Arkansas hospital exec says health care workers are walking off the job amid spike in COVID-19 cases

[demmiblue]

Health care workers in Arkansas are starting to walk off the job as instances of short staffing and burnout continue to increase in the state.

Cam Patterson, chancellor of University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, told CNN that several staff members have left their post in the middle of a shifts and some are considering retiring early as they struggle to cope with the demands that the coronavirus and its variants are placing on them.

"Teams are stretched thin. People are frustrated. People are very tired," Patterson said, noting that morale among health care workers has been low. "We are down a significant number of positions here because we just don't have enough nurses that we can recruit to come here and help us to take care of patients."

According to Patterson, nearly 360 health care provider positions are currently vacant within UAMS. About 230 of those vacancies are for nurses, CNN reported.

Patterson said that UAMS has offered to pay signing bonuses of up to $25,000, but even that has had little effect on nurses who say that their mental health and wellbeing has taken a toll.

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/566639-arkansas-hospital-exec-says-health-care-workers-are-walking-off-the-job

[roamer65]

1. I would as well.

Why care for willfully unvaccinated morons?

They should be sent out to field hospitals with cots, water and MRE’s.

[Phoenix61]

2. +1,000 nt

[SheltieLover]

4. This!👆

Absolutely!

[Warpy]

14. Nevr attribute to politics what you can chalk up to procrastination

Most of the people probably knew they had to get the shot but ranting preachers gave them reasons not to get it today.

Time's up.

The true assholes aren't that numerous, they just bully the procrastinators and fence sitters into delaying things until it's too late.

What's happening to health care workers is total burnout. They need time off from the job measured in a month or two but there aren't enough of them to get it and they're not paid enough to take it. They're not quitting in frustration, they're quitting from sheer exhaustion.

It's a job where, if you are not relieved at the end of your 12 hour shift due to natural disaster or epidemic, you have to stay until someone is found to cover. There are no limits on hours for doctors or nurses and years of staff cutting by MBA hospital administrators has ensured that those hours can be incredibly long.

We know health care in this country is fucked up. Now you know how badly doctors and nurses are being fucked over.

Exhaustion is no joke. I have been there.

[lindysalsagal]

18. I wish the group were as small as you insinuate but I heard Randy Weingarten

the national teacher's union leader say that only 90% of teachers are vaxxed. That's way too many going unvaxxed.

I always side with teachers, but those 10% are dead wrong.

[Warpy]

28. I live in a blue state

and I might feel differently in states like Alabama with the deep red tied of old tyme religion and the most toxic right wing radio I've heard except on shortwave. Those people have been fooled for years and I think it would be very frustrating to try to deal with that.

[Grins]

25. Procrastination? Evidence, please...

Sick and dying all around and they didn’t procrastinate, they REFUSED because, “Freedumb!!!!” They clearly stated their reasons for not getting vaxxed.

[Warpy]

27. Neighbors

I just haven't gotten around to it. I can't afford to take a sick day if it makes me sick. Oh, I don't know, I suppose I'll have to get it, maybe when I go for a checkup (in 6 months!). Every time I go to Wally's I'm in too big a hurry, I can't wait to get out of there. The list goes on.

Most of these are people under 50 and think they're too healthy to die.

Listen to the people around you. The most vaccinated states are only around 76%. That leaves 24% of people who can and should get the vaccine but just haven't done it. Listen to the reasons why.

[marble falls]

3. The whole time they fight, risking their lives, all the authorities have been yelling "it's over" ..

... This rush to "re-open" will have killed thousands. A lot of the vacations everyone is rushing forwards to, will be the last for a lot of them.

[lindysalsagal]

5. I really believe we should ration hospital care to those who are vaxxed.

And leave the anti-science idiots to die at home.

[pandr32]

13. Children are victims of the un-vaccinated

We cannot neglect them.

The costs of this surge of the Delta variant among the unvaccinated that is straining our medical infrastructure will be likely passed on to all of us.

[roamer65]

15. That's why children should have first ICU priority.

Kick out the adult unvaccinated ICU covidiots.

[hadEnuf]

6. Why would frontline healthcare workers want to risk their lives again, this time for many

who were willfully ignorant enough to almost purposely get themselves infected.

I can't really blame them for not wanting to care for these morons.

[The Magistrate]

7. Sometimes The Army Just Ups And Goes Home, Ma'am

These people are under intolerable strain, a strain that was supposed to end with wide-spread vaccination. That is has not is due to deliberate thwarting of vaccination by Republicans who imagine this will improve their political prospects. They know better than most how profoundly voluntary this new wave of infections is, and are responding accordingly. They have every right to do so.

[Tadpole Raisin]

8. I know people who are burned out. I'm not sure even 3 months of FMLA leave would be enough for them

[lark]

9. If I were a nurse in FL, I'd certainly think of quitting because of the risks.

Also the fact that the state government is complicit in spreading the CV19 and making my life a horror show would weigh heavily on the decision. I wouldn't help them out, the rw unvaccinated caused this out of total stupidity and hate and taking care of them would absolutely not be my priority.

[OMGWTF]

21. Hell, I doubt I'll ever visit Floriduh again.

[lark]

31. Being a native Floridian with lots of family here, I could never say that.

Instead I say and mean it that I will never go back through KS - horrid place. I have no relatives/friends there to entice me to go there.

[PortTack]

10. A deeply demoralizing situation

As a retired ER nurse, I could maybe have continued to work if I had total support from administration, the government and the public, but that is not the case.

The current situation must be like facing a zombie apocalypse, they just keep coming and the support behind you runs away. I had friends that went to nam, knew nurses that worked in North Africa and Korea in MASH units and their stories althou horrific were nothing like this

[madville]

11. Traveling nurses are in high demand right now because of this

The demand to cover staff shortages is crazy in some places. I know a nurse that is off on a 12 week travel contract right now, she told me she is making $6000 a week for just three 12 hour shifts or 36 hours a week.

If I was a RN, why would I stay at a regular job, having to work mandatory overtime and such, making maybe $2000-3000 a week? I could go on a 3 month travel contract and make double or triple that with no overtime, then take a couple of months off and relax, that’s what my friends does.

[hibbing]

19. My neighbor's son and his wife are traveling nurses

Both him and his wife are traveling nurses during this pandemic. I would imagine the pay is good, but the stress has got to be bad. Last time I saw him they were headed to Missouri..ugh. On the positive side, he'll probably be able to retire young if he wishes to do so.

Peace

[madville]

22. The one I know loves the traveling contracts

She can just work a few months and then leave. She says she will never work as a full time permanent employee for a hospital again though, she says the pay is a fraction and they act like they own you. I remember how miserable she was working at the local hospital here before she started the travel gigs.

[BeckyDem]

12. My heart goes out to them, they have carried the burden and with the vaccine this

did not have to happen.

[Takket]

16. i can't blame any of them...

you watch the pandemic unfold, knowing it can be slowed, and have all these people who are accelerating its growth now expecting you to risk your life, and your family, to help them, and then they scream at you for hydrycholoquin... and at the end of the day you go on line and find yourself called a crisis actor and a traitor to drumpf for your trouble.

i've also heard hospitals in Florida are losing about two nurses EVERY DAY to quitting.

[yaesu]

17. if they have the capability to move they should move to a blue state

no more working themselves to death for idiots and they will get better pay.

[scarletlib]

20. Same thing happening in Texas.

[SergeStorms]

23. I was watching early morning MSNBC....

and I mean early, 5:00 am, and they were saying some medical professionals in Texas are being offered 4 X their present wages to transfer to other COVID ravaged states. I wasn't paying enough attention to recall which states were offering 4 X the money, but these people are dead tired and deserve 20 X what they're being paid.

[LymphocyteLover]

24. was wondering when this would happen

[Grins]

26. Arkansas! Whose Gov. YESTERDAY regretted dropping masking...

….AND GOT SLAMMED BY THE REICH-WING!

Eff them.

[Rustyeye77]

29. For the Great Gov'nor of Arkansas

[IronLionZion]

30. Come up north to blue states

less COVID and more appreciation and hopefully better pay and benefits