UCSF has implemented a hiring freeze, slashed its new graduate RN program for yet another year, and appears to be running on a skeleton crew philosophy that anyone who's ever managed a lemonade stand could tell you won't end well. The story is similar across Bay Area hospitals, but at a flagship institution like UCSF, the consequences are especially visible.

As one UCSF employee put it bluntly: "There's a hiring freeze, unfortunately. Some positions are opening up if someone quits but only then." Another staffer offered the grim forecast: "They are attempting to do more with less. Not going to work out for them."