Big pay cut at Orlando Health, please help your fellow Nurses

Nurses Activism

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Please help your fellow Nurses in Orlando they are desperate. Orlando Health has spit in the face of Nursing. Please help them by signing a petition to stop this huge pay cut at change.org http://www.change.org/petitions/orlando-health-stop-nightshift-differential-cuts-to-nurses

"Orlando Health announced Monday, August 5 that they will be cutting the night and weekend shift differential to thousands of employees, across 8 area hospitals, to go in effect September 8. These cuts are more than 50% of the current rate and will result to each an individual loss upwards of $600/month, $7000-$15,000/year. A majority of the employees affected are Nurses, who are already notoriously underpaid and overworked. Corporate members are denying any request for negotiations, and gave less than 1-month notice for employees to acclimate to this substantial financial blow. The Orlando health corporation decided they want to decrease pay significantly, with no decrease in employee workload."

PLEASE! Your help is desperately needed.

Perhaps, but above market rates in Fl mean very little. This from a facility that was offering 19 - 22) dollars an hr (albeit w agency housing) to travelers back a few years. Given that a facility in Ocala was offering $16-19/hr and wanting nurses to have certification in their speciality, that probably was above market value .

To those that think that the nurses can just up and change jobs, think again. There are very few year round full time jobs with reasonable hours. In FL, you will be worked like dog during the busy season, and low censused/floated all throughout the offseason. Nurses are treated as a disposable commodity or interchangeable part during the offseason. And most nurses cannot just pull up stakes and move across country.

Just call in and boycott. If you work for a large system, you will be fired and blackballed. Standing on principle is great ..... If you are wealthy, have a working spouse, don't need to eat or pay bills. The rest of us that don't fall into that category, well too bad.

And Linda, the union at the FL hospitals that I worked for were USELESS!!!!! They didn't dare strike as no one can afford to be fired. they let the facility break rules set down repeatedly. FL is an at will state. In most other facilities, if the word "union" is said, the PTB will find a way to retaliate.

If everybody participated.... It would not even take two weeks like mentioned earlier..... A week of night shift workers not showing up with no day shift nurses able to receive relief to report off too.... And no one showing up on the weekends..... It would be catastrophic. There has to be a line drawn some where.... You all determine that line. How many would not show up if the company stated we are paying you guys $2 more than minimum wage?

Supply Vs. Demand Vs Self-Value...

This would force a public outcry bc of the hazard risks of patients.... The nurses wouldn't even have to pursue the media. People will pursue the media on the behalf of you guys and fight the battle for you.....

I'd be right out there at one of those beaches without a care in the world... Just keep up with the cellphone bill until you get a call...

Specializes in Med/surg, Quality & Risk.
Around my neck of the woods, we don't get anywhere near that much differential to start with. Our nightshift is $3 bucks per hour, and none extra for weekends or holidays.

Mine in my old state was 50 cents, now it's $2. It would've been nice if they'd ushered this in with new employees instead of abusing the old ones though.

Specializes in ICU.
Orlando Health, specifically ORMC was recently written up by JCAHO for having too many inexperienced nurses in critical care areas. So OH is hesitant to hire new grads, with these pay cuts, not even new grads stand a chance in Orlando.

How and where did you hear about this write up? I never heard of such a thing. ORMC does not hire new grads in their critical care areas. The most critical a new grad can get is Trauma step down or ICU step down. The nurse has to have 2 years of bedside before they even are able to touch ICU.

FL Hosp actually does hire new grads straight into the ICU. I would think FL Hosp would be written up non stop.

You see why your statement does not make any sense. How can FL Hosp get away with new grads in an ICU but ORMC is written up with RNs that at least have 2+ years of bedside experience.

Specializes in ED, trauma.

How and where did you hear about this write up? I never heard of such a thing. ORMC does not hire new grads in their critical care areas. The most critical a new grad can get is Trauma step down or ICU step down. The nurse has to have 2 years of bedside before they even are able to touch ICU.

FL Hosp actually does hire new grads straight into the ICU. I would think FL Hosp would be written up non stop.

You see why your statement does not make any sense. How can FL Hosp get away with new grads in an ICU but ORMC is written up with RNs that at least have 2+ years of bedside experience.

Because on the shift JCAHO came they had 6 nurses on shift, 4 with less than 1 yr experience. JCAHO said this was not satisfactory. They were following up on a complaint for one of their ICUs after an adverse event, and JCAHO felt it was the lack of experience on the unit and felt that nurses should have a minimum of 2 yrs experience to work in high acuity areas or there should be a greater ratio of experienced to inexperienced nurses in case they needed assistance.

I was on the unit when they were discussing this in a meeting regarding how they would need to switch up scheduling to improve experienced to inexperienced nursing ratios. Somehow they had to move their night shift nurses to day shift and day shift to night shift to improve the ratio. I left before I ever saw the outcome but it was about 2 years ago when the meeting occurred and about 6 months ago people were still talking about needing to get the unit in order.

Not to mention there is talk of closing Lucerne, selling South Seminole Hospital and dropping the trauma designation to a level 2 or 3 or losing trauma designation all together.

Should be interesting to see what happens with Orlando Health. The experienced nurses are looking to Florida Hospital for work (who I suddenly offering a $5K experienced critical care RN bonus) and leaving OH for it's bad work conditions, and yet OH is still denying new grad applications! They are going to find themselves up a creek without a paddle (or a nurse) real quick.

Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.

FL Hosp actually does hire new grads straight into the ICU. I would think FL Hosp would be written up non stop.

*** Why? Hiring new grads directly into ICU (when properly trained and supported) is standard and accepted practice.

Specializes in ED, trauma.

*** Why? Hiring new grads directly into ICU (when properly trained and supported) is standard and accepted practice.

Exactly. FH has a formal GN program for critical care, not an issue. They also only hire so many new grads into that area each year to keep ratios at a safe level so there is enough experience on the unit.

OH on the other hand was allowing too many new grads into specialty units without regard for experience.

That was the difference.

I love that expression, but now it makes me think of the Shake 'n Bake girl: "It's 'Shake 'n Bake,' an' ah hayulped."

Thank you for this!

As a child of the 1970's well remember those "Shake n Bake" commercials featuring Southern accents one had never heard despite having extensive family in the region. In particular wondered how "helped" was spelled the way it was being pronounced.

We now return to your regularly scheduled programming.....

Things are happening: Confirmed: Union targeting Orlando Health employees - Orlando Business Journal

And some of the natives aren't happy and or are nervous:

In-Depth: Orlando Health workers consider unionizing | News 13

*** Why? Hiring new grads directly into ICU (when properly trained and supported) is standard and accepted practice.

Even going back to the heyday and last gasps of diploma schools GNs/newly licensed RNs were frequently hired right into OR, and units. IIRC the train of thought went that with new grads you got a blank slate as it was meaning you didn't have to spend time unlearning previous experience, and or correcting bad habits and so forth.

This went on during the days when long and in-depth orientation for new grads was the norm and not the exception. As opposed to following the business model of finding an experienced nurse who had done exactly the same thing before; give her or him a little sit down on "how we do things here" ,and then basically leave them to it.

Specializes in Critical Care.

They did this several years back at Columbia-St Mary's and then turned around and offered the day shift extra bonus for picking up night shifts as people left. Without a union there is nothing you can do. They can change or eliminate differentials at any time.

Specializes in Critical Care.

Unions don't necessarily make you immune to pay cuts. We're getting a pay cut that works out to about $3500 less a year for the typical Nurse, my union is claiming victory because the starting offer was a $5,000 a year pay cut.

Orlando Health has cut night shift differential of all employees by over 50% which range from $7000-15000 a year. They have claimed it is from Medicare and Medicaid cuts but will not support any of the claims by documentation.

I can tell you what they are doing is making renovations to several of their facilities and buying physician groups all costing over $200 million. These renovations include wall papering , granite counter tops, computers in all the rooms, several med carts on every floor of the hospital (costing approx. $10,000 each), and updated medical equipment such as brand new fetal monitors.

On top of those cost they have hired an auditing financial company (Hatchet Company) named Deloitte Growth Enterprise Services for millions of dollars for 3 years to find ways to cut cost. This is an out of state company so all expenses are paid by Orlando Health for these people to come and make these cuts. This company also receives a percentage of all money that is saved, so while the employees of Orlando health can no longer put food on their tables, Deloitte Growth Enterprise is making a fortune.

One of the nurses has started a petition to be delivered to the desk of Sherrie Sitarik CEO of the hospital whose salary is in the millions to reconsider this harsh decision. Sherrie Sitarik who just took a nice vacation to Bermuda paid for by a company affiliated with Orlando Health states that she is not budging. This petition is gaining more and more media attention as the number of the petition grows. The nurses of Orlando Health are fighting for their livelihood, and they may just be fighting for nurses everywhere. Sadly this trend is spreading, please help the nurses of Orlando Health by signing the petition at.

http://www.change.org/petitions/orlando-health-stop-nightshift-differential-cuts-to-nurses

Thank so much for your help.

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