does your hospital have a union for the nurses? if so has it helped or not?
I am now working at my first non-union hospital in my eight year career and it is the most pleasant and patient-centered working environment I have ever been in.
why do nurses constantly eat each other rather than say have a more powerful labor voice when dealing with all these health care systems or merged hospitals which really means big corporations concerned with one thing there bottom line not your wages.
Selfish and uncaring people do not make good nurses. Generous and selfless people do not make good Union members. Last year, the current President of the National Education Association (teachers union) was asked his opinion on the fact that teachers salaries were getting so high in some schools that they are having to shut down band, choir, and art programs just to keep up with payroll requirements, and he said he would start worrying about their interests when they join his Union.
Unionizing
will not result in all the things you think it will and should. If working conditions at your hospital are absolutely intolerable, THEN QUIT! Maybe you haven't heard, but there are more nursing jobs then nurses right now, so it's not like that place is the only job you can ever have. If enough people start quitting, it will force the hospital to make the changes they need to make to keep people. It's called a free-market employment system and it is hated by Union leaders everywhere.
Don't you think it is sad that in most places in the USA a RN makes less than a dental hygenist...
Sorry, that is simply not true. Maybe in your hometown they do, but there are many places in the country where nurses can make more than physicians.
Here is something to keep in mind. It's what Union leaders don't want you to think about and will tell you that you shouldn't care about, but if you're a nurse, then you are generous and caring by your very nature, so you won't be able to ignore it:
If you live in an area with a low cost of living, such as upstate NY, then you are going to get paid less than someone who lives and works in Boston or Chicago. To unionize your nurses and strong-arm your hospital in to paying you a wage that is on a par with what nurses in those other cities make, then you have to be prepared to deal with the consequences. If the salaries of all the nurses go up, then hospital bills are going to skyrocket as well. One thing that Unions are good at is promoting mediocrity: you know that crappy nurse who just got fired for being absolutely incompetent and almost killing a few of her patients? If you had a Union, she'd literally have to kill someone before the hospital could get rid of her.
I'm not saying
don't unionize. I'm saying think about what it means for everyone involved; think about what it means for your patients, not just for you.
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