Flag Staff Medical Hospital RNs to vote....

U.S.A. Arizona

Published

Specializes in Critical Care.
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.

While I might agree with you that free care is a form of 'theft by service', it is a legal theft. It IS the law.

You wanted to see where in the law that healthcare is a right, here it is: EMTALA Act of 1986: Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act.

http://www.cms.hhs.gov/EMTALA

As long as the gov't is the major payor to hospitals (and they ARE), they get to dictate terms.

And here's your problem with nursing unity, writ large: while YOU might be willing to try unions to 'organize nurses'; I'm not. I neither need nor want yet somebody else 'looting' my salary anymore than you want somebody 'looting' the healthcare system.

Texas- an ANTI-UNION state, nevertheless has 6 of the top 10 COLA adjusted salaries in the nation. I'm one of them. AND I have a good working relationship w/ my employer. WHY ON EARTH would I want a union to muck that up, much less pay them for the privilege of making my life difficult?

Unions aren't unity. They DO provide a real benefit to those high in the 'senority' system. But, those nurses GET that benefit by using their tenure and the union to TAKE it from those less senior.

I'll pass. I see mobility as a great asset to nursing. I don't want to be forced to be wed to the same administration for 20 yrs before my voice means anything to the union. Paying someone to 'rank' me by seniority is not a particularly great return for my buck.

Besides, unions are the 'blue-collarization' of nursing. Professionals have real professional organizations (unlike the joke of ANA) to pursue their professional agendas. Trade workers have unions.

~faith,

Timothy.

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"without union involvement" What in the world would you call OPEC. True, it is not a union in the strictest sense of the word, but TOGETHER they are much more POWERFUL than they would be seperately. They have AGREED to not undercut each other when it comes to oil prices.

Also, if a foreign recruited nurse tells you he or she makes the same money, it may be only partly true. They are instructed that this is the best answer, since their travel, houseing and licensure expenses are covered by the organization that recruited them. By this reasoning, new grads could be paid less, since it takes a ton of money to get them trained. However, new grads are not paid as little as foreign recruited nurses.

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Just because something is free to a looter it is not a right. When all the looting is done, where will they go? Free ER visits are government delegated welfare at the expense of private organizations.

I like the Wendy’s example earlier. Want to have food at Wendy’s but can’t pay? Why does Wendy’s turn you away? Because if they gave everyone food then they would go out of business, and the people who work there would no longer have jobs.

You want to lower the cost of healthcare? End the looting and folks will only have to pay for themselves. End free healthcare for people illegally in this country and you will have a good start without having negative impacts on American citizens.

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...

kindaquazie

I am glad you have joined ;)

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Specializes in Cardiac.

I neither need nor want yet somebody else 'looting' my salary anymore than you want somebody 'looting' the healthcare system.

I'd hardly call the measly union fees "looting" anybody's salary...That's just a little bit of an exaggeration.

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to 'rank' me by seniority is not a particularly great return for my buck.

Besides, unions are the 'blue-collarization' of nursing. Professionals have real professional organizations (unlike the joke of ANA) to pursue their professional agendas. Trade workers have unions.

I agree. The problem is how to get nurses to come together. Being a nurse advocate is almost viewed as a bad thing by some nurses. I would love to have a professional association that worked.

I will not be renewing my ANA membership.

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Specializes in Critical Care.
I'd hardly call the measly union fees "looting" anybody's salary...That's just a little bit of an exaggeration.

But, see, the gov't hardly calls EMTALA "looting" those "rich" hospitals. Especially since they 'help' make those hospitals rich. See the connection?

It's all a matter of perspective.

To me, being required to pay even 10 cents a year for a service I don't want is theft. But I agree, 'looting' isn't the proper word. It's more like . . . 'extortion'.

I'm not actually THAT anti-union. They have their place. I would be willing to pay for that 'service' if I needed it. But I don't. I don't think unions are the panacea for every situation.

And they are NOT the solution to our 'professionalism'. We need the professional organization that ANA is NOT. And, ANA is NOT that organization because: 1. It doesn't represent all nurses faithfully, and 2. It's more interested in left wing politics than nursing advocacy.

~faith,

Timothy.

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and they are not the solution to our 'professionalism'. we need the professional organization that ana is not. and, ana is not that organization because: 1. it doesn't represent all nurses faithfully, and 2. it's more interested in left wing politics than nursing advocacy.

~faith,

timothy.

yep.

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Specializes in renal,peritoneal dialysis, medicine.
I'd hardly call the measly union fees "looting" anybody's salary...That's just a little bit of an exaggeration.

with regards to union fees

i pay £10-£13 per month with equates to about $20 dollars max

as a student i paid that for a whole year

part of my fees cover insurance incase someone wishes to sue me

i dont think thats bad value for money really

certainly not looting.

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with regards to union fees

i pay £10-£13 per month with equates to about $20 dollars max

as a student i paid that for a whole year

part of my fees cover insurance incase someone wishes to sue me

i dont think thats bad value for money really

certainly not looting.

not too bad at all

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Specializes in Cardiac.

And they are NOT the solution to our 'professionalism'. We need the professional organization that ANA is NOT. And, ANA is NOT that organization because: 1. It doesn't represent all nurses faithfully, and 2. It's more interested in left wing politics than nursing advocacy.

~faith,

Timothy.

So then, where do we turn? If not unions, if not the ANA, then where?

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Specializes in Critical Care.
So then, where do we turn? If not unions, if not the ANA, then where?

Either ANA will one day click (doubt it) or another comprehensive professional organization will take its place.

When the tipping point for having no voice occurs, and nurses are willing advocate for NURSES instead of left wing politics, AND when nurses are willing to seek out the membership - and actually faithfully represents the interests -of ALL NURSES, then we'll develop a voice.

And, our voices, potentially, when united, could dwarf to silence voices like AHA and AMA when it comes to nursing issues.

Unions aren't that voice because EVEN IF ALL NURSES WERE UNIONIZED TOMORROW, it would still be a hodge-podge of unions and so, remain a fractionated group of voices. (You need look no further then the friction between CNA/NNOC and SEIU to see that.) Unions might give some nurses voice to THEIR administrations, but they do not unify our national voice.

For now, I belong to my specialty professional organization. I'm a member of the American Assoc of Critical-Care Nurses.

~faith,

Timothy.

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