pabamick

As a icu-ccu nurse for 30 years, I have learned that what is best for the patient is not always best for the family. I stand with the patient, but I also take the time to explain to the family that talking all day and having many family visitors the day after you have open heart surgery is not in the best interest of the patient. People don't understand about the toll it takes on a patient who is critical ill or just had major surgery to have to constantly try to respond back to family members. Each family member only sees their time with the patient, not the total effect of all the visitors on a sick, weak patient. I have had patients who don't want to hurt the feeling of their family members tell me, could you just tell them to go home and let me get some rest. I do not agree with open visitation, whose best interest are we looking after here, the patient or the family?

I don't know what state you work in, but in California LVN'S are not independent practioners, they work under the license of an RN or MD in a clinic setting, even if the patient was assigned to the lvn, it's still the RN's responisbility for the assessment and care plan, plus iv meds. Maybe the RN should have explained to the patient that they were a team, working together to give her the best care. Every patient has the right to an RN. Being the only RN on the floor for 10 patients seems pretty unsafe for the patients and the nurses. Thats why we have worked so hard in California to have ratio's. Which are 1 nurse(we in the CNA take that to be an RN) to every 5 patients on the med-surg floors. It was 1 to 6, but we have won over the governor who tried to hold it to 1 to 6. When I work on the med-surg floor and I am given an assignment with an LVN, I always explain that I am the nurse who is legally responsible for these patients, so I will be doing all the assessments and charting the care plan. Because If anything goes wrong you can bet your last dollar that it will be my license that is on the line not the lvn's.

I have been a nurse in the state of California for almosty 31 years, as a bedside nurse in ICU. I have worked union and nonunion before. My hospital that I have worked in for the last 20 years in northern California went union with CNA 3 years ago. I will never, never work non union again. We have a voice in working conditions and patient care. We have a commitee that goes over patient safety issues once a month with administration. We have a contract that means the hospital can't change the rules whenever they want. Such as calling us off in 4hr. blocks when over staffed and not paying us call time while we have to be avialable. A limit to maniditory overtime. Not only does my union dues pay for collective bargaining( union workers make 15% more than nonunion workers by the way) it also covers belonging to my profession association (CNA) thay fights for my rights and safety at the bedside, such as title 22 which has staffed the ICU's in the state of california with a maxium 1:2 for 30 years, now we have new staffing ratio's to protect nurses in other areas of the hospital such as med-surg, were we loss the most nurses due to unsafe working conditions. I want to know what you anti-union nurses have done to promote improved working condition at your hospitals. Talk is cheap, we are responsible for our profession. In my last 12 years(Iam 53) of bedside nursing I will be the sweaky wheel that gets changes for the safety of my patients and bedside nurses. I know I can speak up with out fear of being fired because I have someone standing behind me all the way and that is my union the California Nurses Association.

For years the nurses in my ICU didn't charge for missed lunch breaks. Now we are getting tough. Title 22 in California cleary states that the staffing ratio is 2:1 at all the time, not 4:1 during lunch time. If someone can't come up and relieve us of all of our pt. care duties for 30 minutes we charge them 1/2 hour overtime. State of Cal has also passed the no lunch break or break penalty law that state if any hourly paid worker misses their lunch or 2 breaks the facility will pay them an hour of straight time wages for missed lunch and an hour of straight time wages for missed breaks. This is on top of the 1/2 hour of time and a half for no lunch. It's amazing when you stand up for yourself and money is involved how know we get a lunch break about 95% of the time.

I am so glad I am from California and belong to CNA. My hospital is in the middle of neogiating a first contract. It hasn't been easy and no one wants to strike, but I can see the writting on the wall and that is the way it could be. You bet I will walk out for the one day strike knowing the hospital will lock us out for another 4 days. But I am willing to do that with the majority of the nursing staff because we are working hard at making our hosptial a safe and fair working place where nurses are valued. Glad I don't belong to ANA and all their junk, that's why California broke off from them. Sounds like their code of ethics goes against what nurses are fighting for, a voice, to be treated like professionals, to be valued for their opinions, their experience and importance in the life of their patients. In condeming strikes, how does ANA want nurses to achieve their goals? Sometimes collective bargaining alone doesn't work. 6 new CNA hospitals in CAl, have settle contracts in 6 months with no fight, no union busting groups and no harrassment, my hospital wasn't so lucky we had it all. We have been neogitating for over a year, we just want to get our contract and move on to recruiting and retaining nurses. So yes we will strike and won't for one minute feel we are unethical.

I have been a nurse for 27 years. Worked union and non-union over the years. This last year the hospital I work in, the nurses voted for the union (CNA). I t was a long hard fight with millions of dollars spent by the hospital for an anti-union busting group to keep the union out. If the hospital had maybe listened to us and spent some of that money on nurses to begin with maybe we could have avoided all this. But in a profession where you aren't valued anymore for your knowledge or experience something has got to change. I feel it is our job as nurses to fix our profession, to help cure the 2 part nursing shortage, first to try and attrack the hight percent of nurses who don't work anymore, which means making working conditions better. California has going thru the state legislator right know a bill on staffing ratios. Second attracting young people to our profession, which means being competitive in the job market, which means better salaries, benefits and working conditions. Of all of my friends, nurses and non, none of our children are going to be nurses. The nurses and I at our hospital feel that we have taken the first step in becoming a voice for ourselves and the future of nursing by banding together with the California Nurses Association to improve our current working conditions and those of the future.