures plus we were assigned other duties like cleaning and refilling sterilizers. We worried about or patients because they needed more care than we had time for. I do realize your patient are a lot more critical than some of ours and I think I would be burned out in a day looking after 2or3 COVID patients in a day. This is no life for anyone I think quitting is the only way out. The trouble with hospitals is there are too many chiefs and not enough Indians. They have clerical up the wazoo!
As an ex-nurse, I can relate. This is the situation not only for nurses, but also the doctors. About a year ago an anesthesiology doctor died after a 48 hours shift, and I kid you not he is around 30 years old. Why covid in my place in in peak, a shift of 3 nurses had to attend to 40 patients which almost all is in severe condition. The good thing is they got hazard pay, but they still having insane work hours.
Being an ICU nurse doesn't mean you should have to sacrifice your family, life, and your own health, mentally or physically. Pay people what they are worth and follow the Covid protocols such as masks, vaccines, social distancing, an boosters and then we may see some improvements.!
I truly believe that they should stick to the correct ratios and don't allow any nurse to work overtime, then use their already-established rules to determine who is left out of care. Of course, unvaccinated people would have lowest priority (except those that CAN'T get vaccinated of course), but since most of the COVID patients would fall into that category, then fall on the rules that all hospitals would already have in place: prioritizing based on age, chance of survival, etc. Maybe if people actually start dying due to hospitals being overwhelmed and turning people away, then some people would FINALLY realize that vaccinating and wearing a mask is a good idea. But instead, they just make the nurses work harder and harder and pull the crap that the OP discussed.
For a time, the US state of Idaho went to that ---- save only the ones we can, everyone else is a do-not-resuscitate ----- and it didn't change a thing in Idaho.
Load More Replies... Same in my country and: Good for them!! Just because somebody decides to be a nurse they are not society's slave, having to sacrifice themselves on the altar of our negligence and stupidity. We as societies decided to treat nurses and their wages like a nuisance; we decided to let people not vaxxinate, and so we take the brunt of it and will die of preventable causes. Yes, it is sad, if this hits innocent people, but overall it is more than fair.
The government doesn't give a f*CK about people, it's why they don't staff hospitals properly. I work in an ER and half of it is shut down daily because we just don't have the staff. Then patients and nurses are put in dangerous situations, if someone was to code they could die because of the er being so badly understaffed. Patients collapse in the waiting rooms etc it needs to end
Cooperations and states don't want to pay. Thr whole millenial generation is running on fumes and employers are just dying "oh well what can you do it is what it is"
Aw man I feel bad for all these nurses I bet they can't even make as many Tik Toks as last year. 😭
I've been an RN for 30 years. I planned another decade before retirement. Then COVID hit. I have 2 remaining shift between today and retirement. I expect the US Healthcare system will crash completely in the next 2 years. Good luck without us.
A few family friends work night shift psych as RNs and have said over and over how lost they would be working ICU. These nurses are UNDERPAID. Friends make 35$ an HOUR where they work handling night shift rotation for patients that can be volatile but mostly sleep during the time they are there save intakes. And don’t get me wrong, psych nursing can be hell on earth, but they’re in a very reputable hospital that does not understaff [took them years to get there though]. All have said ICU is a different kind of volatile from what they remember from clinical, but it’s still stressful af…these people deserve better staffing or at least, something needs to be done management-wise to help nurses.
I honestly don't know what's going on in the areas where covid is this bad. I live in South Carolina and it's never been bad here. Hospitals haven't experienced much increase at all... From the beginning. I had to take my wife to ER night before last. I was talking with some of the staff (they were bored and just hanging out). In the last month they said there's been maybe 3 people TOTAL in the entire upstate area that have been in for covid. The night I was there, there were TWO people in ER, my wife and a car wreck. I personally know 2 people who have had covid in my area and only 5 total who've had it. ALL were very mild cases. I went earlier this year and got an antibody test. Well, apparently I had covid sometime in the last two years. Could have fooled me.
Correct. You don't know what's going on. So don't comment.
Load More Replies... I know what will help the ICU staff shortage, quitting! Selfish idiot, not like people on ICU are particularly active, he's making out like 1:3 ratio is the worst thing in the world, ridiculous!!
That's what happens when you don't have enough staff to begin with and then fire more over the vaccines. Kind of messed it up for anyone left and made it like this is over. What did anyone expect?! We see this in other jobs too.
Well, if the Govt and media hadn't blocked Dr's from treating patients for covid BEFORE they needed to be hospitalized, then the ICU 's wouldn't be full. Yes they were actually BLOCKED from treating covid patients. It was POLICY to send covid positive patients HOME until they actually were dying. Drugs being used off label was banned and Dr have lost their licenses over it. This is a FACT not some conspiracy theory.
We are talking about human beings under an unrelenting amount of stress and anxiety. This is more than being "stretched thin". Hospital administrations that trot out the "abandoning your patients" line are simply using guilt and emotional manipulation in order to continue the vicious cycle these people are under.
Load More Replies... 
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