Nursing strikes

[rapidkayaker]

I have heard about recent nursing strikes in the California area. I am curious about the ethical validity of these strikes. I understand that strikes can be a natural and extreme tool for improving the work place environment; however is it really appropriate in the nursing arena. My initial response is no because it obviously compromises patient safety. With that said perhaps it is appropriate because ultimately the environment may be safer in the end i.e. lower patient to nurse ratios and safer or improved methods and equipment. Interested in any feedback or opinions.

[JaSuMi]

California is working hard to improve the nurses working environment. They have a goal to no longer hire or train any RN without a BSN by 2010.

That is three years.

Where did you hear of this goal? If that were the case, why are ADN programs opening up there enrollment all over the state? I believe this is the goal of ANA, not California, could I be mistaken?

[RNgonewild]

That article was written in 2001. I haven't heard anything else about it. How's about those "nurse leaders" becoming lower paid instructors and giving up their director's and manager positions and their other cushy hospital jobs, since they're the only ones with enough education to teach us?

[nservice]

As an employee of one of the hospitals where the nurses went on strike, I have mixed feelings regarding the strike. It hasn't been so long ago that I worked the floor that I've forgotten what it was like to work short staffed, or be bullied by a supervisor to take an admit that was too critical for the floor, etc. There are definitely issues that need to be resolved to protect the nurse and the patient.

On the other hand, I have personally witnessed a great deal of underhanded tactics used by the union that really turns me off to their cause. The fight has turned really ugly at my hospital and in my opinion, the Union has made for a hostile work environment. Union nurses won't assist a non-union nurse. Supervisors offices have been vandalized. Nasty flyers or comments on any flyer the hospital puts up, regardless of the topic of the flyer. Unfounded Unfair labor complaints being filed in droves as a means of coersion. Union reps rounding on the floors and making scenes at the nurses station when someone refuses to sign a petition.

Right or wrong, the unionization of a hospital causes a rift that may take years to heal. It's not a fun place to work, to say the least.