txdude35

No, I didn't. One of them and I have a profound and mutual dislike of each other, and have had for some time now. I can put my personal feelings aside and work with her though, because business is business. I have _everything_ to learn about collective bargaining. I'm an absolute neophyte and freely admit it. I'm reading, researching, and talking to people with experience though in order to have some sense of where this is going to go.

We'll see what happens. Everyone votes on these positions and unfortunately for them neither has much respect on the unit.

Cool, thanks for the info.

I hadn't seen that either, learn something new every day. A couple observations though. 1. the efficacy of reverse trendelenberg has been pretty much dismissed in all the literature I've seen and in my clinical practice so I really don't use it. 2. the conclusions state that there was a difference but not statistically significant in the trendelenberg position but then goes on to say "significant errors occur when subjects are in nonsupine positions." So... which is it? 3. Is the slight difference between the position of the aortic root and the phlebo axis going to be clinically significant?

Got blasted last night from a couple people who supported the union from the beginning. Said I was jumping on the bandwagon and in their opinion couldn't hold any position of responsibility since I wasn't in it from the beginning. Tried to tell them that I was adapting to a new situation but they couldn't understand that. Ignorance like that is hard to combat. Neither one of them had any idea that 2 positions will be decided, 1 for bargaining council and 1 for union rep. Neither one had any idea what the responsibilities of _either_ position entail. And they tell me they're "going to run for something because we deserve it." This is going to be fun. :)

vlynnieg- it was a Filipino guy named Erik. Smug and arrogant as hell, didn't get too far with him without getting pretty uptight. Some of my colleagues reported the "home visit" as well. Too bad they didn't come knocking on my door.

Thanks, I appreciate it. One of the things that cracked me up when I was duking it out with the organizers was, when asked how the unit rep would be chosen the reply was "sounds like you'd be a pretty good one." If chosen I plan to try my best to keep everyone honest.

I voted "no," but as I said, they're here now and have to be dealt with. Many of my fellow staffers aren't going to join but I can't do that. The only way to have a voice, IMHO, is to be involved. I'm not going to let someone else make crucial decisions about the course of my professional life without input from me so not only am I joining the union I'm running for shop steward for my unit/shift. Going to another hospital is out of the question. I may not be too keen on the union but I'd rather stay where I am and see where it goes than go back to Tenet any day of the week.

Great info here but not one mention of where the transducer needs to be. Curious. Can't tell you how many times I've been called in to a room by a new nurse in a panic over a pressure reading just to find the transducer hanging off the bed. The answer, of course, is the phlebostatic axis-mid axillary line, 4th intercostal space (ie, in line with the heart). Many folks use armbands to hold the transducer and that's fine but keep in mind that if you turn the patient the reading is false- if the transducer is lower than the heart the reading is falsely high, higher than the heart reads falsely low.

The union got voted into my facility a few weeks ago. Most people I spoke with hadn't done any homework at all- they ate up everything the union was shoveling without hesitation. Of course, the union reps made everything look fantastic and most people didn't take the time to do some fact checking of their own. I did. When confronted with specific examples of union misconduct, financial irregularities, and questions that required an answer that went beyond the script reps tended to raise their voices and dance around the questions as quickly as possible. When I asked about why 47% of the Cypress/Fairbanks staff wanted them gone one of the reps said "it doesn't matter what they think- this is a democracy and we won." Arrogance such as this is offensive to me. The night before the vote a RN from Cyfair was at the facility and told me what a great contract they had negotiated. Soooo..... do they have a contract or not? Healthy debate is one thing, flat out lieing to me is quite another. The hospitals here in TX are in a very strong bargaining position because of the right to work status- they know many people don't support the union or won't pay dues. I expect a protracted contract negotiation that may or may not benefit the staff. Like it or not, they're here and we have to deal with them.

My hospital is about to vote on unionization. The story they tell is of course pretty rosy so I've been looking around for potential negative consequences to unionization and have naturally been reading your posts. I've got to tell you, your credibility with me took a good hit with this drivel. " I like to work steady." Seems to me unionization protects staffing ratios and provides compensation for cancellations. "I've got too much self respect." Are you kidding me? I have too much self respect to blindly follow anyone without finding out the facts for myself but this is just plain insulting.

Thanks for the replies. At our facility charge nurses are considered management and therefore not part of the bargaining unit. We'll just have to see what happens.

I work in an HCA facility that has union reps on site now in prep for a vote by staff to unionize or not. The question is for charge nurses in unionized facilities. It seems to me that the hospital wouldn't be able to deny most of the salary, PTO etc gains made by the union to charge nurses or there would be a large scale revolt by the charges. Do any of you have experience with this? If you're a charge have you also been given salary increases to keep par with staff RNs? I just don't see a scenario where staff RNs are making more than charge RNs.

How much time did I spend sitting in the last week? lol, ummm... not much at work, that's for sure.

I wouldn't honor those orders. If you do, you're placing your license and liability right on the line with hers. I also feel as if I would have an ethical obligation to call the state board and put a stop to it. Of course, both she and the surgeon are exposing themselves to millions of dollars in malpractice suits not mention loss of license, etc. If your facility is aware of it, they risk losing accreditation. JCAHO would have a field day with this one.