Nursing occupation, politically ineffective due to inequalities of both gender?

[Yusrie]

Hi all,

I would like some of your point on view on this statement.

What are your takes on nursing will always be a politically ineffective occupation because it is dominated by females and that more efforts should be made to recruit male nurses to remedy this (Draws on gender, power, professionalism).

[BuckyBadgerRN, ASN, RN]

Canigraduate, if I could like this a million times, I would!

[canigraduate]

Canigraduate, if I could like this a million times, I would!

Aww, thank you. [[blushes]]

I'm still hot under the collar about that question. Do you ever just want to open your window, stick your head out, and scream "SERIOUSLY?!?"

[chuckster, ADN, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

I am a male. Yes, I do believe nursing is an abused and underpaid profession. I think that females put up with a lot of **** they shouldn't. It seems that they deal with stress by tearing one another down because they don't know how to stand up to authority. This gossiping undermines trust and makes it harder for people to trust eachother and relationship build to make a better work enviornment etc. I have noticed many females are concerned with being the teacher's pet than standing up for what is right. They seem to be more likely to respect authority figures such as doctors, administrators, etc. than men are. I see cops in NJ making 90,000 a year or more and getting 85% of their base pay in retirement and their unions are active and vocal. outside of California, nursing unions are childs play. No one takes us seriously. Nurses are too busy complaining about problems and too tired to do anything about them. Nursing is perhaps the only field outside of the military where there are such clear lines of power and authority. If things are to change, the power structure needs to change. Nurses need to be empowered beyond this whole "Magnet" concept... Ultimately, it's a weird field.

I agree wholeheartedly with almost everything said above but wanted to add my two cents.

It's quite true that the police and to a lesser extent, firefighters, unions still wield enough power to ensure a comfortable retirement for their members. That power is ebbing however – Wisconsin is witness to that. And while it's true that the police and firefighters unions are male-dominated, and the CA nurses union is largely female-controlled, sex is not the reason that one has a modicum of power and the other is essentially impotent. No, the reason is merely that one is older, and has some residual power while the other is new and will not be allowed to gather momentum.

The fact is that unions are an anachronism in modern-day America. It's true that in the past, some unions have abused their power but it's equally true that union power now is a fraction of what it was in the mid-20th century. Moreover, as the power of unions has declined, the US has experienced a concomitant erosion of worker benefits. To put it bluntly, the US has devolved into a plutocracy with a thin democratic veneer. The plutocrats – the .1 per centers that are often held up as the job-creators - have successfully undermined the power of existing unions and certainly will not stand idly by and let new groups of workers such as the CA nurses, enjoy any significant success.

I wish nursing unions luck, but they are really swimming upstream in a river of labor. Nursing school enrollment is at all-time high – and is still growing. There are record numbers of new nurses entering the workforce putting significant downward pressure on both wages and working conditions. This is the way the plutocrats like it and I frankly don’t see the environment changing for years, perhaps decades. In the past, unions would have been the change agents, but that was before the wholesale purchasing of politicians was enabled by SCOTUS and computer-aided gerrymandering ensured the easy and virtually permanent control of local, state and federal districts by incumbent politicians.

[SoaringOwl]

I agree wholeheartedly with almost everything said above but wanted to add my two cents.

It's quite true that the police and to a lesser extent, firefighters, unions still wield enough power to ensure a comfortable retirement for their members. That power is ebbing however – Wisconsin is witness to that. And while it's true that the police and firefighters unions are male-dominated, and the CA nurses union is largely female-controlled, sex is not the reason that one has a modicum of power and the other is essentially impotent. No, the reason is merely that one is older, and has some residual power while the other is new and will not be allowed to gather momentum.

The fact is that unions are an anachronism in modern-day America. It's true that in the past, some unions have abused their power but it's equally true that union power now is a fraction of what it was in the mid-20th century. Moreover, as the power of unions has declined, the US has experienced a concomitant erosion of worker benefits. To put it bluntly, the US has devolved into a plutocracy with a thin democratic veneer. The plutocrats – the .1 per centers that are often held up as the job-creators - have successfully undermined the power of existing unions and certainly will not stand idly by and let new groups of workers such as the CA nurses, enjoy any significant success.

I wish nursing unions luck, but they are really swimming upstream in a river of labor. Nursing school enrollment is at all-time high – and is still growing. There are record numbers of new nurses entering the workforce putting significant downward pressure on both wages and working conditions. This is the way the plutocrats like it and I frankly don’t see the environment changing for years, perhaps decades. In the past, unions would have been the change agents, but that was before the wholesale purchasing of politicians was enabled by SCOTUS and computer-aided gerrymandering ensured the easy and virtually permanent control of local, state and federal districts by incumbent politicians.

I concur!

Hospitals are required to have a certificate of need before they can open up a new wing, or re-designate themselves as a trauma center, or what not. Well, in order to open a nursing school, there should also be a certificate of need. Where I live, there's a nursing school mill on every corner, pumping out barely-literate new grads. With their NCLEX pass rates in the 50's and 60's, I don't know why we don't do something to close them.

I also think it's BS that LPN's basically don't exist anymore, but we have MA's and multi-skilled techs and all kinds of other people doing what LPN's did. We shouldn't have let a branch of our nursing tree die.

[BuckyBadgerRN, ASN, RN]

Amen, Chuckster. Try living in WI with a police officer husband! Walker took away union rights and then needed them on scene to control the chaos at the Capitol thanks to his decision!!

[toomuchbaloney]

Sort of like Boehner's state of Ohio wanting to defund and eliminate the EPA and then demanding that the EPA do something about the pollutants which are causing the algae blooms that make the water toxic for cities like Toledo.

[herring_RN, ASN, BSN]

The only reason for a hospital exist is to provide nuesing care.

All medical care, tests, and such can be provided in an outpatient setting.

Nurses can and have worked together to improve patient care and nurse's working conditions, pay, and benefits.

I remember when the hospital gardener was paid more than the nurses who provided the nursing care.

In my state that is no longer the case.

Here are some very recent successes:

How to Advocate on Ebola: National Nurses United | CQ Roll Call Connectivity

New California Ebola Mandate Sets National Model for Highest Protections, Say RNs

The Staffing by Acuity with Ratios as the maximum number of patients a nurse can be assigned.

http://www.nationalnursesunited.org/blog/entry/valley-rns-to-receive-thousands-in-back-pay/

[chuckster, ADN, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

Amen, Chuckster. Try living in WI with a police officer husband! Walker took away union rights and then needed them on scene to control the chaos at the Capitol thanks to his decision!!

Judging by the election results, it looks like many folks in WI are happy with union busting. Gov Walker's popularity seems to be increasing and it appears likely that he will be be campaigning for the White House in 2016. "Walker/Brownback 2016" would surely be a dream ticket for some . . .

[rnforforty]

Wonderfully put! My feeling exactly.

[rnforforty]

My take is that this is a poorly worded, inflammatory question that implies women are naturally politically ineffective, powerless, and unprofessional, the condition is permanent, and women must be saved by men.

Nursing's problems extend far past man vs. woman. Most of us don't care whether your genitalia are inside or outside.

We care that hospital nursing has become hospitality nursing.

We care that patients' needs are being pushed aside for patient wants.

We care that nurses are being pushed to do more, with less, for far sicker people.

We care that management is in a pressure vise and when it blows, it blows downhill on the nurses.

We care that there is way too large of a government presence, causing more and more of our jobs to be taken up with meaningless benchmarks and irrelevant paperwork.

You should ask your instructor for a better, less 20th century question. Perhaps one that deals with today's issues, not issues from 30 years ago.

Wonderfully put. My thoughts exactly.