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.
Do you actually think by being union, management is gonna respect you. If they didn't before they won't now either. You can't NEGOTIATE RESPECT either.
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Speaking only for myself here.... but I don't need a union to negotiate respect. I need them to negotiate hours of work, pay, benefits, floating language, etc. I don't negotiate for respect through a union. I command that all on my own
Try googling the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, California to find daily midnight census and acuity as reported to Medicare.
Staffing and patient care has improved at every hospital I know of. Mine is now quite good. The struggle continues because they do keep thinking up schemes.
I don't know or care what the number or my amazing RN colleagues have green cards or came from Kentucky. Many are United States citizens from the Philippines whose fathers served in the United States armed forces in WWII.
I don't even understand why the question was posed.
I guess you could google the 2000 United States Census.
I do know most foreign nurse graduates working in California were educated in Canada. How many have dual citizenship, no idea.
I wasn't asking for hospital census I was asking for the overall increase in the California census. Has the increase in RN's kept pace with that.
I was looking for all the facts and figures here not just the one's to back up one side of this issue.
Interesting that that most of the foreign grads are Canadian. A rather highly unionized country.
Also, one can throw out all the statistics that doesn't change people's basis feeling about an issue.
I've read the initiatives also and it seems California has stepped up it's educational opportunities. The STATE of California that is.
Speaking only for myself here.... but I don't need a union to negotiate respect. I need them to negotiate hours of work, pay, benefits, floating language, etc. I don't negotiate for respect through a union. I command that all on my own
Nurses are the most respected profession becausee our responsibility is to our patients not the "industry".
At my hospital we build on previous accomplishments with our practice committee.
One example - We only do conscious sedation if we are competent. We have no other responsibilities. No other patient responsibilities. No assisting a physician with a procedure if there is a possibility our attention would be distracted.
This was in response to management putting out a memo requiring all RNs to watch a 15 minute video, sign a paper, and then perform conscious sedation whenever and wherever they want.
SO WE, not one nurse alone, worked with the BON and our nursing management to force the hospital to write and implement a policy and procedure that protects out patients and our license.
They come up with some new idea so WE need to be vigilant.
No "Shared Governance" committee could have the same ability to change decisions that are not in the best interests of our patients.
How do you do improve staffing and patient care for your patients, community, and state without a union?
We earned that respect because people know we are there for them. It is direct care nurses who earn respect caring for our patients and clients.
And how respected would be be if the public found our just how badly nurses dropped the ball, when hospitals, in the 1990's started the "care redesign" nonsense, and deskilling at the bedside? And how we stood around helpless, watching patient acuity going wild, and any measure of safe staffing levels went to hell in a handbasket. And through the while thing, we allowed ourselves to remain powerless. How many patients died, or just had bad outcomes because of what our powerless allowed to go on at the bedside? NO ONE RESPECTS A PUSHOVER. I know that I would be furious if some one in my family died or had a bad outcome because of this mess. And I think that it is part of the problem. Nurses don't want the public to know just how badly we screwed up. And how WE are responsible for this much of this mess. We are just now putting some of the pieces back together again. It will take years to get back to base line for patient care.
I know how hard CNA worked for years to make the staffing rations come to fruition. Unfortunately, too many nurse work in "right to work" (for less), and/or very anti union states, and fear for their jobs, and reputation.
The education to change the mindset has to start with the first year classes in nursing school, to educate nurses what theit rights are.
I have toyed with the idea of coming up with a nursing school curiculum, that would start out as a basic Employment Law class for nurse. Progress it to a class in becoming an independant contract worker for a hospital, like the ER and anesthesia docs are. Starting practice groups like physicians do. PTs and OTs have classes while in school to learn these things. That is why so many of them now open free standing clinics to offer their services. They bill insurance companies, medicare and medicaid. In othe words, it tells them from day one that their skills are worth $$$ in the marketplace.
This would give new nurses the idea that their skills and education have a very marketable value to hospitals and the public. This way they will come out of school with a very diferent mindset than new grads now. And "breed out" the "martyr marys" that permeate nursing. JMHO.
Nurses are the most respected profession becausee our responsibility is to our patients not the "industry".
At my hospital we build on previous accomplishments with our practice committee.
One example - We only do conscious sedation if we are competent. We have no other responsibilities. No other patient responsibilities. No assisting a physician with a procedure if there is a possibility our attention would be distracted.
This was in response to management putting out a memo requiring all RNs to watch a 15 minute video, sign a paper, and then perform conscious sedation whenever and wherever they want.
SO WE, not one nurse alone, worked with the BON and our nursing management to force the hospital to write and implement a policy and procedure that protects out patients and our license.
They come up with some new idea so WE need to be vigilant.
No "Shared Governance" committee could have the same ability to change decisions that are not in the best interests of our patients.
How do you do improve staffing and patient care for your patients, community, and state without a union?
The quickest and best way for anything.
Knowledge deficeit. Without KNOWLEDGE you can't understand anything.
Require a BSN for every nurse, yes grandfather those in ACUTE CARE with 10 plus years of experience.
Make nursing an appreticeship. CNA for 1 year, LPN for 1-2 years and then BSN. All in ACUTE CARE. That will cull those who don't love the profession and don't want to be in it.
Give the nurse what she needs and WANTS. Right out of the gate. EDUCATION.
Make her a professional. Professionals demand and expect respect. And they get without having to pay monetary dues.
The money will follow and so will the staffing.
Nurses will be proud to hold up their heads knowing they can go toe to toe with any other professional they met in their career.
Spend some of those UNION dues on faculty in this country so men and women ( sorry I had to put one first and the other second) can attend universities and colleges to become professional nurses. So they don't have to be on a waiting list. Are computer science majors on a waiting list in this country?
Give the nurses of this country the education they deserve. Don't hand it to them on silver platter. The cream of the crop will rise.
Knowledge deficeit. Without KNOWLEDGE you can't understand anything.
Require a BSN for every nurse, yes grandfather those in ACUTE CARE with 10 plus years of experience.
Make nursing an appreticeship. CNA for 1 year, LPN for 1-2 years and then BSN. All in ACUTE CARE. That will cull those who don't love the profession and don't want to be in it.
Give the nurse what she needs and WANTS. Right out of the gate. EDUCATION.
Make her a professional. Professionals demand and expect respect. And they get without having to pay monetary dues.
The money will follow and so will the staffing.
Nurses will be proud to hold up their heads knowing they can go toe to toe with any other professional they met in their career.
Spend some of those UNION dues on faculty in this country so men and women ( sorry I had to put one first and the other second) can attend universities and colleges to become professional nurses. So they don't have to be on a waiting list. Are computer science majors on a waiting list in this country?
Give the nurses of this country the education they deserve. Don't hand it to them on silver platter. The cream of the crop will rise.
NO UNION IS A GOOD UNION.
How come I've been reading about the BSN entry for four decades and the 85% of nurses who are not unionized have not accomplished it yet?
WE voted ourselves a dues increase part of which goes toward scholarships for CNA's and LVNs to earn their RN and for RNs to get their BSN.
Just here in Los Angeles we have sent members to grad school consistantly.
Here is one of my friends who took advantage of this.
I know how hard CNA worked for years to make the staffing rations come to fruition. Unfortunately, too many nurse work in "right to work" (for less), and/or very anti union states, and fear for their jobs, and reputation.
The education to change the mindset has to start with the first year classes in nursing school, to educate nurses what theit rights are.
I have toyed with the idea of coming up with a nursing school curiculum, that would start out as a basic Employment Law class for nurse. Progress it to a class in becoming an independant contract worker for a hospital, like the ER and anesthesia docs are. Starting practice groups like physicians do. PTs and OTs have classes while in school to learn these things. That is why so many of them now open free standing clinics to offer their services. They bill insurance companies, medicare and medicaid. In othe words, it tells them from day one that their skills are worth $$$ in the marketplace.
This would give new nurses the idea that their skills and education have a very marketable value to hospitals and the public. This way they will come out of school with a very diferent mindset than new grads now. And "breed out" the "martyr marys" that permeate nursing. JMHO.
Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN
Spokane, Washington
I like your idea!
Our nurses with RN staff went to dozens of towns and cities in the state educating nurses on their responsibilities and rights.
We developed legislative laisons who went to our state representatives offices in our communities. The staff began to call on us for information on nursing and healthcare.
We learned that knowledge plus unity in collective action equals power.
AND we learned not to give up.
When the Civil Rights Law of 1964 was signed that did not automatically guarantee that us with more melanin would be able to live wherever we could afford to.
It took demonstrations and court cases. Lots of brave people had to press charges right here in "liberal" California when their neighbors burned a cross on their lawn.
Now no one here will admit to agreeing with that mind set.
I work with travelers from Tennessee, Texas, Kentucky, Alabama, even Florida. Oh yes. I was told the "confederates" are a powerful political force in Georgia.
I truly believe the day will come when it is assumed in my beloved country that everyone has a right to healthcare. That those "olden days" of nurses assigned to 10, 12, and 20 patients and unable to even take a meal break were as barbaric as slavery and jim Crow are thought to be now.
What is a union?
We are nurses utilizing the laws of our land to work for better care for our patients, safe working conditions for all of us, and for NURSES to control the nursing department.
Really NOT just in name. Our nurse executives have their dues paid for by the employer. They are beholden to the budget while patients come second.
fergus51
6,620 Posts
Speaking only for myself here.... but I don't need a union to negotiate respect. I need them to negotiate hours of work, pay, benefits, floating language, etc. I don't negotiate for respect through a union. I command that all on my own