scubanurse Posted March 2, 2011 Author Share Posted March 2, 2011 I don't know why the nurses are striking, but I'm guessing that it's not because they're working in a sweat shop sewing Nikes for 3 bucks a day. But no worries LS, let the union kill the hospitals...the govt will come in and save the day..that's what they're for, right? Dwayne Looks like they are striking over wages and some of the policies in place...http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Washington-Hospital-Center-Nurses-Plan-1-Day-Strike-for-March-116773044.html I know some nurses last year got in trouble from WHC for failure to report due to the blizzards and the unsafe road conditions while other nurses were held for 20+ hour shifts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
island emt Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 Hospitals everywhere are trying to contain costs and increase productivity. The most common complaint from nursing staff is not about wage issues or benefits, It's about the number of patients they are responsible to provide care for. My wife is an RN on the med surgical/ telemetry unit and depending on the day she can have as many as 7, yep seven patients she is responsible for. Some are post surgical requiring intensive individual care and as she is a Chemo certified nurse she may be giving infusion treatment to others and then dealing with the overall medication and care issues of the rest of her pt load. Add in all the additional care responsibilities of bathing and personal care , educating pt's in medications and other required treatments prior to discharge. She works 3-11 pm., and usually spends at least an hour past the end of shift after giving report to the oncoming nurse , completing the computerized charting and follow up orders documentation. She is paid a reasonable wage and has average benefits , but the increased patient loads are approaching dangerous levels, which can lead to errors or worse someone getting hurt.To say nothing about the stress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brentoli Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 Don't forget the great state of Indiana. Our house democrats fleed to Ill. to prevent a Right to Work vote. I see no reason why I pay $250 a year to one of the major Detroit unions, in my dispatching job. But what do I know? I could tell you lots of stories about the union failing to do anything for the worker, in my short 5 years of FT employment. And don't even get me started on the discipline grivance process. Lowest common denominator? In answer to Kt's question... In California when there were the large scale nursing strikes, many agencies brought nurses in that were willing to cross picket lines. And paid them a good preimium for doing so. Do you know if the hospital arranged something on those lines? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lone Star Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 (edited) I take it you've never worked for a company who paid you the bare minimum wage that the law provides for. I worked for a company (pre EMT) who decided that they would finally increase our 'benefits package' by offering health insurance. The only problem that I encountered was that after the initial 'probationary period', when I became eligible for the insurance, it would have taken ALL of my 'net income' plus I would have had to throw in an additional $20.00 a week just to be able to have health insurance. Should I not be allowed to earn a decent wage AND insurance simply because I was working in the shipping department? After the workers started moving toward bringining a union into the company, people started 'magically disappearing'. It was tough to prove that they were disappearing because they were in support of organizing, but when I had to go to mediation to get unemployment benefits, one of the questions my legal advocate asked my supervisor was "If this man was such a lousy employee as you charge, why isn't there any documentation to support your claims?" Had there been more tangible proof that I (and others) had been fired for supporting bringing in the union, the supervisor (and subsequently the company) would have been in violation of federal law. What I find funny is that I found out through a friend that still worked there, the supervisor I had was terminated shortly after I had been. I wasn't the one behind the organizing, but I was definately in support of the move. The employer promised us all sorts of benefits and increases if we voted against unionizing, and he fooled enough people into voting against the union coming in, only to find that he lied to them all..... I've also worked for a union, and life was far better than the warehouse job. I worked on the assembly line building the Mustang convertibles. No, I didn't get paid a monsterous wage (I was making a whopping $11.00/ hour), but I DID have health insurance, retirement and was protected from supervisors who wanted to treat us like dirt. I had a QI/QA guy who was a friend of mine get his job threatened because of what I did on the line. The QI/QA supervisor saw the SPC charts for my job and threatened to fire the QI/QA man because he didn't think the results that were documented were true and accurate. Because my friend was about to lose his job for falsification of company documents, I got the union, the general foreman, production foreman and a couple other 'hot shot's from the company assembled at my station on the line and proved to them through 25 cars (that they picked at random) that I COULD do just what was documented on those charts. To make a long story short, not only did my actions save my friend's job, but it proved that the QI/QA supervisor wasn't able to accept that the fact that there are some people that are willing to do their job to the best of their ability, and that just because you don't think something can happen doesn't mean that it can't happen. The reuslts of the whole 'hoo-hah' on the assembly line protected my friend's job. The unfortunate effect of it was that the QI/QA supervisor lost his. I didn't intend to do anything but help my friend keep his job. I wasn't out to see anyone get fired. The only reason I'm not still working there is because Ford took the job that we had perfected for over 15 years back 'in house', which ended up closing the shop.... *edited to correct grammatical error* Edited March 2, 2011 by Lone Star Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crotchitymedic1986 Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 Lets all cry for the Nurses, I seriously doubt any of them are breaking a sweat at work, despite having more patients to care for, and I doubt they have substandard wages. Most nurses no longer have to draw up meds (the pharmacy does that), most charting is electronic, and they have aides to do the butt whiping. I agree that if you have a company that is abusing its employees, then unionize, but most of the bitching from people today is because they had a few perks removed, because the company is trying to stay profitable. If you have not realize how this economy has hurt collections for any healthcare provider, then I suggest you spend some time with someone in billing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
island emt Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 Crotch: Maybe in the big city medical centers the nurses have all that help. My wife is lucky to have a CNA 1 shift out of 4 per week. They draw all but the chemo infusion drugs up themselves from the pixus machine. Admission evaluation takes at least an hour on the computer documentation & some night she'll get 2 or three. Discharges take almost as much time. Yes some nurses work their asses off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scubanurse Posted March 3, 2011 Author Share Posted March 3, 2011 Lets all cry for the Nurses, I seriously doubt any of them are breaking a sweat at work, despite having more patients to care for, and I doubt they have substandard wages. Most nurses no longer have to draw up meds (the pharmacy does that), most charting is electronic, and they have aides to do the butt whiping. I agree that if you have a company that is abusing its employees, then unionize, but most of the bitching from people today is because they had a few perks removed, because the company is trying to stay profitable. If you have not realize how this economy has hurt collections for any healthcare provider, then I suggest you spend some time with someone in billing. I've been watching your posts for quite some time and generally ignore your attitude and posts. What gives? Are you just looking to upset people or do you honestly think what you type is good information? I would love to see you be a floor nurse for one shift and get your ass handed to you. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brentoli Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 Lets all cry for the Nurses, I seriously doubt any of them are breaking a sweat at work, despite having more patients to care for, and I doubt they have substandard wages. Most nurses no longer have to draw up meds (the pharmacy does that), most charting is electronic, and they have aides to do the butt whiping. I agree that if you have a company that is abusing its employees, then unionize, but most of the bitching from people today is because they had a few perks removed, because the company is trying to stay profitable. If you have not realize how this economy has hurt collections for any healthcare provider, then I suggest you spend some time with someone in billing. Do you actually KNOW any nurses, or are you just talking out your ass? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HERBIE1 Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 Working conditions for nurses vary greatly from place to place, and even within the same hospital. Looking at an ER vs on a med-surg or gyne floor is like night and day. An ER may be swamped 24/7, but because their patient's acuity may be low, most patients are not admitted to the hospital. Thus, an ER could be overcrowded, yet there may be entire floors that are like ghost towns. I cannot speak for DC, but knowing their EMS system is overwhelmed, I'm thinking the hospitals are similarly afflicted. Too many question marks about health care right now. We don't yet know the impact Obamacare will have on hospital census and staffing levels, but based on what we know so far of this abomination, it does not look good to me. I'm thinking hospitals will be forced to do more with less, and that is a dangerous combination when dealing with people's lives. Lets all cry for the Nurses, I seriously doubt any of them are breaking a sweat at work, despite having more patients to care for, and I doubt they have substandard wages. Most nurses no longer have to draw up meds (the pharmacy does that), most charting is electronic, and they have aides to do the butt whiping. I agree that if you have a company that is abusing its employees, then unionize, but most of the bitching from people today is because they had a few perks removed, because the company is trying to stay profitable. If you have not realize how this economy has hurt collections for any healthcare provider, then I suggest you spend some time with someone in billing. The "economy" is not responsible for poor reimbursement, nor is it to blame for the overcrowding in ER's, nor is it to blame for nurses being overworked in many places. Nursing shortages and staff burnout are age old and cyclic problems. Many nurses quickly become disillusioned when soon after they become new grads, they realize their ideas of what nursing is all about are quite different than reality. That's why those with the capabilities, drive, and money move up to a management position or take jobs in home health or education. The ones who- for whatever reason- cannot advance their careers are stuck working in the trenches, and can easily become overwhelmed. The problem with nurses in unions are similar to any other union job, The union protects the slugs, and the diligent and responsible workers can become abused. I have a friend who is a surgeon, and did part of his residency in a large local county hospital. Most of the hospital was unionized- from the clerks to the physical therapists, to lab workers, to Xray techs. If he needed a test result, often times he would run into the issue of union mandated breaks. Want that blood test stat? Sorry, I'm on break. Need a CT or Xray to be done or read? Sorry- I'm at lunch. With the volume of patients they had, most of the time there would be a horrendous backlog of test results, and patients would often wait hours before definitive treatment could begin. Often times he was forced to track down test results himself, run a test, or read a film just so he could begin treatment on a patient, and not wait for 8 hours to get the results of a simple CBC. I don't know the specifics of this DC hospital, but this issue is far more complicated than you portray it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scubanurse Posted March 5, 2011 Author Share Posted March 5, 2011 Strike started this morning FYI: http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Washington-Hospital-Center-Nurses-Strike-117395623.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts