A Day W/O A Nurse

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There was a movie out a few years ago called A Day W/O A Mexican... some fog blew over CA and all the mexicans disappeared. What followed was chaos... crops rotting cause there werent people willing to do the job for the low pay, etc...catch my drift? Any who... what if one day all the nurses just refused to go to work or walked out of their jobs all at the same time. Say 3 am when probably most likely to be a calm period. Im trying to make the walk out, hopefully, a little less stressful on the pts, but who am I fooling. Anyway, should it happen for a day, week? Would that get the attention of a nation? Would the President of the USA have to declare a state of emergency? Would we get respect or would there be a backlash? Just curious?:confused:

A strike sounds like a union thing to me....I would not want to work anywhere that was unionized......

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Specializes in ED, ICU, Heme/Onc.
A strike sounds like a union thing to me....I would not want to work anywhere that was unionized......

Why not? Our union is non-intrusive, and we have a clear set of guidelines so that one unit manager has to follow the same rules as the others with regards to staffing, pay rates, vacation time, disciplinary action - etc. The contract protects staff nurses and managers alike, IMO. What protection do you have as a staff nurse without an organized voice? Does it bother you when new grads are hired at higher rates than a nurse who has been working the same unit for 18 years? I've worked at non-union shops before and I think that it's great when your manager likes you...

Blee

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Specializes in Med surg, Critical Care, LTC.

It's only patient abandonment if you walk of shift. If you call in, or it's your day off, and you went on strike, it's not patient abandonment.

I am totally in agreement with a Nation wide walk out - however, nurses cannot seem to get it together and certainly do not have the balls to organize and follow through with it.

I'd be first in line, the only problem is, when I looked behind be, no one else would be there.

Blessings

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Specializes in A myriad of specialties.
why not a "million nurse" march?

i'm not on board with the idea of nurses walking off the job midshift, and if there was a day that no one showed up, night shift would have no one to report to and would be forced to stay. that has nothing to do with being a martyr, it is about doing your job properly.

blee

i agree....and by the way, night shift already gets the shaft most of the time in our hospital because day shift won't haul their butts out of bed to get to work! so the night shifters will be the main ones to get screwed...and if we walk out, it'll be considered abandonment when rightfully so, any nurse on any shift who walks should lose his/her license for abandonment.

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Specializes in Geriatrics.

Not trying to stir the pooh, but, has anyone noticed how many Nurses, CNA's (and non-medical people who support us) visit this site?? Would it be possible to gather all these people together and plan a march (or 2 for those who are working on the day of the march)? This way pt's get taken care of, Nurses get to have thier say, and people learn just how many places take advantage of the "Care and Compassion" Nurses have to be willing to put up with all the bad stuff we deal with on a daily basis. Maybe have a picket line in front of every place we work, or a march on the state capital. A peaceful and compassionate march, just something to show we support each other even if we work in a place that treats us right.

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Specializes in Med surg, Critical Care, LTC.

See, if it were possible to organize a nation wide "strike", your right, one shift would get "screwed" by having to stay at work - but they can't keep you for weeks at a time, try to look at it as a sacrifice for the greater good. It's just that attitude that would prevent a National strike from happening.

Nurses, as a general rule, are always looking out for themselves, instead of seeing the bigger picture. That's why we never get anywhere with respect and staffing and a host of other complaints that we all have.

Anyone want to know why things will never change, read the above few posts and you'll have your answer.

Blessings

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Specializes in Rodeo Nursing (Neuro).
Not trying to stir the pooh, but, has anyone noticed how many Nurses, CNA's (and non-medical people who support us) visit this site?? Would it be possible to gather all these people together and plan a march (or 2 for those who are working on the day of the march)? This way pt's get taken care of, Nurses get to have thier say, and people learn just how many places take advantage of the "Care and Compassion" Nurses have to be willing to put up with all the bad stuff we deal with on a daily basis. Maybe have a picket line in front of every place we work, or a march on the state capital. A peaceful and compassionate march, just something to show we support each other even if we work in a place that treats us right.

During my first year of NS, my class attended "Nurses' Day" at our state capital. Quite a large crowd of nurses and students were gathered to listen to speeches from nursing leaders, visit with elected officials, and lobby for passage of a law severely curtailing mandatory overtime, which passed soon afterward. To be honest, as a student I didn't feel all that engaged, and I elected not to attend the following year. But I do feel that sort of activism is both consistent with the sentiments the OP expressed and with conduct becoming a professional.

And I have to agree, the inclusiveness of allnurses.com seems like a more promising place to start than some organizations that purport to speak for nurses.

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A strike sounds like a union thing to me....I would not want to work anywhere that was unionized......

Do you have a benefit package? Paid vacation and statutory holidays, sick pay?

All of these were gained by unions. So if you have these working conditions they are there because a union somewhere in America gained them for their workers. If you want to hand back your paid time off and benfits, please let me know. I'd like to be there to see it happen.

I guess you will never work in Canada because every publicly funded hospital has nurses that are unionized. The only non-union nurses are managers.

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Specializes in Med surg, Critical Care, LTC.

We don't have to call it a strike, call it "The Great Nursing Walk Out!" It could go down in history showing that nurses have finally grown a pair, and aren't going to subject themselves, their patients or the families to the bureaucratic bull poop anymore.

It would take 24 hours and we would bring the country to it's knees, actually, less than that.

Power in numbers people, but we must stick together, if there is just a handful of us, we'll be receiving pink slips, but if the overwhelming majority stuck together, Administrations all over the country would have to listen and try to meet our demands.

Just chew on it for awhile

Blessings

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Specializes in Rodeo Nursing (Neuro).
We don't have to call it a strike, call it "The Great Nursing Walk Out!" It could go down in history showing that nurses have finally grown a pair, and aren't going to subject themselves, their patients or the families to the bureaucratic bull poop anymore.

It would take 24 hours and we would bring the country to it's knees, actually, less than that.

Power in numbers people, but we must stick together, if there is just a handful of us, we'll be receiving pink slips, but if the overwhelming majority stuck together, Administrations all over the country would have to listen and try to meet our demands.

Just chew on it for awhile

Blessings

As a nurse who has had "a pair" all my life, I would just note that they haven't always worked to my advantage. I mean, on the whole, I suppose I'm glad for them, but they've gotten me in trouble more than once. I realize you are speaking metaphorically. I'm speaking both literally and metaphorically. Trust me on this: 90% of the time, things go way better if you let your brain make most of your decisions. Bringing you adversaries to their knees--even when successful--tends to be less satisfying than one might imagine, and every conflict carries with it the potential to lose.

I won't continue to strain the metaphor, and I do agree that nursing unity on a national scale is a desirable goal. But I strongly believe that it has to begin locally. I'm blessed to work on a unit where nurses do tend to look out for each other. Maybe that's part of the reason I'm less excited about the idea of a national walk-out. Some of the crap we take isn't quite so hard when there's someone next to you, helping you deal with it. So I truly believe nursing unity has to begin on one unit, for one shift. Of course, we then need to build upon that.

So that's the program I advocate: we start with helping each other out and cutting each other some slack. Then maybe progress to picking an issue of concern and writing letters about it. Maybe some rallies. But I truly believe it has to start from the grassroots up. Nursing leaders are in a position to focus attention on a particular issue. That's how the ball got started on our state's mandatory overtime law. But, clearly, there is a limit to how far they can go. The ANA seems to have a problem even accepting that a nurse is a nurse.

So, here's a proposal for us: At my facility, a hospital, entry-level pay for a painter is a few cents higher than for an LPN. I hereby resolve to open dialogues among my co-workers about doing something to rectify that. If the RNs at my facility could unite to advocate for better pay for LPNs, I firmly believe we could make it happen, without strikes or call-offs. And if every member of allnurses.com wrote to the ANA to include LPNs, who knows what else we could make happen?

So what do we think about this?

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Specializes in Geriatrics.

So that's the program I advocate: we start with helping each other out and cutting each other some slack. Then maybe progress to picking an issue of concern and writing letters about it. Maybe some rallies. But I truly believe it has to start from the grassroots up. Nursing leaders are in a position to focus attention on a particular issue. That's how the ball got started on our state's mandatory overtime law. But, clearly, there is a limit to how far they can go. The ANA seems to have a problem even accepting that a nurse is a nurse.

So, here's a proposal for us: At my facility, a hospital, entry-level pay for a painter is a few cents higher than for an LPN. I hereby resolve to open dialogues among my co-workers about doing something to rectify that. If the RNs at my facility could unite to advocate for better pay for LPNs, I firmly believe we could make it happen, without strikes or call-offs. And if every member of allnurses.com wrote to the ANA to include LPNs, who knows what else we could make happen?

So what do we think about this?

I think this would be a wonderful idea. However, as stated above, nurses are basically out for themselves. As a relatively new nurse I have been attacked so many times by the "older" nurses I have worked with. I can't see them agreeing to speak up for anyone except themselves.

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It's only patient abandonment if you walk of shift. If you call in, or it's your day off, and you went on strike, it's not patient abandonment.

I am totally in agreement with a Nation wide walk out - however, nurses cannot seem to get it together and certainly do not have the balls to organize and follow through with it.

I'd be first in line, the only problem is, when I looked behind be, no one else would be there.

Blessings

I just had a thought. If nurses can't walk out----

Why not just take back the bathroom breaks. Go ahead and use the restroom when you need to and don't hold it for hours. That would be a good start, and healthy for the bladder.

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