JohnyPapr

There are pros and cons to union and non-union. I worked for both. Union all the way for the benefits, pay raises, and patient ratios. Now with that being said not all unions are equal. Some unions have more clout and can negotiate better contracts due to the leadership. I have seen a seasoned worker with no more PTO or sick leave call in every week for two months due to child's health. The union stepped and management only suspended the employee for a month with no pay. That's really generous. Any other job they would be fired. The cons is once you pass probation you have to assault someone to get fired. You have old nurses that have no business being on the floor anymore and should retire but are greedy and still working and they are lazy asking everyone to do their duties. But they can't get fired because they are protected by the union. As long as they do the bare minimum they are protected. There are only two pros of non-union I experienced was when someone is lazy or a cancer to a unit's morale, if enough workers complain about person, the director will start a "firing campaign" on worker. Every complaint will be logged and director will tell everyone to take note of time and date when worker clocked in late, came back from lunch late, refused to help, or broke any policy. The other pro is if you have leverage like a lot of experience, know how to sell yourself (name the places you worked, name drop other hospitals that called you and are considering), and did your research and know the director of that unit is hurting for nurses, you can negotiate your salary higher than the normal pay scale for the position during the interview. All they need to do is get it approved by HR. With union you have hard pay scales based on experience.

No you are not a coward. Your health comes first. And remember. There is NO loyalty in nursing. You are just another body to your manager. Your “friends” at work will throw you under the bus when you need them the most to save their skin and political ambitions.

Is this a joke. You are following instructions by employee health. You are still showing symptoms even if the test comes back negative that is why they instructed you to stay home to prevent spread of infection. It sounds like your employer doesn’t trust you guys and thinks you are using this to skate out of work. But if they are really worried people using this as free time off, why doesn’t employee health do screenings on employees who show symptoms and document VS and symptoms? They don’t care about you. They just care about numbers and the bottom line. Because if enough RN’s get quarantined, management will be forced to work the floor and they aren’t having that. I hope 25% of the RN’s in your ED get quarantined and then management has to come work the floor. It will be a sweet humbling experience for them as they will experience the lack of PPE you guys have been shouting for.

We just admitted 3 MD’s who were Covid positive last night. An ER physician, A Pediatrician, and a G.I physician. One got it from a ski trip two weeks ago before the lockdown. Another from a family member. Another from just doing their job seeing patients. CDC was late in their warnings. We are going to see a lot of healthcare workers coming in testing positive. Stay safe out there.

Why are you worried about your license? Did you do anything neglectful endangering your patients? Did you fail to act on behalf of your patients' health and well being? Did you intentionally cause harm? No? Your license is safe. Why do people think the board of nursing is like the military. It's not. The state does not own you. The only repercussions you will have is getting hired on your unit again if you quit. No biggie if you have experience as you can easily find another nursing job in a month.

I would refuse to care for patients without proper PPE. What good are you if you get infected? You are going to have to self quarantine. This isn't the military where you will get jail time for refusing orders. Your employer doesn't own you like they do in the military. Bring up safety first. The worst that can happen is you get fired. As an experienced RN you can easily find another job in 2 weeks. You will still keep your license. It's not patient abandonment if you never received report and you refused your assignment on the spot never taking over the patient's care. Don't worry about losing your license in Oregon. They decide if they follow the CDC and WHO recommendations? HAHA! You can only use the N95 mask so many times before it's protective filter is compromised. It will be a process to strip you of your license in Oregon and they will have so many lawsuits they will wish they never published their statement. Any governing body knowingly endangering the health of employees is asking to be sued. You can't get away with that in the wealthiest nation that is very litigious. And it's the state endangering the health of the nurses not the hospitals. All the lawyer has to do is pull up the state budget of Oregon and they will see they had the money to supply all the hospitals with proper PPE.

I work in L.A but my parents live in the bay area. I'm not going home for Mother's day as I work on a designated Covid unit and already taken care of a Covid positive patient. Our administration heard our concerns of passing the virus along to family at home and has provided some options for the RNs. They are providing checked out work scrubs now. We come to work in street clothes and check them out and change into them and change out of them when our shift is over. They are also allowing us to use the showers normally reserved for Residents. They are also allowing us to stay in the University hospital 4 star hotel free of charge if we work back to back days so we don't have to go home.

Our union negotiated 120 hrs of Covid PTO that doesn't count against our sick hours or PTO if we get infected and have to self quarantine.

Making you wear the same mask all shift on R/0 patients? Jesus stay safe out there my fellow RNs. I don't mean to sound like a privileged *** but that will never happen at my hospital. If it does all the RNs will stop coming to work. You can tell we are union. But that is not the reason why we won't run out of masks. Our hospital is a university hospital that gets a lot of funding AND hundreds of millions in donations every year from Hollywood and Tech elite for tax write offs. We are probably the most or second most wealthiest hospital in the world. Elon Musk just donated 100,000 unused N95 masks from his Tesla factory to our hospital last week. We have the boxes stored away out of sight and guarded like Fort Knox. Even on our unit even the boxes stay in the charge nurse station with someone watching it to protect it from our own staff members who might hoard for themselves. We are treating N95s like toilet paper. The Tsunami of Covid positives didn't even start yet in California. We are two weeks behind New York. The float team RNs are getting cancelled due to low census. Our OR nurses got furloughed because they cancelled all non-essential surgeries. But as far as full-time staff and per diem RNs, we never get cancelled. They are over staffing us every shift with full-time and per diem staff to be ready for the big surge of Covid patients any day. We are one of the three designated Covid units. We have 24 beds. They are over staffing us with 10 floor RNs, a charge, one break nurse, and 3 CNAs. 1 RN is a dedicated Covid PPE Champion who sets up the room for admissions, keeps PPE carts stocked with gloves, gowns, masks, and Sani Wipes. He/she also monitors the floor and makes sure everyone is following proper PPE donning and doffing and infection control protocol. They also monitor ancillary staff like housekeeping and phlebotomy entering R/O rooms and educate them on donning and doffing PPE and infection control procedures to decrease the risk of transmission. So we only have 1, 2, or 3 patients each with the low census.

Our CNO just sent out an email 2 days ago saying pregnant staff are not to take any R/O or positive Covid patients and supervisors should accommodate the pregnant staff member on the assignment. If not the staff member can refuse the assignment and needs to contact HR. But my hospital is in California with a super gangster union. So your hospital administrators may not feel the heat to accommodate nurses.