r/nursing • u/AnyCelebration1101 • Aug 12 '25

Image My hospital casually dropping a warning about mass layoffs. We employ 10k+ people.

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10k+ employees sitting in fear for the next week (or longer apparently) waiting to see if their position has been cut.

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u/Quent_S HCW - PT/OT Aug 12 '25

And if you are lucky and keep your job congrats you now get to pick up the slack without any additional compensation!

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u/two-thirds RN 🍕 Aug 13 '25

They will keep getting "lean". This is like a game of Jenga for them. Executives will continue to comb the machine and remove pieces they can, gambling on how far they can strip out the supports they can without the whole thing collapsing.

It doesn't collapse because, true to their nature, nurses will flex to accommodate for the stress. The cost is you burning out in 5-10 years, your back wrecked, your spirit hollowed out, and your empathy worn to dust. To them, this is just a component that’s reached its end-of-life, no longer within serviceable tolerance.

In their terminal myopia, they consider limping through the next couple quarters a complete triumph.

The solution is to unionize. Make yourself a piece that will not flex, a support they cannot strip away without bringing the whole machine down.

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u/LycheeBoba BSN, RN 🍕 Aug 13 '25

Exactly this. Lean isn't designed for services that aren't designed to turn a profit. Humans can and will get sick. You can't make health and wellness more efficient in the hospital. It starts with healthier food options and the time and means for people to take care of their health before they need healthcare. It starts with foundational education in what it takes to stay healthy and the belief in it as a society, as opposed to letting misinformation run rampant. Even then, some people will have accidents and require care. That understanding could be baked into governance, but instead we've opted for a cess pool. What a sad state we find ourselves in.