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| No. 30 | 
Mar 14, 2009, 06:30 PM
 Re: Unions. What do they do for us? Originally Posted by janfrn  I've been working very hard for about 2 years to improve the conditions in my workplace. My management team is cordial to my face and ruthless in their retribution behind my back. I've tried hard to show them how problems in the unit are impacting on morale with limited success. I've tried even harder to organize and encourage my coworkers in the struggle, only to be met with systemic apathy. I'm rapidly reaching the saturation point where I have to decide what's more important... my coworkers' wellbeing or my own.
This just goes to prove what I have said countless times. An individual can only achieve so much by themselves. Individuals who mistakenly believe that they can make the necessary changes to achieve a fair and smooth running workplace, are in la la land, and suffer from delusions of grandeur. If your co-workers don't want to fight for what they deserve, than I suggest that you move on, and go where nurses are appreciated, and leave the marty marys behind to stew in their own misery.
Unfortunately, learned helplessness is an unfortunate reality that is drummed into nurses from the time that they are students. Hospitals count on it when they hire new grads, and it is cultivated day after day of back breaking work that is neither recognized nor appreciated by management, administration, or even our patients. JMHO and my NY $0.02.
Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN
Spokane, Washington
 | | Advertisement Sponsored Links | | | | No. 31 |
Mar 14, 2009, 09:18 PM
Re: Unions. What do they do for us?
I won't say you're wrong, Linda. There are quite a few nurses on my unit who have never worked anywhere else, so they think the dysfunction is normal. They've also watched people like me, spinning our wheels and getting exactly nowhere, and aren't interested in bestirring themselves enough to get involved. They're quite happy to sit in the break room and whine about how awful things are but when it comes time to actually do something about it, they have better things to do. As I said, I'm very well aware that I can't do it by myself and if they're not interested in raising their voices with mine, I'm done. I know that there will be another huge outcry over the vacation planner when the final version is posted, and there will be major complaints about the schedule for July to October when it's posted, but no one will take their issues to their logical conclusion.
I've been actively looking for another job for several months. The difficulty is that there is only one peds hospital within any sort of commute (next closest one is 3 hours away) and things in the other areas of our hospital are at least as bad... same upper management. At this stage of my career, I'm not excited about taking up a totally new specialty but I may find myself with no choice. I don't want to trade one dysfunctional unit where I know what I'm doing for another equally dysfunctional unit where I'm the new kid on the block. If I didn't love my work so much I might find it easier to leave my job.
| | No. 32 |
Mar 18, 2009, 12:47 AM
Updated
Mar 18, 2009 at 12:55 AM by RN4MERCY
 Re: Unions. What do they do for us? Originally Posted by janfrn I won't say you're wrong, Linda. There are quite a few nurses on my unit who have never worked anywhere else, so they think the dysfunction is normal. They've also watched people like me, spinning our wheels and getting exactly nowhere, and aren't interested in bestirring themselves enough to get involved. They're quite happy to sit in the break room and whine about how awful things are but when it comes time to actually do something about it, they have better things to do. As I said, I'm very well aware that I can't do it by myself and if they're not interested in raising their voices with mine, I'm done. I know that there will be another huge outcry over the vacation planner when the final version is posted, and there will be major complaints about the schedule for July to October when it's posted, but no one will take their issues to their logical conclusion.
I've been actively looking for another job for several months. The difficulty is that there is only one peds hospital within any sort of commute (next closest one is 3 hours away) and things in the other areas of our hospital are at least as bad... same upper management. At this stage of my career, I'm not excited about taking up a totally new specialty but I may find myself with no choice. I don't want to trade one dysfunctional unit where I know what I'm doing for another equally dysfunctional unit where I'm the new kid on the block. If I didn't love my work so much I might find it easier to leave my job.
This is an interesting discussion. Anyone else see these hospitals' and employers' behaviors and the nurses' responses as being similar, as though we were discussing domestic abuse? Or victims of hostile/involuntary captivity (Stockholm) syndrome?...where nurses begin to identify with and support their boss's policies and their oppressive working conditions?
Feed 'em and flog 'em--token acts of kindness: free hot dogs and Dove bars on nurses' day, pizza delivered to the desk but no lunch relief nurse for most days of the month, and a token, "great teamwork, atta-boy" from management--during days when there is deliberate short staffing and the unit is full of high acuity patients. Employers abuse the good will of the nurses and many will turn around and say, "See they're not so bad, and at least I have a job."
During a union organizing drive when an activist calls management out for such backhanded and token "support" of nursing, organizers are targeted and retaliated against by management This helps to create a climate in which good people are afraid to speak out for fear they will also be targeted. Unfortunately, this collective silence condones and even exacerbates the bullying--and that's what it is; without a dissenting voice, perpetrators become even more emboldened.
In order to justfy bad choices, people will often rationalize, sympathize with and defend their tormenters. Maybe people will think that's a harsh judgement, but one of the rationalizations I hear is, "if you think it's bad here, you should go work at xyz hospital". Like you were saying, janfrn, that feeling of "dysfunctional" just kind of beats us down and lowers our expectations so that we begin to lose hope that there could be anything better out there. As Florence Nightingale said, "were there none who hoped for better, there would never be any better."
Why should you, or any nurse be the ones who feel like they have to leave their community hospitals after investing their time and talent on behalf of their patients? I say it's time to organize and get rid of bad management and support laws, like EFCA, single payer healthcare, and safe minimum standards for RN to patient ratios, that include a provision for "staffing up" to meet the needs of patients. High patient to RN ratios have been shown to increase the risk of complications and cause RNs to leave the profession.
If nurses don't organize and form an all RN union, then they are at risk of becoming "accomplices in their own subordination, " to the male dominated/corporate heirarchy, according to professional nursing pioneer and social activist, Lavinia Dock.
| | No. 33 |
Mar 18, 2009, 11:55 AM
Re: Unions. What do they do for us? Originally Posted by RN4MERCY This is an interesting discussion. Anyone else see these hospitals' and employers' behaviors and the nurses' responses as being similar, as though we were discussing domestic abuse? Or victims of hostile/involuntary captivity (Stockholm) syndrome?...where nurses begin to identify with and support their boss's policies and their oppressive working conditions?
Feed 'em and flog 'em--token acts of kindness: free hot dogs and Dove bars on nurses' day, pizza delivered to the desk but no lunch relief nurse for most days of the month, and a token, "great teamwork, atta-boy" from management--during days when there is deliberate short staffing and the unit is full of high acuity patients. Employers abuse the good will of the nurses and many will turn around and say, "See they're not so bad, and at least I have a job."
During a union organizing drive when an activist calls management out for such backhanded and token "support" of nursing, organizers are targeted and retaliated against by management This helps to create a climate in which good people are afraid to speak out for fear they will also be targeted. Unfortunately, this collective silence condones and even exacerbates the bullying--and that's what it is; without a dissenting voice, perpetrators become even more emboldened.
In order to justfy bad choices, people will often rationalize, sympathize with and defend their tormenters. Maybe people will think that's a harsh judgement, but one of the rationalizations I hear is, "if you think it's bad here, you should go work at xyz hospital". Like you were saying, janfrn, that feeling of "dysfunctional" just kind of beats us down and lowers our expectations so that we begin to lose hope that there could be anything better out there. As Florence Nightingale said, "were there none who hoped for better, there would never be any better."
Why should you, or any nurse be the ones who feel like they have to leave their community hospitals after investing their time and talent on behalf of their patients? I say it's time to organize and get rid of bad management and support laws, like EFCA, single payer healthcare, and safe minimum standards for RN to patient ratios, that include a provision for "staffing up" to meet the needs of patients. High patient to RN ratios have been shown to increase the risk of complications and cause RNs to leave the profession.
If nurses don't organize and form an all RN union, then they are at risk of becoming "accomplices in their own subordination, " to the male dominated/corporate heirarchy, according to professional nursing pioneer and social activist, Lavinia Dock.
I have frequently compared nurses to abused wives, who allow our abusive husbands to keep us, "barefoot and pregnant" (undereducated-you don't need a BSN. You are just a nurse, and don't need college to clean buts, and fill pitchers with ice water). They threaten us when we want to unionize. Who tells us this stuff? Our abuser,of course. And we identify with our abusers by not asking for a higher salary for nurses who have BSNs, specialty certification- "you all do the same job". We cower when they abuse us, and then when the abusive husband comes home with flowers and candy, we say, "see, he has changed. He won't beat me any more".
This is what nursing has come down to. Being compared to abused wives who keep going back for more. It is pitiful. The situation, as it is, will continue to perpetuate this attitude, as more and more individuals will flock to nursing to escape unemployment in other fields ( I am so lucky to have a job!). Schools also perpetuate this attitude, by abusing students who apply there, and who finally get accepted.
We are on the brink of being replaced with unlicensed assistive personnel, because the PTB do not see any difference in the lower educated individuals, and the nurses who only went to school and earned a diploma, or associates degree.
While other health care professionals have INCREASED THEIR ENTRY INTO PRACTICE, nurses talk about lowering the standards, and going back to diploma programs. Instead if emulating the other successful health care professions, we continue to make excuses for our lack of education. And those of us who have increased our educational levels, are not making any more money than the ones who stayed with the lower eduational levals.
We should be DEMANDING THAT THE ANA INCREASE THE ENTRY INTO PRACTICE TO A BSN FOR RNS, ASSOCIATES DEGREE FOR LPNS, AND AT LEAST A ONE YEAR PROGRAM FOR CNAS.
Physical Therapy ASSISTANTS HAVE A TWO YEAR Associates Degree as entry into practice. What does that say about us? We are a repressed profession, who fear making waves, making our 'husband' mad. They are accomplises in their own subjugation, and instead of turning on our oppressors, we turn on each other, especially the ones who make waves, and try to change the status quo. JMHO and my NY $0.02.
Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN
Spokane, Washington
| | No. 34 |
Mar 18, 2009, 01:17 PM
Re: Unions. What do they do for us?
RN4Mercy, I AM a union member. Our management violates our collective agreement in dozens of small ways every day. From scheduling mandatory education as an "extra" shift for part timers to refusing to pay for legitimate end-of-shift overtime to denying PTO that has already been earned, they find a lot of ways to keep us in line.
I'm not sure if it was on this thread but I've described the difficulty our union has in holding the employers' feet to the fire. We have a single-payer system and in this province the government, while telling the world that they don't have control of the health care system while playing puppetmaster to the employer bargaining committee, has stacked the labour relations deck with their lackeys. In arbitration, the union loses about 95% of the time. They've made it illegal for essential services to strike; without any weapons at our disposal our negotiations are always long, drawn-out, frustrating experiences. Our last contract was ratified in July, 2007 with an expiry date of March 31, 2010. There were several items the employer brought to the table to increase recruitment and retention, things like weekend worker, flexible part-time and benefits-eligible casual positions that as of this date have still not been implemented because they didn't have a plan for implementing. There are no repercussions to them for failing to meet the terms of the collective agreement.
The analogy of battered spouse/Stockholm syndrome is quite apt in this situation.
Within 2 years, all of Canada will require a BScN for entry to practice. LPNs are already required to complete a 2 year diploma course in all provinces but BC.
| | No. 36 |
Mar 18, 2009, 03:53 PM
Re: Unions. What do they do for us?
Let me respond first to the recruitment and retention programs and why they haven't been implemented. This was posted on our union's secure message board several months ago: "Over the past several months, the North District Regional Bargaining Council has attempted to address members' requests to implement the weekend worker, seasonal worker, and benefit eligible casual positions. This has been met with some confusion and resistance on the part of the Employer. Reasons cited include minimal support from the health region's executive leaders, limited numbers of Human Resources staff, and the lack of a clear process for Pay and Benefits and Human Resources staff to follow throughout the implementation process. Understandably, members are frustrated and discouraged by our lack of progress."
Weekend worker positions are 80% FTEs that are paid for full time. When they suggested this as a solution to our chronic short-staffing on weekends, no one in management noticed until the time came to make it happen that for every 5 people who do the weekend worker, there will be one FTE vacated. They see that as defeating the purpose, so of course it can't be done except on a very limited basis. (Our unit has 2, one who works permenent days and one who works permanent nights, and they didn't start this rotation until Feb 16/09!) the problem with flexible part-time has arisen over what guidelines will be followed and how it will be administratively handled. Benefits-eligible casuals are required to agree in writing to work a minimum of 40% FTE per standard rotation block in order to be eligible to be covered by our benefits plan. The issue here is that the employer wants to dictate when the "casual" works that 40% FTE, which then renders the "casual" a part-time employee. As the quote above indicates, there was no thought put into the implications to HR and to the employer related to these programs, they just sounded like a good idea at the time.
At the unit level, there have been a series of professional responsibility complaints filed over the last couple of years that have all identified the same problems and offered the same solutions. After a period that saw three virtually identical PRCs filed in the space of two weeks, a meeting was called between the union, unit management, program management, HR and the originators of the complaints. We (the latter) were basically told by management that our complaints were spurious, that our unit is the best staffed PICU in North America and we should be happy that we work here. We were also told that our suggestions for improving working conditions were technicolour dreams... not only can we not close beds but we're going to open four more. (Meanwhile we're adding all sorts of new surgical procedures and technological changes to the unit at the same time.) We suggested that we have more non-licensed personnel to help with turns and tasks, and were told that we didn't need more. There was an incident that was discussed... one summer long weekend we were severely short for 3 sequential 12 hour shifts and management had known about the shortfall for weeks. They said they had tried everything to beef up our numbers, but they definitely didn't pull people off the severely overstaffed Monday day shift that attracted time and a half pay, which was an option as long as it was done more than 14 days in advance. Anyway, management knew things were really tight. On Saturday afternoon the on-call manager came in so that one of our long-stay (still critically ill and on maximum life support) could go off the unit to spend some time in the sun. She didn't come in so that people could get away for lunch or so that the night staff could go for a coffee run, she came in to pander to parents. She denied that happened, but there were enough people who witnessed it to refute her version.
To make a short story long, it was decided that we should develop a team-building process where management and front-lines staff would meet on neutral ground at regular intervals to discuss issues and create solutions. So how has it worked out? As the chair of the team, let me tell you that it's far from successful. We have met five times. (There was a sixth meeting scheduled but I wasn't able to get away from the unit to attend!) I'm usually outnumbered by managers 2:1. The best-attended meeting had two other front-lines nurses in the room besides me. Every shift that I work, I have at least one person come to me with a problem; I invite them to the meeting and they say they'll come. The meeting day arrives and there I am, presenting their issues without their validation. I still bring up all the issues that have come to my attention and I publish the minutes, but guess what? About 50% of the nurses don't read them. Many of them will come to me and ask me about the meetings but can't be bothered to attend. I really think that people believe the problems on our unit to be insurmountable, that we're essentially powerless and that there isn't anything they can do so why bother? I'm just about there myself!
| | No. 37 |
Jun 06, 2009, 09:19 PM
Re: Unions. What do they do for us?
Unions are for profit, they collect nothing until that first contract begins.....then 1% of your gross salary, and additional dues with each paycheck. All I heard during a campaign they tried at my hospital is how nurses want respect, yet my peers gave the union reps our home and cell numbers without my permission. Reps called at all hours, and visited my home unannounced, and continued to after telling them not to. Our benefits were the same and many better than many of the union hospitals. It was ironic that employees who worked no where else seemed to be pro union, but those of us who worked in other facilities realized the benefits we already have. Our staffing ratios are fine, and better than other hospitals as well. The point of contention was that our pension plan (non-contributory) was decreased, but hello, look at the current economy...also the union hospitals had employee contributory programs, which were match by only 50% by the hospital, so the hospital actually contributed less. Unions use emotion to in an attempt to mobilize themselves, but fortunately at my hospital, we had a large showing and they lost.
| | No. 39 |
Jun 06, 2009, 11:26 PM
Re: Unions. What do they do for us?
Hi herring RN,
I appreciate your response..........but my hospital has those things without a union.........we have a nurse policy/practice council, and good staffing ratios. They are posted daily in my state, and ours are better than the union hospitals......Our salaries and benefits are excellant as well. Its not necessary to pay a for profit entity 1% of my gross salary plus 4.00 a pay to speak for me.
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