As a leader, the staffing for my department they provided was abysmal. There was absolutely no way to practice at the level that was needed with the staffing they allowed. When working on the budget, I had ample proof of the need for more staff, but was denied. Leadership routinely must work as staff in addition to all the meetings, reports and administrative duties, etc. There were multiple times where I was in meetings, but called by my department to handle something only I could handle, because there was no one I could train that had the ability/education to handle those types of problems. You cannot be in two places at once. Human Resources upper management is dismissive, although the business partners were helpful when needed. While I was there, my fellow leaders in other units exited on a monthly basis. New hires are largely graduating students that just want experience, and generally go with the first institution that makes an offer. Then after a year or two, they leave for more pay and better opportunities. Even long-time nurses there finally gave up and left for higher salaries-they told me this when they resigned. Overall, the people in the Executive Suites have unrealistic expectations, and turnover continues. The message relayed to leaders was that budget tightening would get worse, not better. The CHRISTUS merger affected everything negatively, it went downhill after that. Our old Mother Frances culture was lost.
