Nursing Unions

The VA........and that's it.

Just wondering if there are any hospitals that are union based for nurses? I never liked the idea of unions but I must say it has done wonders for nurses here in NJ and I am looking to relocate.

In Arizona you pay the "sunshine" tax. For the price of not shoveling snow - you give up the basic protections offered by a union. We are "right to work." That means although a workplace can form a union you are not obligated to join. Life here is a tradeoff - you just need to figure out what your priorities are...

In Arizona you pay the "sunshine" tax. For the price of not shoveling snow - you give up the basic protections offered by a union. We are "right to work." That means although a workplace can form a union you are not obligated to join. Life here is a tradeoff - you just need to figure out what your priorities are...

Finally, someone else understand the difference between "right to work" and "at will".

Cursed - set your expectations low and you will always be pleasantly surprised.

Are you at Good Sam?

No, I passed on that place....I'm on the west side.

Thanks for the input

The hospital where I work in Arizona IS unionized, but you don't have to be a member if you don't want to. I am because I like the extra protection a union provides...someone who is only on MY side

Union hospital here in AZ? Wow! That's almost a dirty word, isn't it? Anyone know if Flag Medical ever got the vote to pass? I know the California folks tried to get there foot in the door.

Seems like every employer is an 'Employment at will' employer these days. This means you have no contract with the employer and that either the employer or the employee can end the relationship 'with notice or without notice and with cause or without cause.' In other words absolutely no security for the employee. Of course, should an employee leave a job without giving their employer at least two weeks notice it would very likely be considered 'unprofessional.' A professor of mine expressed the opinion years ago that Emplyment At Will would go away, but all this time later it's still there! Employers were fearful when they started developing personnel manuals that these might become contracts in the minds of employees! Hope this clarifies it. Not the same thing as Right to Work at all.

I do know that both Benson hospital and Bisbee hospital are union hospitals now (both in southeastern az)

I do not have the answers, but something has to change-in a big way. While we have to have strict policies and rules(goes w/out saying, of course) the folks in "charge" are lacking in a big way. It appears, from the nurses who report to me, that there seems to be no other than an arbitrary "voting" that happens at a board mtg, often times taking away the livlihood of the head of a household. Well, one may say-"then dont get in trouble" What happened to innocent til proven guilty? Why can their only means of making a living be so easily taken away at the disposal of a group of people, who, I am told, most are not even nurses. Is this true?? One rn said it took more than a year before his case was even heard at a board mtg, then they took away his lic. But for the previous 13 months he worked w/no restrictions, and NO ISSUES. don't get it. Of course u cant have impaired professionals caring for the public, why can they not work in a diff capacity within the facility, then? These people have kids in school, mortgage payments, etc. Something is not right here in any way. I do not see any other profession governed so inappropriately, and so cruelly. This state, if alone in this mess, is in huge disarray.

::SNIP::I do not see any other profession governed so inappropriately, and so cruelly. This state, if alone in this mess, is in huge disarray.

I think that you are confused with the roles of unions and the Board of Nursing. Unions, as this thread started out addressing, has to do with the employer/employee relationship. This has nothing to do with the licensure or regulation of registered nurses. The Board of Nursing is a board appointed by the Governor to oversee the licensing and general practice of nursing, while fulfilling the Governor's platform.

Innocent until proven guilty, or the presumption of innocence, is a legal principle which governs the rights of the accused in criminal trials. It has nothing to do with unions, licensure, the board of nursing, not the CANDO program.

Here is the list of staff on the Arizona Board of Nursing Arizona State Board of Nursing | Staff DirectoryThere are nurses and non-nurses on the board including administrators, secretaries, lawyers, and the like. When you are brought before the board for disciplinary action you are judged by a board of your peers, meaning a board comprised of nurses. Your investigator may or may not be a nurse however.

It is rare for a nurse to appear before the board of nursing for chemical dependency and have their license revoked. Usually the individual is referred to the CANDO program. For a license to be revoked that usually means that there were extenuating circumstances that placed the public at an unforgivable risk, actual serious patient harm, prior history of drug abuse, or a refusal to comply with the Board's requirements, etc. etc.

The fact is you or I do not know the circumstances of your friend's circumstances nor where we there in the board meeting. Something sounds very odd though that he was not referred to the CANDO program though.

I am proud that nursing regulates the profession so thoroughly, in fact I think that things are actually softer than what they should be. We are not plumbers, secretaries, dock workers, retail managers, or CPAs. We are professionals and when we mess up people die. We hold a sacred trust with the public, a trust that even physicians do not enjoy. Lets keep that trust.

If only other professions regulated their own as half as much as we do.