Published
for a labor union June 21 - 22 http://www.calnurse.org/media-center/press-releases/2006/may/page.jsp?itemID=27765028 :smiley_ab http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/local/14075.php
If we are going to bring foreign nurses here as equals, then they should be treated (and paid) as equals. My perception is that instead of working to improve our existing problems (pay and staffing) we are just creating floor fodder- an every growing wave of new nurses we throw at nursing hoping some of them stick.I tried this with mom's spaghetti when I was a kid. I would throw noodles and have them stick on the ceiling. What I found out was that the more noodles I threw at the ceiling, the less that stuck. If I took my time and carefully threw the noodles one by one, I could get the noodles to stick.
Ironically, I have found pay to be one of the "touchiest" areas of nursing, and have found that frequently nurses are offended at the idea of leaving a job for a better paying job.
I didn't think you were implying I was racist. I think it is great to communicate with nurses globally. Do me a favor and tell that lady to hurry up with the next Hairy Potter book!
i know how you feel i cant wait to read the next one either!!!
If employers were serious about hiring people they would improve conditions and offer more money than they presently do, end of story.
If your employer earnestly wanted you to work fully staffed, then you would be fully staffed.
Gas can double in price, but you can’t raise the price of a hospital visit a few percent?
Money talks, and healthcare is a business not a right. Your license is an investment.
That may be the end of the story for you but I think it's a bit more involved. The nursing shortage is being felt all over the US and in many other countries. Raising pay a few dollars is not going to make a million nurses suddenly appear. It may entice some retired nurses to re-enter the profession but it won't create full staffing at the hospitals. While one hospital may be able to achieve full staffing with more pay/bennies it will be at the expense of other facilities which does not address the overall shortage.
Gas prices have gone up. Nursing salaries have risen too, both with and without union involvement. Read the papers or check out the salary surveys. Arizona metropolitan nursing salaries have risen an average of 23% since 2001. source
Finally, Healthcare is a business and a right. Since we have a private system of healthcare those facilities must make a profit or they will go under. The government ensures that people get a minimum of healthcare by requiring treatment regardless of ability to pay. Watch out if the government ever suceeds in taking over healthcare. They'll set our pay and I doubt it will be as high as today. Consider how hospitals and doctors are paid a fraction of what they normally charge and they must accept that as payment. But I digress. Public healthcare is probably another thread somewhere on this site.
Show me where in the law healthcare is a right. It isn't. You have no right to healthcare. The "right" to healthcare is looter talk. Socialized healthcare is an even worse idea.
What is Nursing? Nursing is everything.
The problem?
Nursing often falls apart at the staff meeting level. We lack real unity. Trying to bring together RN's (of all degrees) and LPN's is about as simple as peace in the Middle East.
I want nurses to organize, and if a union is the way to bring nurses together, then I'm willing to try the idea.
In the uk nearly all nurses are part of two unions, the RCN or Unison, and personally if i would prefer to be in a union than not.
Recently my ward went through a crisis which put patient care and staff safety at risk (12 extra patients, no extra staff 6 of the patients were confused, two were violent which meant someone had to be in with them all the time, as they had been peeing on other patients while they slept and interfering with pumps etc, this left one nurse for the other 22!) The night i came to work and discovered this was the situation i was to be in charge of and after having no luck telephoning management (they wernt interested), i rang our local union guy and explained what was happening, he was brilliant and got me agency staff, and due to him and his union being so active the situation was resolved (not before i got a thump on the nose and a loosened tooth from one of the patients)
I pay about 10 pounds a month to be in the union which is about 17 dollars at the moment, I think its worth it, the situation i spoke about would not have been resolved without their help, im sure the patients were grateful as their care was awful at the time. The union are also very supportive if you have disciplinary meetings with managers etc.
it does make you feel that you have a bit of protection and support at work, sometimes you need a bit of leverage to get things done.
Show me where in the law healthcare is a right. It isn't. You have no right to healthcare. The "right" to healthcare is looter talk. Socialized healthcare is an even worse idea.What is Nursing? Nursing is everything.
The problem?
Nursing often falls apart at the staff meeting level. We lack real unity. Trying to bring together RN's (of all degrees) and LPN's is about as simple as peace in the Middle East.
I want nurses to organize, and if a union is the way to bring nurses together, then I'm willing to try the idea.
If I have no money and go to Wendy's, what can I get? Nothing. But, if I have no money and show up at the ED I can get treatment. Why is that? What would you call it? Call it a right or service but whatever it is it exists.
On nursing, I have no idea what you're talking about. Nursing is everything? Please, narrow it down a bit. I do agree that there are problems in healthcare and in nursing. We can't fix them though if we can't identify them.
The problems I see with nursing is you substitute one set of masters for another and you pay them for the priviledge. Bottom line, I don't want to pay anyone so that I can have a job. I work for a large employer in the Valley and they treat us well in my department. Why on Earth would I want to repay them by voting in a union with it's added cost and rules? That's just not how I treat people.
I would call the healthcare people are receiving and not paying for a privilege and welfare. Show me the law where it is a right. You can't, because healthcare is not a right.
Enough looters show up at a facility for free treatment and it may go under. If a facility goes under because of looters, then the paying customers loose too. Every dollar spent on looter care is a dollar that could have been paid to staff or on the care of paying consumers who generate the facilities revenue in the beginning.
Illegal immigration is an example of a force destroying healthcare. Where does the money spent on treating illegal immigrants come from? The money isn't coming from the smugglers, illegal immigrants or their countries of origin. Stop the looting of our healthcare system.
Nurses for nurses.
I would call the healthcare people are receiving and not paying for a privilege and welfare. Show me the law where it is a right. You can't, because healthcare is not a right.Enough looters show up at a facility for free treatment and it may go under. If a facility goes under because of looters, then the paying customers loose too. Every dollar spent on looter care is a dollar that could have been paid to staff or on the care of paying consumers who generate the facilities revenue in the beginning.
Illegal immigration is an example of a force destroying healthcare. Where does the money spent on treating illegal immigrants come from? The money isn't coming from the smugglers, illegal immigrants or their countries of origin. Stop the looting of our healthcare system.
Nurses for nurses.
even with a healthcare system that isnt based on insurance, we have a problem with this
illegal immigrants who get free healthcare on the nhs puts an added strain on the system, people who have paid in to the system, have delays in treatment. i think that is wrong.
and its an ever growing problem.....
Ion
109 Posts
Nursing is autonomous enough that the only people holding back nurses are nurses. Dockworkers, carpenters, plumbers, truck drivers and others can pull together, but not nurses?
If employers were serious about hiring people they would improve conditions and offer more money than they presently do, end of story. If your employer earnestly wanted you to work fully staffed, then you would be fully staffed. Gas can double in price, but you can’t raise the price of a hospital visit a few percent? Money talks, and healthcare is a business not a right. Your license is an investment.