Right now, 15,000 nurses in Minnesota, part of MNA, spanning 16 (?) hospitals, are on a 3-day strike. It's the largest nursing strike in US history.
Staffing plans for this strike include utilizing nursing leaders as "helpers" and paying exorbitant amounts to travel nurses to fill in (on a FB L&D nursing group I'm in, I saw one agency offering $10,000 for five 12-hour shifts at one hospital in a northern suburb of Minneapolis).
As a nursing leader, it was requested that I sign up for a shift at one of the hospitals that is affiliated with the clinic where I work. I opted not to sign up, as I do not want to cross the picket line, and I am in solidarity with the nurses who are striking.
Ironically, my son came down with appendicitis yesterday morning, and I had to cross the picket line anyway, as we brought him in to the local ED and he had emergency surgery yesterday afternoon (they had to transport him to the children's hospital in the neighboring city because the children's hospital in the city where we originally brought him was closed except the ED, due to the strike). He got great care and is now home resting. Quite the ethical dilemma and moral crisis, depending on, and grateful to, the "scab" nurses (can I say that here?) that I disdained a week ago!
In case anyone was wondering, the major requests of the nurses is a 30% pay increase over the next 3 years, and having direct say and a vote in individual units' staffing plans. As in, 51% of the nurses in a unit must approve the staffing ratios of that unit. I think that is VERY reasonable.
The first picture was taken from the cafeteria at the Children's hospital in Minneapolis. The second picture was taken from the lobby at Regions in St. Paul, just because I've never seen such healthy dracaena before and I thought they were beautiful. ?
Do you listen to MPR? They talked about it just yesterday. I came in at the very tail end so I didn't hear what was said. My assumption is that there will be more negotiation meetings in the next several days/weeks.
Also, I'm really upset that admin removed my photo of the dracaena. ?
Thank you, I don't usually listen to MPR but I will today just to see if they say anything. I just find it a little, well a lot frustrating that the strike went from being the biggest news in our region and on the national news as well to strike? what strike? so quickly.
Also I miss the dracaena photo, it is a beautiful specimen! I wondered what happened to it.
I get it, I really do. I live in AZ and the pay rate is not great. With that being said, I didn’t get into nursing for the money and those that did, I feel sorry for. I’m a single father with 4 kids and a mortgage, I know the struggle … it’s real. I grind and do what I have to do to make ends meet but I haven’t comprised patient care or decided to lead a walk out because I can’t pay my bills. Ratios are important and should be assessed but as a team. I have seen where nurses have dictated how many and even what kind of patients they get. These situations are not OK. More power to the nurses who stand up and fight for what they believe to be the “right thing” but I’m going to continue to fight for my family and patients being present as a nurse rather than holding a sign why I’m not present.
As I read through the post threads, I found myself asking: What is the correct amount nurses should be paid? Obviously, geographic regions will dictate to some degree. Cost of living in California and NY is much higher than say in NC. There is no one size fits all solution. The travel crazy since the begining of COVID has done nothing to help the situation. I asked my nurses that same question and none had a solid answer as to what is fair. We had an 8% increase last year and nurses COMPLAINED. Again, what is the answer? I do say from family experience, unions are not in it for the individual employee. They are first and foremost businesses, so in my personal opinion, I don't see alot of positives coming from unionization in a hospital setting.
Staff and management MUST figure out how to work together to sort out issues. There are multiple examples throughout the country where this is happening. What is baffling is the hesitancy of executives to execute programs such as Pathway to Excellence, in order to have REAL workforce involvment from the unit level to hospital wide committees. Executives that refuse are going to be dealing with the same issue as what occurred in Minn. Thankfully, my place of employeement is finally getting on board. Now, it is up to staff nurses, unit managers, and DONs to engage and make their presence felt and heard. Our CEO/COO apprear to see the light.
if meetings with leadership led to adequate staffing this would not be an issue..... the true track record is management does not have to carry the brunt and work that te staff carries and mostly has a "well if you can't hack it or think its unfair... go somewhere else". there is NOTHING WRONG with nurses speaking up collectively that they have had enough abuse! administrators have had 10-15% raises annually in some facilities for over the last decade... while nurses have had hour and pay cuts, increased benefit costs, dangerous staffing situations that are survival criteria levels, and more problems... as nurses we do not have the option or protection of a locked office and security that holds off all angry patients and people. oh and to the person complaining that she made more as a nurse and less as a teacher....I have to be honest, the stuff they are teaching in school is mostly 'feel good" rubbish and lack of control, select your own truth for you and hyper liberal agenda versus truth and science. when you want to save your life and need medical care. liberalism is not the place to look... you look for the person that will keep you from disease or worsening health or death... that is why you, as a nurse, make more money. because you are dealing with life and death decisions in the moment of crisis. not false theories and socialist agenda pieces of nonsense. no I am not republican, but, yes I have become more conservative after dealing with life and death in the emergency department for 25 years
Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.
Labor unions represent the laborers. They (arguably) represent the interests of the employees better than the employers have in the places they've been invited.
I don't envision meaningful reforms until we move away from a profit oriented foundation for our health system. As long as our system is fundamentally fractured by profit centers it will be challenged to provide quality patient centered care.
Study after study, for many years, have linked good patient outcomes to amount of time interacting with RNs. Yet, year after year, care facilities and practices stretch that time beyond safe limits. The current business model for American Healthcare is a failure. IMV
if meetings with leadership led to adequate staffing this would not be an issue..... the true track record is management does not have to carry the brunt and work that te staff carries and mostly has a "well if you can't hack it or think its unfair... go somewhere else". there is NOTHING WRONG with nurses speaking up collectively that they have had enough abuse! administrators have had 10-15% raises annually in some facilities for over the last decade... while nurses have had hour and pay cuts, increased benefit costs, dangerous staffing situations that are survival criteria levels, and more problems... as nurses we do not have the option or protection of a locked office and security that holds off all angry patients and people. oh and to the person complaining that she made more as a nurse and less as a teacher....I have to be honest, the stuff they are teaching in school is mostly 'feel good" rubbish and lack of control, select your own truth for you and hyper liberal agenda versus truth and science. when you want to save your life and need medical care. liberalism is not the place to look... you look for the person that will keep you from disease or worsening health or death... that is why you, as a nurse, make more money. because you are dealing with life and death decisions in the moment of crisis. not false theories and socialist agenda pieces of nonsense. no I am not republican, but, yes I have become more conservative after dealing with life and death in the emergency department for 25 years
You seem to be saying that nurses don't make enough money and nurses "make more money" in the same post. Are unions tied up with "liberalism?" What are the false theories and socialist agendy pieces of nonsense you are referring to? Are you alright?
Lumping everything and evereyone into one pot is inaccurate. What I said was: Staff and management MUST figure out how to work together to sort out issues.
As I said, there are multiple examples around the country that don't have theses issues becasue they have executives that see the benefit of taking care of staff. I submit the smart hospital executives will look to these examples and take the lessons learned and apply them.
To refuse to acknowledge the positives is to deny the truth. Looking for solutions and trying to be part of the fix is, in my humble opinion, more productive than ranting about how bad management is. I am way down the food chain as an ANM, but am witnessing the infancy of change at my organizaiton, and having to deal with the "it will never work" attitude with no alternative solutions is aggravating. I am a thorn in the side of my NM and DON as I refuse to be part of the status quo. I identify issues at the unit level and propose solutions, many of which I get from the forward looking and enegaged nurses, young and old, who want better for themselves and the organization.
One major mistake I witness over and over, is the one size fits all approach. We are working in a multigenerational career field and old ones like me must adapt our style and approach as we have 3 or 4 sub-groups based on age alone, not to mention, sex, ethnicity, gender ID etc. Leaders from me to the CEO must understand the fix is multifaceted. The successful health systems realize this as well. It is not only about the benjamins my friends, it is so much more.
Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.
2 hours ago, TraumanutRN said:
Lumping everything and evereyone into one pot is inaccurate. What I said was: Staff and management MUST figure out how to work together to sort out issues.
As I said, there are multiple examples around the country that don't have theses issues becasue they have executives that see the benefit of taking care of staff. I submit the smart hospital executives will look to these examples and take the lessons learned and apply them.
To refuse to acknowledge the positives is to deny the truth. Looking for solutions and trying to be part of the fix is, in my humble opinion, more productive than ranting about how bad management is. I am way down the food chain as an ANM, but am witnessing the infancy of change at my organizaiton, and having to deal with the "it will never work" attitude with no alternative solutions is aggravating. I am a thorn in the side of my NM and DON as I refuse to be part of the status quo. I identify issues at the unit level and propose solutions, many of which I get from the forward looking and enegaged nurses, young and old, who want better for themselves and the organization.
One major mistake I witness over and over, is the one size fits all approach. We are working in a multigenerational career field and old ones like me must adapt our style and approach as we have 3 or 4 sub-groups based on age alone, not to mention, sex, ethnicity, gender ID etc. Leaders from me to the CEO must understand the fix is multifaceted. The successful health systems realize this as well. It is not only about the benjamins my friends, it is so much more.
Thanks for reading my ramblings.
I encourage you to keep pushing that rock up the hill. I pushed it for more than 40 years and I will support you as I can as a retired RN. I just don't think that we can fix what is broken in our system until we develop a single payer system.
I encourage you to keep pushing that rock up the hill. I pushed it for more than 40 years and I will support you as I can as a retired RN. I just don't think that we can fix what is broken in our system until we develop a single payer system.
I have to agree with this. As long as our health care system remains profit based, I doubt we'll see significant change. Our national economy allows the rich to just keep getting richer while the rest of the populace remains status quo or more likely with current inflation is just watching their purchasing power quickly decreasing.
Health care is not immune to this. The CEO is still making millions a year while the staff sees stagnant wages and shrinking benefits. Health care costs for consumers continue to rise, drug prices are out of control yet wages just don't move. Maybe if nurses were billed for services instead of just being another expense things might change, but who knows what that would do to overall health care costs?
Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.
3 hours ago, kbrn2002 said:
I have to agree with this. As long as our health care system remains profit based, I doubt we'll see significant change. Our national economy allows the rich to just keep getting richer while the rest of the populace remains status quo or more likely with current inflation is just watching their purchasing power quickly decreasing.
Health care is not immune to this. The CEO is still making millions a year while the staff sees stagnant wages and shrinking benefits. Health care costs for consumers continue to rise, drug prices are out of control yet wages just don't move. Maybe if nurses were billed for services instead of just being another expense things might change, but who knows what that would do to overall health care costs?
Evidence suggests that overall costs would stabilize with single payer.
A 30% pay increase is reasonable? To me it sounds tone deaf. Nurses in large metro areas like Minneapolis can easily make six figures; whereas the average annual salary for a person with a bachelor degree is about $55k. We're privileged as nurses to work in a profession that provides an actual path to the middle class, and a large majority of Americans would scoff at the idea that nurses are "underpaid". Hospital budgets are largely dictated by their payer contracts, which definitely will not be increasing at a rate of 30% over three years. The budget is a pie, so if you're taking a bigger slice then be prepared to have less support staff. How much do you value housekeeping, security, unit clerks, nursing assistants, etc.?
Also I'm all for safe patient to nurse ratios, but opening it up to a voting system is ripe for abuse. Setup a committee with representation from nursing, medicine, and administration to determine appropriate ratios and reevaluate on a regular basis. This isn't rocket science.
Finally I'm glad that your son was able to get great care from those big, bad, "scab" nurses. Hopefully both sides can quickly find a middle ground and get back to taking care of the patients.
If the budget is pie, how about we decrease the million dollar salaries of executives who never set foot inside the hospital. 30% is not the final offer, you can't start negotiating with your final offer. 20 years with practically no raises means 30% in 3 years would even out to about 3% per YEAR. After covid, more responsibility, records profits, I mean come on.
The executives, not the nurses, created the crisis. Either they have to figure a fair way out of it or give control to then nurses, the only people who actually know WOW! is happening on the floor of the hospital and without whom there would be no hospital.
kbrn2002, ADN, RN
3,969 Posts
Thank you, I don't usually listen to MPR but I will today just to see if they say anything. I just find it a little, well a lot frustrating that the strike went from being the biggest news in our region and on the national news as well to strike? what strike? so quickly.
Also I miss the dracaena photo, it is a beautiful specimen! I wondered what happened to it.