California Nurses Association may be targeting University of Chicago after Cook County win
If there's a campaign map on the wall at the Oakland, Calif., headquarters of the California Nurses Association, the Chicago area must be ground zero.
Since winning away Cook County's 1,800 nurses from the Illinois Nurses Association, the independent union has linked with nurses at more than 20 Chicago-area hospitals with the goal of organizing a handful of them, union officials say.
One possible target is the University of Chicago Hospitals, where workers from the national organizing arm of the California Nurses have been talking with nurses.
They say they are only helping the 1,300 University of Chicago nurses, who belong to the Illinois Nurses Association. But they do not rule out an eventual organizing drive like the one they successfully staged at Cook County.
The situation is "reminiscent" of what happened with Cook County's nurses, confirmed Fernando Losada, head of Midwest operations for the National Nurses Organizing Committee, the national arm for the California Nurses Association.
Personally, as an RN, this doesn't concern me at all. I care about my working conditions, I don't care about the LVN job market. I work in a critical care area and prefer primary nursing with an all RN staff to team nursing where I have to "cover" an LVNs patients.
Ahh I see....
So...
Even though that I have 4 years critical care experience as an ICU staff nurse... I would be of no value to you? I functioned independently, and did not have RNs "cover me". (Texas has no vocational nurse scope of practice act, and if you have been trained you can do it...or didnt when I was there.)
And many of things in California that you would have to cover me for, you wouldn't have had to, if it werent for the CNA and their campaign to do away with LVNs.
But hey, if CNA members are intellectually honest, and admit that the demise of LVNs in California is one of the goals of the CNA, to excaberate the nursing shortage and further "advance" RN standing and stature...
If they admit that..well then more power to them. At least they will quit trying to play the patient safety-ratios-respect-NURSES have one voice BS.
I was an LVN for many years Six of those in critical care.
The fact is that in California and now in Texas an LVN may not practice independently.
At my hospital our CNA professional practice committee fought to keep our LVNs in telemetry and post partum. The ventilator patients would have to be staffed at 1:2. 1:3, or 1:4 if not for those fine nurses. We can staff two RNs and an LVN for ten of these very high acuity patients. Pluse we have been friends for decades.
Please don't send a new grad LVN because I am responsible for all patients assigned to me.
TEXAS OCCUPATIONS CODE AND STATUTES REGULATING
THE PRACTICE OF NURSING
As Amended September, 2005
Sec. 301.353. Supervision of Vocational Nurse.
The practice of vocational nursing must be performed under the supervision of a registered nurse, physician, physician assistant, podiatrist, or dentist.
[Added by Acts 2005 (S.B. 1000), 79th Leg., eff. May 20, 2005]
LVNs must work under the supervision of an RN, you are correct. But in reality, as long as a pt is taken care of by an RN within a 24 hr period (if an LVN took care of the pt during the day shift, an RN does at night and vice versa) and as long as there is an RN in house and on duty, then an LVN is practically independent.
And LVNs, if they have a cert class, can hang IVs, push IV meds, start IVs, access central lines, etc.
In truth, while it isn't EXACTLY true to say an LVN practices 'independently' here, it is all but fact when the RN has as many pts to keep them busy as the LVN does.
And I have a great deal of respect for some of the LVNs on the 'floor'. I work in critical care and LVNs were 'grandfathered' in with no new LVNs in the unit about 12 yrs ago. We still have 1 'grandfathered' LVN in our unit, and she is as experienced and as much a part of the team as the RNs.
RNs don't really practice independantly either...how many things can you do without a doctors order? So we are also "supervised" by a physician as it calls for for LVNs. I think that an experienced LVN is just as capable of following MD orders, and I would trust some of their assessments over a new grad RN on most days.
Even though that I have 4 years critical care experience as an ICU staff nurse... I would be of no value to you? I functioned independently, and did not have RNs "cover me". (Texas has no vocational nurse scope of practice act, and if you have been trained you can do it...or didnt when I was there.)
And many of things in California that you would have to cover me for, you wouldn't have had to, if it werent for the CNA and their campaign to do away with LVNs.
But hey, if CNA members are intellectually honest, and admit that the demise of LVNs in California is one of the goals of the CNA, to excaberate the nursing shortage and further "advance" RN standing and stature...
If they admit that..well then more power to them. At least they will quit trying to play the patient safety-ratios-respect-NURSES have one voice BS.
Thanks!!!
Yes, I prefer to work with another RN rather than an LVN. That doesn't mean I think you're worthless. Like it or not, RNs have to cover LVNs on my unit. They had to long before CNA got the ratios passed. California is not Texas. That's just the way it is. I realize in some places LVNs can function independently, but not here, not on my unit.
It hasn't exacerbated the nursing shortage in my unit, it's just forced the management to stop hiring cheap LVNs whose scope is severely limited and hire RNs who can do everything the unit needs of them. Patient safety is an issue when I'm expected to have all my patients and cover the LVNs as well. It just increases my workload.
RNs don't really practice independantly either...how many things can you do without a doctors order? So we are also "supervised" by a physician as it calls for for LVNs. I think that an experienced LVN is just as capable of following MD orders, and I would trust some of their assessments over a new grad RN on most days.
Because some LVNs are a capable as most RNs does not give them the same legal authority. Some nursing assistants practice at a very high level also but they are not licensed.
In acute care there is no such thing (legally) as "covering" for an LVN. The RN is responsible for the nursing care for those patients.
In an acute care hospital all patients MUST be assigned to a registered nurse. An LVN may not implement a doctors order unless directed by an RN.
TITLE 22. Social Security
Division 5. Licensing and Certification of Health Facilities, Home Health Agencies, Clinics, and Referral Agencies
Chapter 1. General Acute Care Hospitals
Article 3. Basic Services
§70215. Planning and Implementing Patient Care
(a) A registered nurse shall directly provide:
(1) Ongoing patient assessments as defined in the Business and Professions Code, Section 2725(d). Such assessments shall be performed, and the findings documented in the patient's medical record, for each shift, and upon receipt of the patient when he/she is transferred to another patient care area.
(2) The planning, supervision, implementation, and evaluation of the nursing care provided to each patient. The implementation of nursing care may be delegated by the registered nurse responsible for the patient to other licensed nursing staff, or may be assigned to unlicensed staff, subject to any limitations of their licensure, certification, level of validated competency, and/or regulation.
(3) The assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation of patient education, including ongoing discharge teaching of each patient. Any assignment of specific patient education tasks to patient care personnel shall be made by the registered nurse responsible for the patient.
(b) The planning and delivery of patient care shall reflect all elements of the nursing process: assessment, nursing diagnosis, planning, intervention, evaluation and, as circumstances require, patient advocacy, and shall be initiated by a registered nurse at the time of admission.
(d) Information related to the patient's initial assessment and reassessments, nursing diagnosis, plan, intervention, evaluation, and patient advocacy shall be permanently recorded in the patient's medical record.
I think there is nothing wrong with that if they recognize why unions come into hospitals in the first place. IMO, unions are a response to bad management. If staff feel that they are being treated fairly by management, they will not vote in a union. There are anti-union managers who have kept unions out by treating their staff fairly and I think that's a good thing.
NurseKevin
140 Posts
Ahh I see....
So...
Even though that I have 4 years critical care experience as an ICU staff nurse... I would be of no value to you? I functioned independently, and did not have RNs "cover me". (Texas has no vocational nurse scope of practice act, and if you have been trained you can do it...or didnt when I was there.)
And many of things in California that you would have to cover me for, you wouldn't have had to, if it werent for the CNA and their campaign to do away with LVNs.
But hey, if CNA members are intellectually honest, and admit that the demise of LVNs in California is one of the goals of the CNA, to excaberate the nursing shortage and further "advance" RN standing and stature...
If they admit that..well then more power to them. At least they will quit trying to play the patient safety-ratios-respect-NURSES have one voice BS.
Thanks!!!