#NursesUnited: Can we continue the momentum for necessary change?
Nursing has been plagued over the years by division within its ranks. However, recent events have resulted in nurses uniting together despite those divisions. What can we achieve to improve the workplace and patient care if we keep that unity's momentum going?
Nurses all over the country have united in protest against the comments made about nurses on The View. One single act has managed to unite many despite the inter-nursing battles of different specialties, RN versus LPN, and varying entry-level degrees. It's great to see nurses unite, but can we keep that momentum going to effect change in patient care?
Yes, ignorance of the role of the nurse is common within the population. It just so happened that some of those expressed their lack of knowledge on public television to quite a large crowd. Perhaps this will give nursing the visibility and opportunity to educate the public as to our role in health care.
But there are many other issues plaguing nursing that, in my opinion, are much more crucial in providing safe, effective patient care.
Staffing ratios
To date, only California has managed to pass legislation mandating nurse: patient ratios. We need to look to our legislators and put the pressure on them to start introducing bills reflecting safe, doable ratios.
Lack of uninterrupted breaks
We all need the opportunity to recharge during a shift, get nourishment, and empty that overfilled bladder. But how often does it happen that while on an unpaid break the phone rings or the pager goes off, and that break gets interrupted?
Mandatory overtime
How safe is it to force someone to work more than their scheduled shift because of a lack of adequate staff? The longer one nurse works, the more likely it is that he or she will be tired and prone to mistakes. We deal with people's lives where mistakes can mean serious harm or even death.
Lack of adequate functional equipment
How often do we have to run around the unit looking for that one piece of some type of equipment that actually works? How often are we borrowing from other units? How closely do we guard that computer on wheels we managed to claim at the beginning of the shift? Why are the powers that be not providing what we need?
Potential for injury
How many facilities offer enough lifting equipment and manpower to move patients without risk of injury to the staff or the patient? What about violence from patients, visitors, and even other staff members? There are not enough states with laws on the books specifically to protect nurses and other healthcare staff.
Focus on customer service
Nurses are not customer service representatives. We are knowledgeable healthcare professionals responsible for the care of patients to return them to their optimum level of health. Scripting, patient satisfaction scores, and a focus on "the customer is right" idea lead to actual healthcare coming in a distant second to keeping patients happy.
So where do we go from here?
How many of us are members of organizations that are pushing for such changes?
Many state nursing associations as well as specialty organizations have sections on their web pages addressing such issues, with ideas of how to fix them. National Nurses United (again, personal opinion) appears to be much more in touch with the issues of the bedside nurse than another national organization.
What can we do to continue being #nursesunited and push for the necessary changes? I will admit that one thing that turns me off of some nursing organizations is the political spin and endorsements, but is that really as important as working to improve nursing? Can this sudden unity over something that may be insulting yet not very significant in the day-to-day life of a working nurse continue?
There are many positions in a hospital that require staff to be on call for example OR, PACU, Cath Lab, ICU/CCU, GI Lab, PICU/NICU to name a few.
I don't know where you practice nursing, but in many states nurses are paid overtime if they work past their shift, irregardless whether or not they were on call. Would you regularly like to be put in the position, where you are forced to work overtime on a regular basis. The nurse in the next room is receiving time and one half because she is on call, while you are just making your regular wages. Just think of it this way, the hospital is saving money big time on overtime pay, and differential that they would have had to pay for a nurse working the evening or night shift. If we work past our shift that is over time. I don't care if you work an 8 hour, 10 hour or 12 hour shift.
Would you regularly like to be put in the position, where you are forced to work overtime on a regular basis.
No, I wouldn't. I always wanted to work cath lab, but they had to take call, and they were OFTEN called in at 3am, 4am, etc., and if they were scheduled to work the next day, they had to come back in, if they even were able to go home at all. So I never pursued that. I can't function under those circumstances.
I don't know how call time works in my state relative to overtime pay. In general, overtime is only paid after you've done your 40 hours. At my facility, they try very hard to avoid having any nurses work overtime, for obvious reasons. But also for less obvious ones: we have more turnover if we are in a period of frequent overtime. Most nurses just aren't interested in putting in those kinds of hours where I work.
Thanks for the comments. I always learn something new when I come here. ?
Specializes in Nephrology, Dialysis, Plasmapheresis.
Share this link on your facebook page and we can get the petition signed for mandated nurse to patient ratios. We have 1 month to get about 92,000 more signatures. This is worthwhile for us! Let's unite!
Traditionally, working over 8 hours a day, is considered overtime. I do believe, that in the early Industrial Age, here in the US, the men fought and died to get an 8 hour day, and overtime if you had to work over that and for a 40 hour work week.
Along with a 40 hour work week, weekends, etc. Everything that these men fought and died for, is now going to hell in a hand basket, in the last 30 years.
We are working more, and bringing home less, working harder, only to have some foreigner from India walk in and take your job, for less money, and if you want to see any severance pay, you better be willing to train your sub standard, non English speaking replacement, with a smile on your face. As you see your house being foreclosed on, and your family being thrown to the street.
That is what life will continue to be unless we are finally ALL GET OUT ACT TOGETHER, and fight the politicians who reward, this behavior.
As I stated numerous times to various connections on social media, the ignorance of one person isn't what we, as nurses need to be fighting about! Your article brings to light several points that truly matter for our patients and for our profession.
These serious issues and so many more should have united those of us who share our profession long ago. The majority of those in our profession are female, and in order to become United and share one voice, we really need to put all the extraneous stuff aside. I'm definitely in!
Not a nurse but a CNA and was pending termination when I "complained" about patient ratios and safe practices in my unit. I was forced to resign. It's not worth speaking up, you can lose your job and be black listed.
Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.
HkCNA said:
Not a nurse but a CNA and was pending termination when I "complained" about patient ratios and safe practices in my unit. I was forced to resign. It's not worth speaking up, you can lose your job and be black listed.
But if we unite together we can make changes. A hospital exists to provide nursing care, and while not nurses, CNAs are part of the team. Yes, a single person can be made an example of, but when enough people get together, voting with your feet can make a hospital have to change to stay open.
Eh, I wouldn't look at the response to The View debacle as evidence that nurses will unite to change the profession.
Nurses responded en masse to this precisely *because* it was a safe "stand" to make, one with low stakes and little chance of backfiring. It required neither hard work nor personal risk, two things very much required to effect change.
To bring about the changes we want will require more than looking cute in a selfie and making "bold" statements 99.9% of the population would agree with.
But if we unite together we can make changes. A hospital exists to provide nursing care, and while not nurses, CNAs are part of the team. Yes, a single person can be made an example of, but when enough people get together, voting with your feet can make a hospital have to change to stay open.
The nursing community is "small" enough that word of mouth can be a very powerful thing.
Everyone at every level of the nursing team needs to sign the petition and maybe post their unsafe ratio stories to social media with links to the petition. Maybe if the healthcare needing public was made aware, there would be even more support for mandated safe ratios
More nurses should support unionization in the US. Mandated staffing, breaks and fair wages can only be achieved through unions.
Agreed...if we didn't have unions, such liberties as a mandated work days, workplace safety and child labor wouldn't exist...we would still be living in the days of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle.
SallyRNCNOR
26 Posts
There are many positions in a hospital that require staff to be on call for example OR, PACU, Cath Lab, ICU/CCU, GI Lab, PICU/NICU to name a few.
I don't know where you practice nursing, but in many states nurses are paid overtime if they work past their shift, irregardless whether or not they were on call. Would you regularly like to be put in the position, where you are forced to work overtime on a regular basis. The nurse in the next room is receiving time and one half because she is on call, while you are just making your regular wages. Just think of it this way, the hospital is saving money big time on overtime pay, and differential that they would have had to pay for a nurse working the evening or night shift. If we work past our shift that is over time. I don't care if you work an 8 hour, 10 hour or 12 hour shift.