Poll: 3 in 10 health care workers consider leaving field more than a year into the pandemic

The pandemic was the number one factor which effected my decision to retire from nursing! The constant short staffing, inadequate supplies, the high sick call offs and patient to nurse ratio were just overwhelming! An ineffective management and weak union were also major factors! Our hospital had a 1:4 nurse/patient ratio agreed in writing in a contractual agreement between union and management! During the pandemic the ratios were set at 1:7 up to 1:15 with supposedly ancillary staff helping out! Many major medication errors, and missed nursing interventions were frequent! Nurses were burnt out, entire units were 100% Covid 19 patients! The constant battle management went on deaf ears and so I decided at the age of 65 to retire and get rid of the stress! Best decision i ever made!

Nursing has had fairly high turnover years before COVID as hospitals like to work us to death. The more patients nurses can take the higher the profits of the hospital. This nursing shortage you hear about in the media is not because we are short nurses, we are short nurses that work at the bedside. A BSN prepares people very well for a multitude of positions and people realize this.

It gets tiring. I’m lucky, in that I have had one probable case in the last two months or so.