12/3: Aggravation and Agreements
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Hi everyone!
With the holiday week at a close where I virtually did not work, I ended up having a busy week capped with six days straight of working, with boarding critical patients, critical kids and trauma and tragedy, to new strategies for my practice with Trauma patients to getting a tentative agreement for our first contract.
From the previous Saturday to Thursday I worked six 12s in a row; our staffing was that bad; made sure I remained hydrated and slept well...I slept well enough to make this posting and recharge, while having some me time while holiday shopping and the Christmas Tree going up prior to my 72-hour stretch.
I also had to attend a Trauma update and successfully was able to squeeze that in along with an emergency negotiations for our first contract on Friday where on Wednesday there was a chance we were going to vote to go in strike-and I was ready for it-from allowing ICU patients to be included in normal ratios for our boarding patients would be a driving force for me to walk out even if my coworkers couldn't possibly do so because economically they couldn't miss a day-our wages are so suppressed that people may or may not risk waking out because they need to ensure economically they can survive; we were aware of this; however there was a good chance that we could still walk out because of the major staffing problems that were going on that was too hard to ignore; even to the point doctors and nurses have teamed up; the pressure was in and continues to go on to safe staffing and quality care.
Our hospital organized an informational picket; an informational picket is a way for nurses to come together and let hospital administration know that we can be organized in order to fight a common cause-known as patient safety.
And patient safety is not that simple-it comes down to safe staffing, meeting with nurses and admin to ensure that quality care is being met, and staff retention is ensured as well as quality candidates will be able to join the hospital; the has to be a goal of quality care involving labor in order to ensure retention; placing professionals in scenarios where the increased risk of morbidity and mortality is something we cared about when forming the union; to find out that we were grossly underpaid was a discovery that happened along the way, but the issue was the same-it is NOT professional to take assignments where one is not trained and deemed competent, nor is it professional to have an assignment where care suffers, and it's even more unprofessional that administration thinks that they can get away with it.
The administration heard us loud and clear; although they tried through food and beverage to "reward" us, it didn't back down from what our goals were: staffing grids to ensure a safer nurse-patient ratio; nurses having the seat at the table to ensure that management has to work with staff to ensure quality care; nurse can not be temporary assigned to a place without proper orientation and classroom time to make sure that they can function in the role properly; no more merit increases that can arbitrarily assigned-meaning if a manager doesn't like you, you can get a paltry 0.5-1 percent raise vs a 4.5-5 percent raise-there will be an increase up to the market to rectify years of being underpaid.
Now, this week will be the vote.
What I have learned this week:
1. That I can recognize the need for intubation and pressure on a VERY hypothermic baby, and successfully transport with help to the unit;
2. That an infant with battle sign and major cranial deformity can only have swelling and still be a GCS of 15 without zero decompensation.
3. Using an alternative to intranasal Versed is possible for the kiddos, such as dexmedtomidine and diazepam, which have shorter recovery times during conscious sedation.
4. That "simmantive" equals "sedative".
So, what have you learned this week?