ctnjason

I worked in a union hospital for 10 years and saw the good, bad, and downright ugly side of unions. With that said, THIS is why you need unions. Im not even a nurse but Ive seen in all allied health careers and nursing. They LOVE the fact that there is no shortage anymore, no matter what articles or reports you read. There is NO shortage. No nursing shortage, no xray tech shortage, no respiratory therapist shortage.....PERIOD. Upper management....usually ones that wear suits and haven't touched a patient since the Nixon administration (if ever) want to get rid of all the $40+/hour making people and dangle a job over 30 applicants heads to see which sucker will take the less money and benefits. Its happening folks and there aint a damn thing you can do about it except join together.

go to xray school, become a CT, MRI, US, or Nuc Med Tech. DO NOT go into nursing.

Im sure the heart attacks, strokes, gunshots, stabbings, and other REAL emergencies didnt wait that long...... hrmmmmm i guess you werent really an EMERGENCY.

I think its very ironic how a workplace ive recently seen preaches diversity everywhere, send diversity emails, has an employee support group for every ethinticity (except caucasian) under the sun, has diversity picnics, diversity training, diversity blah blah blah blah blah....... But the ENTIRE board of directors is........you guessed it.......... white.

This is where my quote came from.

sure we are! america is always looking to bomb some random country filled with brown people!

Get rid of your student loan debt..... STAT!!

I hate to inform you but a temp / travel / per diem / whatever nurse making $$ is not backstabbing other nurses. Call it what you want, drama it up, use loaded words like "back stabbing" or whatever you want, but the truth hurts. I AM IN A UNION and i get so aggravated at the union jumping to use loaded tirades like "the hospital doesnt care about safety" and things like that whenever the rumor of temp nurses come into play during a strike or crisis. The purpose of a union is to fight for better wages / rights. Once said contract is agreed on by both sides, then both sides have to honor that. I understand that. Once the contract is up, the facility has EVERY right to do whatever it needs to do. This is rather your union likes it or not. It amazes me once negotiations start and theres any hint of strike, it immediately begins with "the crazy greedy hospital that cares nothing about the patients hires temporary back stabbing nurses that will create a hell hole cesspool of scariness and its ALL the hospitals fault!" Working for a union is great BUT i know good and well that i am still replaceable if and when that time comes. It would not have hurt my feelings at all to see every teacher in wisconsin get replaced last year..... all their drama stirring about how the state doesnt care about "the kids". "The patient" is the nurses claim when things dont go their way.

MGH in Boston is NON union FYI

the young skinny girls you speak of in these scenarios are easier to punish and correct than someone obese. you can say hey stop texting but you cant say politically incorrect things that would offend someone.

this ^^^^^

Mark my word...... rather its education, health care, energy, or any major life affecting aspect of life, to fix the problem you must first do one thing: GET THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OUT. I do not know the "solution" to the problems but booting the feds out of medicine altogether would get us off to a great start.

You could not have said it any better. I finished x-ray school when i was 20, moved up and around the field / department, got registered in multiple modalities, and i look back 12 years later and know i wouldnt have changed it. I wanted to be a nurse a few years ago to be a travel nurse only but i did not go through with it. Im grateful for that decision. A good friend was in nursing school when i was in xray school. We used to trade barbs at who would be happier...... we dont even bring it up now. She was "burnt out" about 3 years after she graduated. I couldnt be happier with my career. I took a few jabs once that "i must have not had what it took to be a nurse" but the longer i work, the more im grateful if that in fact was the case. As far as the technology goes, MRI and CT scan are incredible now with the capability of the machines. Just goggle "3D CT Scan" and see the amazing images. It is not a monotonous "button pushing" job. You do have to think, you do have to know your anatomy, and you do have to be on your toes at times. As i mentioned in previous post, this seems to be a job you can do for the long term of your career. When you are 50 with kids in college, you will be glad your job isnt a huge stressor on you :)

Xray is the starting line for what you can do. Definitely go further to CT, MRI, Ultrasound, Nuclear Med, etc. As far as shouldve been an xray tech.... I work alot in a busy ER doing CT scan. SOOOOOO Many times we get these young, energetic EMT / Paramedic students who want to cut open cars and save the world come into the ER. They hit the CT scanner with their patients and you can see it in their eyes that MAYBE i should be doing this instead of Paramedic. Also, literally every week i have a nurse say to me "i shouldve done this" or "you guys seem more laid back that my floor" and things like this. Im tellin ya, it was a no brainer to me. ONCE i thought about going back to do nursing so i could be a travel nurse, i did a job shadow and that killed that notion FAST. Jason

this is 1000000% true. Why on earth someone would want to degrade my job is beyond me. All modalities of radiology, especially CT Scan, has blown wide open with advances in technology. The machines are capable of taking the most amazing images ever. To this day i remember looking in the course catalog of the local junior college to decide what i wanted to do.....nursing or xray..... im glad i did what i do now.