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To: patron_anejo_por_favor who wrote (104835)	5/25/2001 11:45:46 AM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

>>If hospitals were overly concerned about the squeeze put on by managed care, they wouldn't be offering big signing bonuses, now would they?<< Sorry, you've got it backwards. In the past, nurses were NOT given signing bonuses. They were not paid enough to make it worthwhile to go to nursing school and/or remain in the profession. The wages paid were low, but not only that - the hospitals started running with short staff, and made up the difference with temps, who don't really know the ropes, and can't work as effectively as a permanent staff member due to inexperience. Now there is a shortage. Now that there is a shortage, the nurses are able to get signing bonuses. The signing bonuses being offered NOW are in part due to inflation. But the shortage began years ago. My sister, brother, and brother-in-law are nurses. I am a lawyer who handles medical malpractice cases. If you got us all together and we started telling you anecdotes about what happens when hospitals are short staffed with nurses, you'd be afraid to go to a hospital without bringing your own nurse. Temp. nurses get stuck in the shifts that people don't really want, graveyard, holidays. Hospitals have seniority - the longer you work there, the more chance you have of having a day shift with weekends off, just like everyone else. There is a lot of turnover for people who have to work graveyard - low pay is a disencentive to hang in there. A lot of nurses quit to have families and never come back. Women who used to become nurses are going to med school - or they are doing something else. Nurses are looked down on - "bedpan jockies," my dad calls them.-ng-

To: patron_anejo_por_favor who wrote (104835)	5/25/2001 12:39:53 PM
From: Tunica Albuginea	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

Good post patron: Americans are clueless about what is waiting for them just around the corner. They will find out soon, TA ERCrisis:Calif:Full emergency rooms send ambulances in circles emsa.cahwnet.gov . . . ERCrisis:Nevada :" People dying " " We're going to have extended ambulance response times, people climbing the walls in waiting rooms and people dying, " lvrj.com . . . BOSTON (AP) The notion that when you have a medical emergency you will be taken by ambulance to the nearest hospital is being challenged by a growing trend of hospitals shutting down their emergency rooms for hours at a time. When emergency rooms temporarily close, ambulances must be diverted boston.com. Review: America's Healthcare crisis: Big Mama Inflation on the way: Subject 24976 . . . . TA ============================ you said Message #104835 from patron_anejo_por_favor at May 25, 2001 11:16 AM <<The nurse shortage isn't really related to inflation. More of a side effect of the managed care mess>> That's nonsense. If hospitals were overly concerned about the squeeze put on by managed care, they wouldn't be offering big signing bonuses, now would they? The nursing shortage IS related to inflation, plus the fact that the work is hard, dirty, sometimes dangerous and usually unappreciated. Women who would have been good nurses in the past have just found easier ways to make more money. Managed care entities don't care what hospitals pay their nurses, as long as the hospitals don't insist on higher reimbursement come contract renewal time. Of course, if everyone (all hospitals) are paying more, and demanding higher reimbursement, then customers of the managed care entities (large and small businesses, who are paying the premiums) will scream bloody murder when the increases are passed through (as they most surely will be). Like all insurance companies, managed care cos and health insurors are basically bookies. Higher costs in=higher costs out, plus margin and overhead. End result: higher insurance premiums and higher inflation.