Nursing Strike

U.S.A. California

Published

Curious about what my peers think about the nursing strikes in California and the recent pt death.

I am a striking nurse who was locked out of my hospital. I went on strike to keep nursing a career that attracts and keeps the best people. We are trained professionals who love our patients and love being nurses, but the corporate bosses were to treating us like worthless chattel. They presented a long list of takeaways and were unwilling to negotiate over any of it. It is a sad day when nonprofit hospitals start acting like for profit corporations who constantly threaten layoffs and takeaway benefits from nurses and patients while giving themselves fat raises. It felt powerful to unify and take a stand.

However, I am now seriously questioning my right to strike and if indeed I have placed my pts in danger. Oncology is too intense of a practice to view nurses as interchangable commodities. While a mistake could have been made by anyone at any time the reality is less mistakes are likely when nursing is practiced by a consistent team of experienced RN's. My heart goes out to the family of the pt as well as to the traveling RN who made the med error and I am just heartsick over it all.

"However, I am now seriously questioning my right to strike and if indeed I have placed my pts in danger. Oncology is too intense of a practice to view nurses as interchangable commodities."

This is why you are striking.

This was not an oncology related error. There was nothing to do with chemotherapy. This was a basic nursing practice.

The market is in the favor of the employers right now. There are lots of nurses willing and able to take the jobs the nurses that strike don't want.

It isn't about right or wrong it is about supply and demand.

It certainly is not that they don't want their jobs. How much do you make? What benefits do you have? Rude right, but you are in a speciality area where you can negociate with employers because you save them money. We just save lives on a med/sug floor and are looked at as a liability. We don't have an airway in with monitors hooked up to monitor every lifesign with an anesthesiologist backing us up and a surgeon right in the room with us.

:down: to your comment. It should be about right and wrong. That is what is wrong with the world right now.

Maybe, I am history deficient after 27 semester credit hours of undergrad history, but it seems to me ,we as workers, that in the US we have it better than any other time history. At least if you have a job that is. California nurses are some of the highest paid nurses in the country of course there is high cost of living in that area too.

All I am saying is this is a poor time for negotiations from the employees side. We effectively have a nursing glut in many parts of the country, and the country is in a recession. IMO you can only push so hard before you find yourself out of a job. All nongovernment agencies/companies seek to make a profit. The only real difference in for profit agencies and nonprofit agencies is what they do with the profits.

:down: Another thumbs down to the anesthesia nurse. UNION!

I would guess you know a lot about the Greeks and the rise of Civilization! :idea:

I don't agree with loosing sick days or other benefits that are already in place, but this is going to be a hard fight.

RNs in California are averaging nearly 90K a year (Sutter quotes 138K on average for their nurses) . http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes291111.htm That is far cry from being poor, and most people/nurses aren't going to have much empathy for the plight of these nurses. I am betting you could find thousands of nurses that would love to be in Sutter's nursing shoes right now averaging over 130K a year.....

I have a hard time feeling a lot of empathy if this salary is true. That is almost 40K more than I make as a military CRNA.

Oh well good luck to you guys anyways, just don't expect all nurses to agree with you on this....

P.S. I would like to know how Sutter intends to limit the nurses ability to advocate for their patients though.

I say BS to 138K "Sutter Quotes"

I do not live anywhere near there or work in a unionized hospital, but I know this is BS. Don't whine about your salary you chose it, isn't that what you tell someone else. Suck it up and be happy with what you have? Do you have housing on base? Medical care taken care of by the US military? By the way thanks for your service, really mean that.:yeah:

This was not an oncology related error. There was nothing to do with chemotherapy. This was a basic nursing practice.

I was using someone else's quote. I don't care what it had to do with. I am not even sure why you e-mailed me about this?:confused:

Sorry Brenda. I just replied to someone? Not to your note. I was just remarking how the papers here are going on and on about this being an oncology issue when it is not. I live very close to where this happened so there may be more news about it here as it is local.

OK, I'm sorry too, if I sounded rude.

I read the article and then a lot of the comments from people! Wow there are some mean people writing in!! This is a HUGE misstake made by a probably very inexperienced nurse, but to slam all agency nurses is a huge slap in the face!! I am trying for my first travel position and I don't like the idea of being called a scab. No I don't plan on going to cover any stikes, but is that what they think of all agency nurses? I do question sometimes if all nurses are put in the right locations when they take a job. I have to say it does blow my mind that anyone could make this type of misstake. Not that misstakes don't happen, but that is why one checks, rechecks and triple checks!! I am afraid this young nurses licenses is on the line?!

People make mistakes just like you can, especially in spelling misstakes. ;) No one calls anyone a scab unless they cross a picket line, a very unflattering term but...it is the term used historically. They are not calling all agency nurses scabs.

My heart :redbeathe goes out to the young 23 year old nurse who had been promised big bucks to go into a situation she probably was not prepared for regardless of "credentials" if you don't have orientation and experience under your belt you probably are not prepared for this type of high pressure situation (added pressure of a strike).

Gosh, I can do nursing well, but posting correctly is another story ha ha. I agree. I truly feel for the 23 yr old new nurse. Her life is done. Yes, the patient died and not to sound cold......but we all here know about what it is to have a patient with a feeding tube, ovarian cancer, in the hospital for months...........her end was already there. She just got a quicker send off. It is shocking yes. But I feel more for the nurse.

Specializes in ICU, PACU, OR.

As should we all-we are one mistake away from something happening to our job or license. It's a sobering thought and if anything comes from this, it should make us all aware of the need for proper preparation of our new nurses and their right to say they need assistance in things they don't feel prepared or experienced to do. Even if you don't lose your job or your license, you live "gun-shy" from that point on. No one should feel over confident even if you've done things many times without a problem. There are many situations in caring for another life where there are no "do-overs". This is a call to assist one another even if there is not a policy in place stating specific safety rules. The only thing I know is that the court of law in every state is that nurses must act prudently. You decide what that is.

The agency must have been very hard up as was Sutter in depending on a license to be all that was needed to work. This was probably a new nurse, very new, and thought this was going to be a piece of cake and fun. I do not blame her. I blame the hospital. For those who talk about the economy issue and that these nurses make a lot of $ (the average nurse does NOT make $136K as stated), not true. The economy in the area of strike is well. Yes, there are people out of work but there will always be. The management here makes a lot of $ and the CEO makes 4-6 million, yes million dollars. The news media uses the "economy" to influence other areas of the country which yes, are in poor shape. But not here. A nice 1 bedroom apt is $1600-1800/mo. No vacancy.

+ Add a Comment