I am still reeling over the arrogance of that CEO in San Luis Obispo, who’s “complaining” because nurses have a better option. Even though Catholic West Healthcare made half a billion in profit, he still expects nurses to come work for him at half the salary that they can get elsewhere.

And I wonder–did French Hospital fire nurses aides and unit clerks? A lot of California hospitals did that, because they’re really pissed off at the mandated nurse/patient ratios. Fine, they say, we have to obey the ratio, but we’ll make up for it by not giving the nurse any help.

At any rate, this is just one more story that solidifies the truth that many of us have been aware of all along–this is no real nursing shortage, just a shortage of acceptable work places. There are 2.9 million RNs in the U.S., and that’s not enough? Half a million do not work in nursing at all, and about 55% work in hospitals. The number of nurses working in hospitals and long term care keeps declining–gee, I wonder why.