Nurse Strike at MCP/Hahnemann???

Gldngrl · Nov 18, 2003

Callacodebrown- Thanks for that email site. My support to you all during this tough time.

Thought you might be interested in this site:

http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/health/tenet_nurses.html

Tenet is still using the same old dirty tricks, I used to work for St. V's in Worcester years ago- pretty bad conditions. Hope you have community and political support out there! MMB:kiss

allnurses Guide · Nov 20, 2003

Been there, done that, picket line at midnight, 6 month old baby at home (at the time).

You have all my support RNangelER. Hang tough!

I've had people tell me, if you don't like it there, well, you accepted their terms when they hired you so either put up with it or leave. BUT, as you said, this is my home, my community, my neighbors who are my patients, and I won't be forced out. I will (and did!) stand up for all of these, against outside administrators brought in to run our community hospital.

This last contract, we avoided a strike by about a week. Noone wanted to strike, but we would have if it came to it.

Once again, you have all my support, God bless all of you.:kiss

-jt · Nov 20, 2003

Thats was the whole point of the magnet award. Thats what it was created & is given for --- for treating the nurses better. How sad that only 90 facilities in the entire country have done enough in that regard to win the award for it.

Anyway, you guys should be proud of yourselves. Its hard to be forced to take such a last ditch stand as a strike & its depressing to see that your employer thinks so little of you as professionals that they are making these outrageous demands, but you just stand united for yourselves and your pts --- cause you know you are right. What your employer wants is unsafe. But giving up and running off to the next hospital job wont solve the problem --- it just lets this hospital make the cuts it wants & set a precedent for the whole area - which encourages the other facilities to do the same - including the hospital you ran away to - so by NOT fighting, you would be helping to set lower industry standards for the whole area. Nurses in your city should be thanking you for taking this stand because it will affect them at their hospitals too. Some nurses still dont get it, but a lot of us on this BB are very, very proud you! Hang tough.

Im re-posting from another thread to cheer you up with some inspiration:

Spotlight on Union Nurses

When a Nurse Goes On Strike

Rain, wind, sleet, snow-and sunshine-couldn't keep Ali O'Neill and more than 1,000 other RNs off the picket line at Oregon Health and Sciences University. These union nurses are represented by the Oregon Nurses Association, a member of the United American Nurses (UAN) - the national labor union for RNs.

And those 56 days walking the line in the Oregon winter transformed the nurses into a unified, strong body of one.

"For many of us, the experience of being a part of that huge sea of solidarity will be imprinted on our brains always, an inspiration that will stay with us for the rest of our lives," O'Neill says.

Management's arrogance and ignorance during contract negotiations in late 2001 both astonished the nurses and put them on the road to unity. When management abandoned the bargaining table one week before Christmas, nurses responded by swarming out of the hospital and onto the picket line.

Massive support from the community and brothers and sisters in the union movement bolstered the nurses throughout their fight. Longshoremen even offered to arrange jobs for the striking nurses!

But it was the daily coming together on the line that really personified the old Knights of Labor slogan "An injury to one is an injury to all" for O'Neill. For eight weeks, day in and day out, the nurses "got to know the amazing women and men we work with better than we ever had before," she says.

"The best thing about the strike was seeing nurses shed their feelings of powerlessness, isolation and apathy and take a unified stand. It no longer mattered what specific kind of nursing you did or what degree you had-on the picket line, we learned that we all need each other, and that through unity and solidarity we can achieve more than we ever imagined."

Nurses returned en masse in mid-February 2002 armed with a contract featuring raises of more than 20 percent over term--and everlasting bonds with one another. O'Neill says hospital administrators have realized the strike brought out the activist in many nurses, and that there will be "no more business as usual."

"The experience of going on strike changed me as a person forever," she says. "I did, and continue to do, so many things I had never imagined myself having the strength and courage to do....I know now that nurses united can NEVER be defeated."

Meanwhile, three thousand miles across the country, armed with e-mail addresses and her commitment to her colleagues, Barbara Crane, RN led 450 nurses through a 104-day "Red Storm" to victory at St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center in Smithtown on Long Island, NY. The nurses are unionized with the New York State Nurses Association and, as such, are also part of the UAN national RN union.

Crane's daily e-mails buoyed union members and helped hold the unit together in the face of a ferocious fight from management. She says she sometimes received 100 e-mails in a single day containing heart-wrenching stories of fear, survival, sacrifice and courage from her friends and co-workers, which she then passed on in a "web of sharing" to keep supporters up to date on the situation. Word spread among nurses throughout the country. All told, Crane sent more than 100,000 e-mails to 500 addresses of nurses and other supporters who were watching from 31 states, to let people know "WE ARE MAKING HISTORY HERE."

That history concluded in March 2002 with a new three-year contract with strict limitations on the use of forced overtime, re-established enforceable RN-to-patient staffing guidelines and provisions for retiree health coverage-three issues that drove the nurses to the picket line in November 2001.

Crane praises her colleagues for their living example of the promise of solidarity. "We came to realize that 30 percent of our bargaining unit consisted of single women with children; now we were asking them to give up their holidays for the promise of better years to come - but they did," she says.

"What inconceivable courage it took to vote 7-to-1 in favor of a strike - one month before Christmas. What a surprise it was to our administration when we stood shoulder to shoulder throughout the holiday season and on through the entire winter never losing sight of our objectives."

The biggest challenge before the strike was getting all of the unit's members in agreement on the issues. Many non-med/surg nurses had never faced mandatory overtime or unmanageable nurse-to-patient ratios, for example, so nurse unit leaders worked to make sure all of the nurses understood the situation.

As the strike went on, nurses drew on the support of each other and the community to keep up the fight. "Something amazing happened as the days turned into weeks and weeks into months," Crane says. "We became closer, stronger and smarter. We started to think with a collective mind. We shared the various options we found that worked, we shared our feelings and our fears. When someone was not heard from, we called and drew them back."

Hundreds of nurses came out for open negotiations, picket line duty, candlelight vigils, house parties and bus parties. Nurses found temporary work through nursing agencies as well as reasonably priced health insurance. The union movement stood with the nurses, including a parade with nearly 700 members of 21 other local unions that marched through Smithtown to show their support for the nurses' cause.

The nurses walked back into St. Catherine's on March 17 changed by their experience. "Many of my co-workers have found a new respect for themselves, having survived the ordeal intact," Crane says. "They aren't willing to go back to the status quo. They will ask more for themselves in terms of respect and appreciation for the jobs they do and the services we perform."

###

http://www.UANnurse.org

fab4fan · Nov 21, 2003

Awesome article in support of MCP nurses

Please, read this article and send an e-mail to the writer, Ronnie Polaneczky. He is someone who is definitely in our corner.

fab4fan · Nov 21, 2003

jt: I have my reservations about "magnet" designation. There's one in my area, and nurses are treated pretty poorly. Staffing is terrible in med-surg, the ED constantly goes on divert due to staffing, etc.

If that's an example of "magent" management, you can take it. I think it has more to do with $$ and marketing; upper eschelon benefit more from it than the pee-ons.

Hellllllo Nurse, BSN, RN · Nov 21, 2003

Originally posted by fab4fan
Awesome article in support of MCP nurses

Please, read this article and send an e-mail to the writer, Ronnie Polaneczky. He is someone who is definitely in our corner.

Wonderful article, fab4fan!

Here is a copy of the letter I emailed to Ronnie Polaneczky:

Dear Sir,

I loved your article about the strike. So supportive of the nurses!

I am an RN in Texas, a right-to-work state where "union" is a dirty word. We face the same horrific working conditions as do nurses in Philly and all over the U.S. Unfortunately, no nursing unions in Texas. No one wants to hear us.

I wanted to address with you the myth of a "nursing shortage". I have been reasearching the topic for months, and I, like many other nurses, are totally convinced: there is NO nursing shortage. The real shortage lies in jobs that nurses are able to tolerate, due to poor working conditions and terrible nurse-to-patient ratios.

Here is some info I've found:

Almost 500,000 licensed registered nurses were not employed as nurses in 2000.*

Data from the Health Resources and Services Administration's (HRSA's) 2000 national sample survey of RNs shows that more than 500,000 licensed nurses (more than 18% of the national nurse workforce) have chosen not to work in nursing. This available labor pool could be drawn back into nursing if they found the employment opportunities attractive enough**

The ANA maintains that the deterioration in the working conditions for nurses is the primary cause for the staff vacancies being reported by hospitals and nursing facilities - not a systemic nursing shortage. Nurses are opting not to take these nursing jobs because they are not attracted to positions where they will be confronted by mandatory overtime and short staffing. **

76.6% (of) Licensed RNs (in The U.S. are) Employed in Nursing***

* Projected Supply, Demand and Shortages of Registered Nurses: 2000-2020 (released on 7/30/03 by the National Center for Health Workforce Analysis, Bureau of Health Professions, Health Resources and Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services). The Bureau of Labor Statistics, in an earlier report, predicted that that we will need one million new nurses by 2010 (Monthly Labor Review - November 2001) to cover new positions and replace the nurses who have retired.

**http://www.nursingworld.org/gova/fe.../107/ovrtme.htm

***https://www.aacn.org/aacn/practice....a6?OpenDocument

I suggest you wisit the nursing web community of http://www.allnurses.com

This web community has thousands of nurses members. Please browse the posts, do a search on the topic of the "nursing shortage". Nurses know that the "shortage" is a myth. We wish that the public and politicians knew it, too!

Again, thank you for your article. Keep up the good work-telling the truth!

Sincerely,

XXXXXXX XXXXXXXX, RN

-jt · Nov 21, 2003

A few of them do look at the award only as a PR/marketing tool but thats not what it was meant to be. They have to walk the walk if they want to keep that award. Unfortunately a few who have won it have already lost it cause they just talked the talked..

done.

Home Health Columnist / Guide · Nov 21, 2003

No end in sight for MCP strike

Roxborough Review

By: Michael Potter

11/19/2003

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=10539516&BRD=1680&PAG=461&dept_id=40301&rfi=6

-jt · Nov 21, 2003

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?...40301&rfi=6

Hmmmmm..... so before anybody starts hollering about "but what happens to the pts?" or accusing the nurses of walking out on their obligation to those pts... lets just look at this. Apparently this place used their 10 day notice properly and moved the pts out. So now they have a hospital-wide census of only 50 - 60 pts. With a staff of 50 "replacement" nurses. To get the big scab bucks, they have to work 6 - 7 days in a row. So even if only 20 of those nurses are on each 12 hr shift, thats still a ratio of only 3 pts per RN. If the staff nurses on those floors had it half as good as their "replacements" do, this strike probably wouldnt be happening.

Interesting how the hospital keeps talking about how "fair" their offer is because it has an 11% wage increase ---- while the nurses are saying its not the money, its the WORKING CONDITIONS. When are these employers gonna "get it"?

Also interesting how the employer used that article to sway the community into blaming the nurses for closure of its trauma unit & telling the community that they are in danger of not receiving timely trauma care because of the nurses. Didnt they say just last week that the closure of the trauma unit had nothing to do with the nurses and was caused only by a lack of trauma PHYSICIANS on staff????

Home Health Columnist / Guide · Nov 21, 2003

Found at the Student voice:

November 11, 2003 MCP nurse strike adds to trauma woes. by Michael Hinkelman,

Earni Young & Gloria Campisi, Daily News Staff The Philadelphia Daily News. ...

http://www.student-voices.org/news/index.php3?NewsID=8043

Philadelphia - Nurses at the Medical College of Pennsylvania Hospital voted last night to strike, four days after the hospital and another city hospital shut down their trauma centers.

MCP, in East Falls, stopped taking trauma patients Thursday, when nurses notified the hospital they were on the verge of a strike.

Last night, the nurses approved a strike and were to hit the picket lines this morning.

Meanwhile, Hahnemann University Hospital, at Broad and Vine streets, began diverting trauma patients to other hospitals on Sunday, citing a shortage of trauma surgeons.

The hospital handles about 40 to 60 "Level 1" trauma patients a month. Level 1 patients are those suffering severe head injuries or puncture wounds.

Hahnemann's chief executive officer, Michael P. Halter, said trauma care is becoming more difficult to provide in the state because "costs are increasing, health-care reimbursement is declining, and it has become more difficult to fill open positions for trauma surgeons."

High medical-malpractice insurance rates in Pennsylvania discourage physicians from assuming trauma-surgery duties, officials said.

Hahnemann spokeswoman Molly Tritt said the hospital needed to recruit three more full-time surgeons dedicated only to trauma. At present, she said, the hospital does not have a single trauma-only surgeon.

To be a fully accredited, Level 1 trauma center, a hospital must be able to staff a trauma center 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with at least one full-time trauma surgeon around the clock, Tritt said.

Tritt insisted that the medical-malpractice crisis was not a factor in Hahnemann's loss of trauma surgeons.

"There is a shortage of trauma surgeons nationally and Philadelphia is a difficult location to recruit due to insurance reimbursement issues and the competitive trauma market," she said.

Drexel University's School of Medicine is responsible for recruiting surgeons for Hahnemann. Efforts to reach the dean of Drexel's School of Medicine last night were unsuccessful.

Charles "Chuckie" Tucker, a Hahnemann operating-room nurse's assistant, said shutting down the trauma unit would not be good for patients.

"They're scattering them all over the place," he said. "It's going to be bad for the community."

At MCP, 280 nurses who are members of Health Care Pennsylvania Local 112 of the Office & Professional Employees International Union, voted yesterday to reject the hospital's "final" offer made Friday. Major issues are safe staffing levels, patient care and mandatory overtime, according to Michael Bodinsky, union executive director.

He said MCP has 75 nursing vacancies, forcing those on the staff to work "significant amounts" of overtime.

"When you're fatigued and stressed by those kinds of hours, there are studies that indicate there is a higher risk of treatment errors," Bodinsky said. "We're looking to improve those working conditions."

Mary Iaquinto, MCP spokeswoman, said the hospital has been making contingency plans since last week. She said some patients would be transferred to other hospitals in the Tenet HealthSystem, which owns seven hospitals in the Philadelphia area.

Executive Fire Chief William Brightcliffe said emergency crews "will be able to continue to provide prompt and high-quality trauma care to the citizens of the city."

The department sent out a list of the seven remaining hospitals that accept such patients. They are Albert Einstein Medical Center, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Frankford Hospital-Torresdale Division, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, St. Christopher's Hospital for Children, Temple University and Thomas Jefferson University hospitals.

The emergency rooms of both hospitals remain open.

The decision by two of the city's major hospitals could cause problems for the seven other hospitals.

Although representatives for some of the other hospitals affected said admissions have not increased as of yesterday, they expect to see more cases.

callacodebrown · Nov 21, 2003

i wanted to thank hello nurse from texas for that link to that awesome article! i agree with the false pretense of the "nursing shortage." i have worked in icu for 5 years now. i have seen so many nurses come and go. where do they go? out of the hospital of course. they get their 1 year of critical care experience and head out for the comfy jobs of the insurance companies or drug companies. they take their experience and branch off into schools or go for thier msn --anything to advoid bedside nursing! not only is the lifestyle reportedly better, it pays better with better benefits--does that make sense?

from my understanding, mcp had traditionally been a nice place to work. it was sold to allegheny (that where the spiral began as i am told by my fellow nurses who have worked their for years.) tenet was suppose to be the "big savior" ---but they soon showed their true colors.

for hospitals to survive, (especially in the philadelphia area where there are countless nursing schools) they need to be competative.

and not just with other hospitals.

the staff nurses who work at mcp could easily find better jobs (in all aspects) at one of the many hospitals in the area. tenet seems to be missing this.

if there are any of you out there who is more familiar with tenet, maybe you could answer me this:

there has been lots of rumors here that they may be trying to close down the hospital and blame it on the nurses. i have recieved emails from my union that our trauma docs moved over to hanamen ( i can't spell) and others may be going as well. has tenet ever done this in the past?

RNangelER · Nov 21, 2003

Thank you so much Hellllllo for that wonderful letter! We (the striking nurses in Philly) have an email list with all our names on it. I hope you don't mind but I have forwarded your letter to the main person who does the emailing. Letters of supports, especially from other nurses keep us strong and united in our fight for this cause. Thanks again!

Angel:kiss