Wildfire turnover (original) (raw)

This is my first time working in a medical hospital. I work in an LTAC with two units. We were part of a company that had hospitals and one or two SNFs up until March, when the whole thing got swallowed up by a huge national company with innumerable hospitals, SNFs, and rehabs.

I give this background, because I'm wondering if someone with more experience than I have in this field can tell me if the incredibly high number of resignations we've had in the past couple months is normal, or the kind of death-knell it looks like from over here.

Not even counting the nursing, rehab, and respiratory staff, and just looking at management-level and specialist positions, the turnover has been crazy. We currently have no nurse manager for either unit, no charge nurse for one unit, no weekend supervisors, no infection control nurse, no admissions director, and no head of the hospital. We've also been without a supplies person (Materials Management) and a wound nurse. We're also down one case manager.

Is this to be expected? Is this the kind of thing that happens after a change of ownership, after which the hospital steadies itself and is all right again? I'm alarmed by the way that every time someone leaves, their duties are reassigned for an unspecified 'interim' to someone to do in addition to their existing duties - so, for instance, the nurse educator was told she also had to be the wound care nurse until they found someone. Two full-time jobs seems like a bad arrangement for good patient care.

Perspectives? Should I be brushing up my resume or hanging on for the ride?