Grady Memorial 2 day call out or strike

U.S.A. Georgia

Published

Grady Memorial In Atlanta GA has a goal to faze out agency and Travel nursing contracts. Grady's agency and travelors make up 83% of the hospital.

The conditions we wrok under are horrendous. Overworked, understaffed. ICU and CCU nurses are working above the nurse patient ration. Their refusing to give those who are willing to work overtime leaving the rest of the hospital staff to work under conditions that place our license in jeapordy everytime we step on a unit.

Agency and travelors are being coherced and forced into becoming staff or threatened with becoming DNR/DNU but yet they can come back on staff if they choose. These are gestapo like practices and we are not buckling.

A few of us are talking about an open forum for travelors and agency for a 2 day call ot every 2nd monday and tuesday until we are no longer harrassed. Agency and travelors make up 83% of the hospital. Nurses have the power to unionize. We as nurses have rights.

1. We have the right to work in a well staff facility.

2. We have the right not to work under harrassing conditions.

3. We have a right to be heard whether we're agency, travelors or staff.

4. We have the right to choose not to take a nurse/patient ration that is dangerous for the patient and the nurse.

Let's face it. No one is running up to the doors of grady, banging on it and asking for a job.(At least none in their right state of mind.)

Grady needs agency , They need travelors, and they desperately need staff. But you can't have all three if you're only willing to pay experienced Critical Care nurses $21-25hr. That's ridiculous considering the mass amount of work we perform there.

I suggest we have a two day call out and let them run the hospital the way they want w/o agency and travelors. I'm sure there will be regular staff members would thank us for speaking out and giving them a voice .

How can administration hold all the power when it is WE the nurses who do all the patient care?

If that is truly the case then let administration do the care and we spend a little time at home with our families.

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I am one of the agency nurses who have been made a DNU at Grady for a really stupid reason (had NOTHING to do with my nursing abilities!). I've since found out others have been made DNU for reasons even more absurd.

I've gone on and gotten another job where I'm treated a LOT better and don't have to deal w/ Grady politics. I actually liked working there, but will not stoop to beg for a job.

I wish you and the rest of the agency/traveler nurses the best of luck. Having been both agency and a traveler, I know where you're coming from. By the way, I think the ER is about 95% staffed by agency and travelers. I've heard one of the docs is now insisting the trauma bays only be staffed with "Grady nurses"...wonder how long that will last?! Most agency/traveler nurses work there because it's a level 1 trauma center and they want the trauma experience. Take that away and Grady has no incentive to attract agency/traveler nurses and they're far from competitive in the pay scale for staff nurses.

The funny thing is, when I was there they were always asking "how do we recruit nurses and how do we get nurses to stay here....we are hiring an average of 4 nurses a month and losing 6". This was after handing out questionnaires asking the same thing. One of the nurses said "you could start by listening to what we're saying and actually acting on it!"

I think Atlanta will be seeing more and more Grady diversions simply because they don't have the staff to keep the ER going. It's too bad...there are a lot of good nurses working there - some are staff, and some aren't. But everyone was getting worn down when I was there and from what I hear it's only gotten worse.

I really hope you can make a difference. I would just make sure that you have another place to go if they make you a DNU, since they come up with some reasons that are really off the wall!

Good Luck!!!

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Registered: Sep 2003

Age: 41

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Posts: 1

Post #2

I am one of the agency nurses who have been made a DNU at Grady for a really stupid reason (had NOTHING to do with my nursing abilities!). I've since found out others have been made DNU for reasons even more absurd.

I've gone on and gotten another job where I'm treated a LOT better and don't have to deal w/ Grady politics. I actually liked working there, but will not stoop to beg for a job.

I wish you and the rest of the agency/traveler nurses the best of luck. Having been both agency and a traveler, I know where you're coming from. By the way, I think the ER is about 95% staffed by agency and travelers. I've heard one of the docs is now insisting the trauma bays only be staffed with "Grady nurses"...wonder how long that will last?! Most agency/traveler nurses work there because it's a level 1 trauma center and they want the trauma experience. Take that away and Grady has no incentive to attract agency/traveler nurses and they're far from competitive in the pay scale for staff nurses.

The funny thing is, when I was there they were always asking "how do we recruit nurses and how do we get nurses to stay here....we are hiring an average of 4 nurses a month and losing 6". This was after handing out questionnaires asking the same thing. One of the nurses said "you could start by listening to what we're saying and actually acting on it!"

I think Atlanta will be seeing more and more Grady diversions simply because they don't have the staff to keep the ER going. It's too bad...there are a lot of good nurses working there - some are staff, and some aren't. But everyone was getting worn down when I was there and from what I hear it's only gotten worse.

I really hope you can make a difference. I would just make sure that you have another place to go if they make you a DNU, since they come up with some reasons that are really off the wall!

Good Luck!!!

Thank you for those words. There are times when I feel like there are only a few good nurses left with any kind of backbone. Everyone is always afraid. In the state I'm from Nurses are unionized and have a voice. It is so sad to see the nurses from Georgia cowering in their shoes afraid to do what is right or even fight to have a voice. After all the nursing shortage is nationwide.

And my original states motto for nurses is :There is power in numbers. I just hope Georgia nurses will eventually step up to the plate, especially at Grady.

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Specializes in Oncology/Haemetology/HIV.

I personally think that places like Trauma should be staffed with regular personnel - not agency.

However, until Grady can pay tolerable wages and provide a decent work environment for local nurses, they have no choice but to take Agency. And given the pathetic wages that they offer travelers, they are not likely to see much of us.

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what is a "DNU"???

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:( I would just like to thank Shanty for verbalizing my sentiments exactly, in regards to Grady Hospital. Grady happens to be my first travel assignment and it has been a real eye opener. I actually sought out Grady when I was deciding to travel for a year, what was I thinking?:confused: Yesterday I was informed by my recruiter that Grady has decided not to pay their outstanding bill with my agency....what a slap in the face!! Thank You Grady for working me like a dog, understaffed, unpaid, unsupported, and unappreciated!!!
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Hummm!

I just started thinking about local travel. Maybe I should reconsider.

I interviewed once at Grady. I had 2 years RN exp, but was interested in NICU. During the interview and tour I felt "laughed" at. I wanted to learn the area, so I thought maybe I should go to a teaching hospital. I had a mentor that had started out there years before and was encourageing me to pursue a job there. (almost 4 years ago) As I was introduce to people during the tour I could feel the stares and hear the laughs. OK, so I was dressed in interview attire. Later I was told that I just wouldn't have fit in.

Anyway, considering extra shifts somewhere. I can't seem to get shift...when I need them at my hospital.

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Specializes in Oncology/Haemetology/HIV.

Please note that this is very old thread.

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Specializes in Psych, Geriatrics.

Actually, I did a 4-month preceptorship at Grady (plus 80% of my clinical rotations) and I did go up to the door banging on it for a job. I even have a BSN. I haven't heard squat and the managers blow me off when I call them about my status of app, etc. So I am not sure the lack of nurses is all due to lack of nurse interest.

As for retention, they have just instituted a program for new grads that do somehow get hired. You sign a 2 year contract to work for the hospital or you pay back up to 10 grand, prorated down as you go on. Supposedly this pays for preceptors, etc--whatever. I have a bud who was just hired, never even worked in a hospital for pay, and they shoved him through the door of the ER and said "work." No mentor, no classes, no nothing. How can they expect people to work in those conditions?

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