Englewood Hospital & Medical Center Locks Out Nurses

[Dalton]

And hires unqualified "scabs" as replacements. I would strongly suggest anyone from Northern New Jersey/New York City area avoid sending your family members to this hospital if you care about their well being. This hospital obviously could care less about it's employees as well as the well being of it's patients. Hiring 250 temporary "scabs" from around the country to replace 650 hard working employees is a disgrace. Nursing is a back breaking, thankless job. These Englewood nurses need the public's support against typical corporate greed. Personally, I'm calling the hospital to express my outrage and demand they get back to the bargaining table and give their nurses a fair contract.

NorthJersey.com: UPDATE: Englewood nurses and hospital not talking about return to negotiating

[RN4MERCY]

I certainly do care but unionization is not conducive to the nursing philosophy. I think that ANY nurse that goes out on strike is abandoning their patients and should be summarily fired! All unions are good for are to force a wedge between the admin and the nurses.

ps- don't take it so personally!

I've seen and heard a few others make statements like that and I'd be interested if you could elaborate on your reasoning. I disagree with you on several points, but I'm open to hearing more about your point of view...maybe it's just a gut level opinion that you hold and you can't really support it and articulate why you feel that way...and that's o.k.

Technically, a nurse is not guilty of abandoning a patient unless they've accepted the assignment, received report, and established a nurse-patient relationship. Second, by virtue of the social contract inherent in the profession of nursing, we have a fiduciary and ethical duty to advocate in the exclusive interests of the patients we've been assigned to care for.

Question: What if the environment of care isn't conducive to your ability to provide safe, effective, and competent care to your patients? Answer: nurses have a duty to actively change those circumstances that are against the interests or wishes of patients. I believe nurses, especially, cannot or should not be fired for advocacy activities, and that such a position is uninformed and quite possibly reflects ignorance of the circumstances under which a strike occurs.

I'm not aware of any nursing strike where patients have been harmed. According to National Labor Relations Board rules, a strike is a protected, concerted action. A 10 day notice to strike has to be issued to give hospitals a chance to cancel elective surgery and call in scabs-strike breakers as replacement staff if they are intent on ignoring their nurses recommendations for changes that would benefit patients and make the provision of care safer.

What I've seen is that some administrators treat nurses paternalistically and they use whatever means necessary to control them. Sure, they have shared governance schemes and staffing committees that are management dominated and they invite staff nurse participation in an attempt to give validity to the process.

Some nurses think they have "buy in" but time and time again, none of their recommendations are ever implemented and the same poor working conditions continue; conditions that predispose to an accident or error occuring that will harm patients. That's when collective advocacy is necessary; employers are organized and they pay dues to the hospital associations who are aligned with bottom-line business interests. Nurses need to be organized too to protect their right and duty to act on behalf of their patients, even when that conflicts with the business interests of their employers.

Historically, nurses have a long tradition of collective political, professional, and social activism, including participation in informational picketing, participating in strikes, solidarity with other workers and even being jailed for civil disobedience. This has always been in the interests of improving public health and safety. We use the nursing process and we have to "go back in the room" and "act" if we see an intervention is not working, whether it's nurse to doctor, nurse to supervisor, or nurses on committees negotiating and making demands for management to implement a solution that effectively addresses the problems nurses have identified.

When you see nurses on the outside, there's something terribly wrong on the inside. And the public has a right to know!

The explicit philosophy and values that are the cornerstone of Registered Nursing include autonomy, integrity, social justice, freedom, and human dignity. That's why we began organizing into unions as a profession, to get out from under the male dominated, paternalistic heirarchy. So I hope this helps; you may choose to disagree, but in my experience, strikes have been good for helping to align recalcitrant hospital administrations with the values of professional nurses who are exercising their duty and their right to advocate in the interests of patients.

[momatwork]

HI Morte,

I apologize for the cut and paste....when I did it it did not post as in the site, http://web.doh.state.nj.us/apps2/nursestaffing/PubReports.aspx that lists the staffing ratios of all NJ hospitals as required by Law.

The ICU ratio is actually 1 RN to 1.4 patients; Intermediate Care is 1 RN to 2 patients, Med/Surg is 1 RN to 5.4 patients, NICU is 1 RN to 1.7 patients,PEDS is 1 RN to 2.6 patients, OB is 1 RN to 5.1 see my point now?

[momatwork]

The staffing ratios are comprised of RNs giving direct patient care, i.e. unit staffing and do not include case management, etc.............. When I looked at my hospital's, that's what is listed..........

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

from hpae:

since wednesday, june 3rd the nurses at [color=#990000]englewood hospital and medical center have been [color=#990000]locked out. for all of the latest news, click here.

as of thursday, june 11th [color=#990000]bayonne medical center has [color=#990000]ended its lockout of healthcare workers. to learn more, click here.

[herring_RN, ASN, BSN]

Thank you Karen for keeping us informed.

...Under the law, our workers will be working under the original contract, and any attempt to impose the hospital's last offer during bargaining is illegal, and we will challenge them every day, in the hospital, in the public and in the courts if they attempt to strip our members of their rights and working conditions. We are ready to get back to our patients' bedsides, and ready to get back to bargaining.

On Friday morning, at 6:30am, workers will gather together to march back into work....

http://back2basicsnj.org/newsroom/releases/20090607_BMClockoutends

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

update: nurses accept contract with englewood hospital

northjersey.com

wednesday, june 17, 2009

by bob groves

unionized nurses at englewood hospital and medical center approved a new three-year contract tuesday that union officials said achieved their main goal of adding more nurses per patient.

eighty-five percent of about 500 nurses who voted at the clinton inn in tenafly ratified the contract, said jeanne otersen, a spokeswoman for the health professionals and allied employees union.

the union successfully bargained for salary increases and no changes in their pension plan, but gave up a paid half-hour lunch break....

...the union won nine new full-time nursing positions effective next year, which may be divided up among full-time and part time nurses, said stephanie orrico, chief spokeswoman for the nurses’ bargaining unit.

this means nurses who are in charge of a shift and have other responsibilities will care for four patients during day and evening shifts, instead of six patients as they do now, otersen said. but night shift charge nurses will still have seven patients each, she said.

nurses will also receive a 1 percent wage increase in september and in 2010, and a 2 percent increase in 2011; plus annual 1 to 1½ percent “step increases” for each year served, orrico said.

deferring their wage step increases in 2009 created a $1.3-million savings, which paid for the new nurse positions, she said.

“we tried to recognize the economic and fiscal responsibility we have, and i believe we did that,” orrico said....