#understaffing

[autumn-storms-and-coffee-rings]

to add to the recovery fun, i told my workplace i’d be out at least thursday (the 30th and operation date) and friday (the 1st) and that my doctor estimated i’d need at least a week after that.

somehow my workplace translated that to two days total and i started receiving emails on monday (the 4th) telling me “i hope you’re recovered; here’s some work to do.”

my supervisor gave His Majesty - my boss - last week off because he’s ~so burnout~ despite knowing i’d be out last week. he barely works. i routinely bust my ass to meet the academic calendar deadlines. my part-time coworker - sweet, but not the brightest crayon in the box - was out with covid. my coworkers also seem to think surgery recovery is the equivalent of a vacation so i should be well-rested and not feeling the burnout of nearly two years of increased workload + trauma.

i’m *just now* strong enough to like…shower and sit at the table to eat. i cannot wait to try to figure out what tasks to prioritize at work this week when everything is basically past due, i’ll have virtually no assistance, and everyone expects me to be at 100% 🙃

[clatterbane]

This ward is extremely busy, and I'm getting more and more concerned about getting some very basic needs met. Especially when looking a bit medically stronger and relatively young seems to semi-understandably translate to pretty much bottom priority, even when I do absolutely still need assistance with the thing.

And who knows how long I'll be stuck here. 🙃

[alykali]

Today, my local news station was so understaffed that the sports section was replaced by a clip of an elderly man explaining how to make a fly for fly fishing in excruciating detail, and every other ad was just 20 seconds of blackness.

[indizombie]

The average time for an economic recession is 12-18 months. Given that this crash is caused by a virus, the recession may be savage, but also over faster than feared right now. Who knows. But however it pans out, in tough times companies often can't see the recovery just round the corner. And if they fire staff, when the recovery comes (and it will) they will be understaffed, and spend time and money rebuilding teams they fired in a panic.

Sam Stubbs, 'Now is the time for employers to keep faith with workers', Stuff

[clatterbane]

More than 1,000 UK doctors want to quit NHS over handling of pandemic

New survey finds two-thirds of respondents plan to leave within three years, citing Covid-19 burnout and frustrations over pay

When asked “where do you see yourself working in the next one to three years?”, almost two-thirds of doctors – 1,143 (65%) – said they would be leaving the NHS. That finding has prompted renewed concern about NHS understaffing, as the service in England already has vacancies for 8,278 doctors, according to the most recent official figures.

The most common reason for planning to quit, cited by 74% of respondents, was what DAUK said was the lack of a real-terms pay rise...

Other key factors included a lack of personal protective equipment (65%), doctors not being allowed to speak out publicly (54%), repeal of promises to NHS staff made during the pandemic, such as free parking (46%), and the impact of the crisis on their own mental health (45%).

Some respondents contrasted the respect shown to NHS staff for their work looking after patients with Covid-19 through 10 weeks of “clapping for carers” with what they said was ministers’ disdain for them, for example when accusing them of using too much PPE...

Another doctor, from an EU country, said they planned to return home as a result of the fiasco over high taxes levied on NHS doctors’ pensions and “the xenophobia and at least weekly mockery of my accent (from consultant colleagues and other staff),” adding: “I’m absolutely certain I’m making the right decision but also sad to be leaving a system that, despite all, still provides such great care. But I’m done sacrificing my mental and physical health for it.”

Another recent story related to the last bit, from our local newspaper: Insults, racial gaslighting and prejudiced violence – top BHRUT doctor opens up about racism in NHS

[clatterbane]

After being alone over the weekend except for that one short stay young woman with the broken shoulder?

I woke up again today with someone having been moved in here, and by just after lunchtime we were full up again!

I wasn't kidding about the demand for beds.

And it wasn't just in here, the whole ward ended up kinda depopulated with patients over the weekend. With AFAICT a fresh influx all around after Weekend Hospital Limbo was over and hospital services ther than emergency/A&E were running again.

(Like the lady in the bed next to me right now, who came in early this afternoon. She was really surprised to come in for a routine specialist appointment, and get admitted from there over some issue she hadn't thought was nearly that serious.)

Which helps explain just why things have been so absurdly busy today with the usual understaffing. And probably also why sometimes my needs have seemed pretty low on the mental triage list, since I am now in medically much better shape than basically anybody coming in. And certain procedures do need to be followed after admission, no matter how many staff members there might be to handle all of this.

Doesn't make it easier for anyone to deal with, but understand yes.

[truthaboutnursing]

Reporter Jonathan Saltzman at the Boston Globe writes today on the "nursing shortage," which has led 74 of the 81 OR nurses at Tufts Medical Center to issue a letter of no-confidence in their nurse manager Anna DaSilva, DNP, MBA, RN, for ongoing nursing shortages and mandatory overtime. According to the article, the nurses and the Massachusetts Nurses Association "also filed complaints with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, the American College of Surgeons, the Joint Commission, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services." But what they didn't seem to file a complaint against is the Boston Globe and the rest of the nation's media, for continuing to perpetuate this incorrect idea that we have a "nursing shortage" when, in fact, what we have is a manufactured crisis by hospitals that create working conditions for nurses that are so hostile and so dangerous for patients, who could bear it for very long? There is a continuing and revolving mass exodus of nurses from hospitals because they are stretched too thin, and the conditions are dangerous for patients.

Yet because nurses are there at the end of the line, being responsible for delivering excellent care, yet are unable to do so, no one can keep their sanity in such conditions so of course they leave and go find some other line of work. Let's stop calling it a "nursing shortage" and let's start calling it the "hospital-manufactured destruction of the nursing profession," and then let's file a massive class action lawsuit and make them pay for the educations of all the nurses they have driven out of the workforce and compensation for the years spent pursuing a career that is akin to throwing yourself into a meat grinder. Kudos to the 74 courageous nurses for signing the letter of no confidence. Go nurses, go!

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/04/27/business/tufts-medical-center-nurses/?s_campaign=8315:varf

[truthaboutnursing]

Strong Guardian piece reports that a combination of nurse understaffing and excessive charting burdens threaten mental health patients in the UK

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Social media Truth

Four-fifths of UK mental health nurses say their workload is unmanageable

Half of respondents to RCN poll said patients ‘frequently come to harm’ because caseloads are too high

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/apr/27/four-fifths-uk-mental-health-nurses-say-workload-unmanageable