CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — There are about 240,000 licensed nurses in Illinois, but only about 140,000 are working as nurses, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Picketing nurses at Lovell Federal Health Center in North Chicago told WBBM that 14% of their nursing positions are vacant. They suggested that the hospital should make life easier on nurses that it wants to recruit or retain by offering flexible schedules.
“The new nurses that are coming in, they’re not looking at retirement packages,” said registered nurse Monica Coleman. “They’re looking at ‘What can I do to give optimal care to my patients and still have a life at home.’”
Coleman works at Lovell and said flexible scheduling is part of the national contract — but their hospital has not implemented it, with administrators calling it too expensive.
“It actually wouldn’t be more expensive,” Coleman said. “It actually will save them money. You’re going to decrease the amount of call-ins. You’re going to retain the nurses, so that decreases the amount of training that you have to do for the open door.”
Emergency room nurse Phillip Roman said Veterans Affairs hospitals throughout the country have already put flexible scheduling in place.
“The benefit of this is that it retains our quality, experienced nurses [and] helps us recruit quality nurses from the community to come work at our hospital,” Roman said.
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