Alabama RNs need a good union. A quick poll.

forrester · Sep 20, 2010

I do not represent CNA or the NNOC. I am an educator with 35 years of healthcare experience.

Unions are needed when management does not respond to the concerns of a workforce. It is the ONLY way to be taken seriously under these conditions, especially for disempowered groups like nursing.

The issue is not primarily one of pay, although that is a real concern in many areas of the country. The issue is one of patient safety.

In 1999, the IOM reported that up to 98,000 Americans were dying each year from preventible healthcare facilty related issues. Some now estimate that figure at around 200,000 when nosocomila infections are included. This is intolerable, period.

The administrations have had more than a DECADE to respond to this. The Hearst report, released in 2009, concluded that it is only getting worse. CDC and AHRQ report it is increasing at around 1% per year.

As nurses, we have an ethical obligation to provide safe care. We also have an ethical obligation for collective action to ensure safe environments to practice. The CNA/NNOC movement represents a true initiative in that direction.

Yes, Birmingham and Ft. Smith are important, the people who live there and put trust in their healthcare facilities to do the right thing are just as important as anywhere else. This movement needs a national presence, and I strongly encourage ALL nurses to look at this objectively. It costs only $30 per year to support them in their efforts.

Now, as to the opposition to unions. Yes, there have been many abuses by unions since theri inception. There have been abuses in all human endeavors. And yet, we have unions to thank for the weekend, for health insurance, for many of the benefits we now take for granted. The unon become "corrupted" when they become entities unto themselves and forget the purposes that created them.

With the CNA/NNOC, and now the NNU, the leadership remains bedside practicing nurses. With the exception of the Executive Director, whose leadership was and is vital to the organization from an operations point of view (and who has been recognized as one of the top 100 most influential healthcare people for many years now), all members are RN's.

This organization has achieved results NO OTHER NURSING ASSOCIATION has been able to accomplish in moving towards accountability for providing safe care.

In particular, the almost visceral opposition to nursing unions very often comes from nursing educators, themselves often unionized!

Other opposition comes from nursing "leaders", frequently nurse administrators who have bought into this "executive" status they think they have. Their group, the AONE, is actually a CHAPTER of the AHA, which vigorously opposes nursing unions for obvious reasons.

It's time we took back our profession, and re-energized nursing to live up to our ethical responsibilities and Lillian Wald's vision, a profession that would "know and tell". We all know, but have no mechanism for telling.

Yes, I am sure there are nurses who have had bad experiences with the large number of unions in healthcare. This group is different, deserves our attention, and deserves our support. If and when they disappoint, I'll be the first critic to engage them. Until then, stop the criticism until you do the research, and research who is doing the criticism.

When they come out with pablum in terms of opposition, think about where that is coming from.

Safe Patient Care is the issue, and the Linda Aiken study released in March is conclusive proof that the CNA is on the right track.

lindarn · Sep 21, 2010

I do not represent CNA or the NNOC. I am an educator with 35 years of healthcare experience.
Unions are needed when management does not respond to the concerns of a workforce. It is the ONLY way to be taken seriously under these conditions, especially for disempowered groups like nursing.
The issue is not primarily one of pay, although that is a real concern in many areas of the country. The issue is one of patient safety.
In 1999, the IOM reported that up to 98,000 Americans were dying each year from preventible healthcare facilty related issues. Some now estimate that figure at around 200,000 when nosocomila infections are included. This is intolerable, period.
The administrations have had more than a DECADE to respond to this. The Hearst report, released in 2009, concluded that it is only getting worse. CDC and AHRQ report it is increasing at around 1% per year.
As nurses, we have an ethical obligation to provide safe care. We also have an ethical obligation for collective action to ensure safe environments to practice. The CNA/NNOC movement represents a true initiative in that direction.
Yes, Birmingham and Ft. Smith are important, the people who live there and put trust in their healthcare facilities to do the right thing are just as important as anywhere else. This movement needs a national presence, and I strongly encourage ALL nurses to look at this objectively. It costs only $30 per year to support them in their efforts.
Now, as to the opposition to unions. Yes, there have been many abuses by unions since theri inception. There have been abuses in all human endeavors. And yet, we have unions to thank for the weekend, for health insurance, for many of the benefits we now take for granted. The unon become "corrupted" when they become entities unto themselves and forget the purposes that created them.
With the CNA/NNOC, and now the NNU, the leadership remains bedside practicing nurses. With the exception of the Executive Director, whose leadership was and is vital to the organization from an operations point of view (and who has been recognized as one of the top 100 most influential healthcare people for many years now), all members are RN's.
This organization has achieved results NO OTHER NURSING ASSOCIATION has been able to accomplish in moving towards accountability for providing safe care.
In particular, the almost visceral opposition to nursing unions very often comes from nursing educators, themselves often unionized!
Other opposition comes from nursing "leaders", frequently nurse administrators who have bought into this "executive" status they think they have. Their group, the AONE, is actually a CHAPTER of the AHA, which vigorously opposes nursing unions for obvious reasons.
It's time we took back our profession, and re-energized nursing to live up to our ethical responsibilities and Lillian Wald's vision, a profession that would "know and tell". We all know, but have no mechanism for telling.
Yes, I am sure there are nurses who have had bad experiences with the large number of unions in healthcare. This group is different, deserves our attention, and deserves our support. If and when they disappoint, I'll be the first critic to engage them. Until then, stop the criticism until you do the research, and research who is doing the criticism.
When they come out with pablum in terms of opposition, think about where that is coming from.
Safe Patient Care is the issue, and the Linda Aiken study released in March is conclusive proof that the CNA is on the right track.

I have always found it beyond believable, that a downtroddden group, like nurses, would time after time refuse the one thing that would greatly improve the profession, and by improving the profession, improve patient care and outcomes.

You may think that you have "a good working relationship with you management and adminstration", but the proof is in the pudding. If you have the audacity to complain about patient care, safety, etc. You will be gone before you can take another breathe. The moral of the story is you have no power or control without a union and a contract to back you up!!

Think about it! ALL of the management and administration have contracts. Why shouldn't the rank and file, who do ALL of the work, not have the protection of one? Because the powers that be don't want you to have one. Give a contract and power to the peons? Unthinkable!!

That is the name of the game. Those who have refused and fought unionization for years and allowed the status quo, have blood on their hands from the patients who have died from the deliberate understaffing. JMHO and my NY $0.02.

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN

RN1980 · Oct 18, 2010

of course unbions were neede when hoffa was around, but if you think your hospital wont try to screw you over on a delicate issue so they can come out smelling like a rose..you are wrong. dont be naive to think the bean countin ceo's will not restructure your pay scale and hrs along with decreasing your bennifits so that the hospital will show alittle more profit so the hospital board of trustees will hand them fat bonuses at the end of the yr. it happens all the time. so what are you going to do as a single nurse? voice your complaints and get canned...or maybe you might get 4 or 5 nurses to complain..so what, they'll get canned to. but bring the whole nursing staff together you have a chance to get things done in reality you actually have a say in the hospital function. and what better way to provide the care you feel is right than to be able to have a say in the way things are done in your hospital.