Published Oct 19, 2011
VU RN BSN
105 Posts
http://www.tampabay.com/news/health/article1197464.ece
Nurses protest at HCA Largo Medical Center
LARGO-Nurses at Largo Medical Center went public Tuesday with their grievances, waving red and white signs in front of the hospital reading "safe staffing = better patient care."
Since January, Largo Medical Center nurses have filed almost 150 complaints with hospital managers and their relatively new union. Nurses can't refuse an assignment but can register objections, in this case mostly involving claims of inadequate staffing.
Many who float between hospital units also say they are asked to cover in areas for which they feel poorly prepared. "We have some patient safety concerns," Largo Medical nurse......
86toronado, BSN, RN
1 Article; 528 Posts
Good for them. Florida needs more unions, and I've heard that HCA is one of the worst health systems to work for.
Fixit
58 Posts
Good. HCA must have the worst reputation for nurse abuse and unsafe pt conditions yet they keep buying more hospitals. I'll never work for HCA.
Futterwacken
56 Posts
I can honestly say that I applied for a job there this summer- I guess a new grad RN isn't good enough for LMC, but an unsafe pt ratio is. Oh well...
Tankweti
98 Posts
To Futterwacken: I thought that was an excellent comment you made about facilities not being interested in new grads but being interested in overloading the nurses they have to unsafe levels. You have really hit the ball out of the park with that one. It is as if they are ignoring the ramifications of what they are doing in terms of safe staffing. And they are. All CEO's in health care are rolling the dice now, overloading nurses with very ill patients, and hoping that nothing bad happens, i.e. that no patient dies or that they get sued. Of course, if they do get sued, the overloaded nurse will bear the brunt of it.
Sanuk
191 Posts
Nurses can't refuse an assignment but can register objections, in this case mostly involving claims of inadequate staffing.
I don't care for that - a nurse should never be forced to accept an assignment he/she feels is unsafe. In the end, it's my license, not theirs that will be on the line. Even in Texas, notorious for bad labor practices, I have the right to refuse an assignment.
No Stars In My Eyes
5,229 Posts
Of course, because the nurse(s) are always the ones to take all the blame. It's your classic ethical dilemma: do I put my "all" into the job, tyring to improve things as best I can, and risk my license in doing so, or do I walk and leave it all in my co-workers' laps? Neither choice is acceptable to us as nurses, and management knows that and plays on it.
TPeters73
16 Posts
Before you write off HCA, please know that Not all HCA facilities are created equally! My hospital has been HCA for the past 15 years and it is AWESOME! I wouldn't want to work anywhere else. The most patients I've ever had was 5 and that is a rarity. Most of the time I have 4. I've been in other facilities that can't attempt to compare. I really feel it is an individual hospital problem and because HCA operates so many facilities, it has more of an opportunity to receive a bad rap. Just my 2 cents :)
8mpg
153 Posts
or a brand new untrained nurse can be more detrimental than overloaded experienced one....
herring_RN, ASN, BSN
3,651 Posts
Originally Posted by Tankweti
New grads need adequate orientation with a preceptor and not assigned total responsibility for patients until his or her competency has been validated.
The new grad is not "untrained". The new grad is an advanced beginner. (Benner)
Originally Posted by Tankweti To Futterwacken: I thought that was an excellent comment you made about facilities not being interested in new grads but being interested in overloading the nurses they have to unsafe levels. You have really hit the ball out of the park with that one. It is as if they are ignoring the ramifications of what they are doing in terms of safe staffing. And they are. All CEO's in health care are rolling the dice now, overloading nurses with very ill patients, and hoping that nothing bad happens, i.e. that no patient dies or that they get sued. Of course, if they do get sued, the overloaded nurse will bear the brunt of it. New grads need adequate orientation with a preceptor and not assigned total responsibility for patients until his or her competency has been validated.The new grad is not "untrained". The new grad is an advanced beginner. (Benner)
Correct. New grads need further education to department specifics of nursing. This costs time and money in which hospital are not looking to do. Taxing overloaded nurses with the extra burden of teaching does not help the situation. It is much more efficient to hire experienced people.
Chico David, BSN, RN
624 Posts
Cartainly more efficient in the short run. But we do need a next generation. The nursing world is in a terrible bind right now. Back in the 90s the hospitals created a nursing shortage by laying off nurses, replacing them with unlicensed people, forcing the remaining nurses to work so hard and so unsafely that many chose to leave. In response to that shortage and the impending retirement and aging of the baby boom generation, new nursing programs have been created and old ones expanded. Then just as the flood of new grads started to come out of all those programs, the recession temorarily eliminated the shortage and for now we have a glut of nurses and no one wants the new grads, many of whom left other jobs and took out loans for what they thought was going to be job security in nursing. Now with budget cutbacks and the feedback that graduates aren't finding jobs, we are starting to see programs close or cut back on class sizes. So when the recession finally does end we'll be back in shortage mode again, which is cold comfort to those who need a job now.
Meanwhile, hospitals - even those with lots of money - are using the recession to cut wages and benefits and increase workloads.