Really? I have an aunt in Bradenton (can’t remember which hospital, but it’s not Manatee) who clocks 75-80 hrs/week. My aunt & uncle in N. Ft. Lauderdale can’t keep nurses on staff at their private practice, they are always hiring.
Yeah, I was surprised too...but it is a major hospital in the Tampa Bay area that laid off, and the other is reducing hours. All these nurses were RNs...I wondered if it had to do with hospitals replacing RNs with LPNs or possibly shorter patient stays, or just simple cost cutting by the hospitals. I know they’ve gone to the 12 hour shift model, that sort of surprised me last time I was in the hospital. For years it was the 7-3, 3-11, 11-7 shifts, now it’s 12 hours. I can’t even imagine how tired those nurses are after 12 hours.
Here’s an interesting thread I found on a nurses site about supposed reasons why there is no nursing shortage in 2010:
http://allnurses.com/general-nursing-discussion/there-no-nursing-502278.html