One Hour National Walk-out

fedupnurse · Jun 19, 2002

While I agree we should hold rallies, etc. at the same time in front of our facilities to prove our point, we cannot leave patients behind. It is patient abandonment. Different story if you haven't accepted report or called out sick. But be very careful about walking out of work mid shift without giving report. Risking job and license.

I'd go for the rallies though! Lets work on that!

allnurses Guide · Jun 19, 2002

I agree that walking out is patient abandonment, and I really don't think leaving my homefolks here hurting is going to help the cause of nursing much.

On the other hand, a strike is planned for, by federal law a 10 day notice must be given, and care is taken to make provisions for the patients.

I was on strike in 1988, all of our patients had been transferred to other cities (we are the only hospital in town), except for about 10 which were cared for by supervisory staff. Our city poured out support, approbation and donuts non-stop. The paper ran supportive editorials, and we got fairly balanced ocverage in the TV news. When my husband's coworkers asked why we were on strike as our wages seemed fairly decent for this area, he told them about working conditions, the changes and attacks being made on our health insurance and scheduling protections, etc. They all went wow, what took them so long? Even some of the private practice docs came out of their offices and walked the picket line on their lunch break. One sent a lunch wagon every night to feed us for free. Getting the word out really DOES help.

biscuit_007 · Jun 19, 2002

I cannot in all faith participate in a walkout even for an hour. It is abandonment and not a strike. I think there must be a better way to get our messege across to the public and management. While I do ont have all the answers I do know which answers i cannot agree with.

Just my humble opinion

EricaCCRN · Jun 19, 2002

I too have reservations about ditching the patients for even an hour. These dumbazz suits would have them all dead til we got back. Anyway, my thoughts are that we should spam the HELL out of all the media, CNN, CBS, ABC, FOX, NBC, Fox News, etc, to expose the REAL situation (not relayed thru the eyes of management as the 60 minutes piece was). Bill O'Reilly loves to champion for the underdog & his sister was a nurse. We definately need to get the word out. Write letters to newspapers & magazines, too. I like the idea of holding rallies in front of facilities. Just as a side note, nurses at a local hospital where I am at had a strick about 1 1/2 years ago. The nedia spun it in favor of management sooooo bad that they really had the public thinking that the RNs truly didn't care about them. Theses nurses were being forced to take cuts in benefits, mandatory overtime, & hadn't seen a raise since 1991. Yet the hospital CEO, conspiring with the news media, got on TV and actually said if they really cared about patients, money wouldn't matter. I truly think that there is a special place in hell for this dude:devil: :eek: :rolleyes:

fedupnurse · Jun 19, 2002

EricaCCRN, I know what the media spin is like. We were on strike for 98 days back in '93-94 and at the media couldn't care less. We had 16 ice storms and countless snowstorms that winter and that was their focus. The suits lied thru their teeth and made us look like a bunch of greedy jerks who abandoned our patients. Fortunately most people around here sided with us. It finally was settled after the Commisioner of Labor for the STate told the hospital to sit and negotiate or lose their Cath lab, Open Heart and Trauma titles among other things. We had a contract within 24 hours. The cause of the strike was that no union would make a merger with other area hospitals easier. Embarassing thing for the hospital was our Maintenance guys voted to form a union while we were on the picket line. Now that told the public alot about how the staff is treated!

Alerting the media is the way to go. We need to focus on what is going on in hospitals and make the public aware. Some say "we can't scare people like that!" It is high time the public became terrified and incensed at what is happening in our hospitals and nursing homes today!

nightingale, RN · Jun 19, 2002

It is amazing tht posters who have 1 or 2 or very few posts write in an give such vague statements....

Eather people.... should not be taken seriously....

B.

NannaNurse · Jun 19, 2002

This is where the 'suits' have us by the 'ba!!s'.....Where do we draw the line??

When we take our lunch breaks....the techs monitor the halls and the 'manager' covers anything that comes up.....Go out on your lunch break.....Be vocal....Be visable.....Be something besides complaining all the time.

While I won't 'abandon' my patients....I can make a statement.....come in on my day off.....to stand outside and make a statement.....etc.. Fear of losing my job?? There are alot of them out there right now.....what better time. Just the 'talk' or 'threat' of walking out will get someone's attention, don't you think??

Jenny P · Jun 19, 2002

Okay, guys, if you want media attention WITHOUT losing your license, you ORGANIZE all of your staff in your facility to do INFORMATIONAL PICKETING on your off hours for 1, 2, or 3 days.

Type up flyers (stating all of your grievences from poor staffing to insurance cuts to lousy salary to --whatever), make picket signs, and make sure you have the highest number of picketers during rush hour traffic (and visiting hours). and make sure that nurses write in to the Op-Ed columns of the local papers for about a week ahead of time. Contact the newspapers, radio and local TV channels ahead of time; have someone who will talk to all media people (make sure that those chosen to be media contacts are able to get your points across clearly and succinctly and able to tell the truth about what nurses in your facility are going through); but have EVERYONE who walks the picket line read your flyers and be able to quote facts and figures from it so they can talk to everyone who walks or drives near the picket lines. Have all picketers wear matching T shirts with some type of logo to support your cause: "Staff nurses need respect" isn't quite snazzy enough, but I'm too tired to come up with a catchy phrase right now.

Organizing informational picketing can be exhausting and takes guts and commitment. But if you want to get the public on your side, and if you want to really be pumped with enthusiasm and know what power this can do for you as staff nurses; it is worth all of the exhaustion and hard work.

fedupnurse · Jun 19, 2002

Very good suggestions JennyP. We are unionized and do informational picketing every so often. If you live in an area where your hospital administration has bought out the local media by awarding their execs seats on the hospital Board, all you can do is informational picketing to get the word out. Also, look into renting a billboard near the hospital. Everybody chips in 5 bucks...We had one during our strike that said the facility's name and then Bad for patients. Worse for nurses. Hmmmm.... now you have me thinking JennyP. There are billboards right across the street from the hospital and our contract is due up in the fall.....

Teshiee · Jun 19, 2002

Why don't we have a million nurse march!!!!!!! It is so bad all over it is no wonder some states have declared a state of emergency.....I wish the powers that be stop band aiding the problems and simply face the problems dead on and fix them. Complicate things that are not hard....

Sundowner · Jun 20, 2002

A million nurse march, yup.....count me in.

I think we should all rebel against insurance companies that dictate exactly what kind of care our patients recieve, from their medications that they will and will not cover to how long they stay in the hospital to the type of bandaid we are allowed to put on their boo-boo's. The tests they will and will not pay for and what we have to go through to justify the testing

Oh its all such a big nightmare.