Schwartznegger on Hannity and Combs tonight..

Nurses Activism

Published

In case anyone is interested, I just saw an ad for Hannity and Combs on Fox News Channel tonight saying that Arnold will be on tonight. In a few minutes, actually. Have no idea what the discussion will be, or if there will be any mention of the situation with nurses.

steph.. :icon_hug: but, not because you are not a manager (just because).

Back at ya . . . :)

Hey, my grandparents are from Arkansas and Oklahoma . .maybe that's where I get my anti-union stance. :) Naw . . . they are actually Democrats and pro-union . . . dear old dad was an ironworker and he voted for Kerry. :)

And I'm pretty sure Tee It Up Tom is from Texas and he loves being a strikebreaker . . . lots of money in it.

I'm not sure we can make generalizations about people . . I'm a Californian but I don't have any palm trees in my front yard. Clint Eastwood does own a ranch nearby though . . hmmmmm .. .

Nevermind-this is making no sense. :coollook:

Carry on ...

steph

My feelings: any nurse who doesn't believe mandating nurse patient ratios is good for the public and good for nursing is NOT a nurse. They are a manager first and foremost...

JMHO.

Totally, 100% agree with this. I am so proud of the Nurses, firefighters, teachers and others that are NOT letting up on him.

....

"He cannot be 'against' nursing unions and still be 'for' nurses" . . . . . .

Just had to remark about the above statement which is of course false.

steph

Hmm. Have to agree to disagree I guess Steph.

Just my simplistic mind working here...but since the CNA is made of nurses... being against a union of nurses is being against nurses...

Unions after all are all about and made up OF its membership. I don't see how one can place them in two neat little stacks apart from themselves.

JMHO again;)

Don't know if you've ever lost a loved one in a hospital environment where the ratio went as high as one RN to 10-12 patients?! Did the loss have something to do with the ratios? Probably contributory - this is a fact. I would never wish this upon anyone (the family or the nurse), but I think you have a lot to learn and experience.

I'll tell you what. When it comes right down to it, the folks who work stikes are simply riding the coattails of those who put their families and their livelihoods on the line to fight for a better environment for themselves and their patients. Healthcare is downright dangerous and frightening in this country and things need to change. IMO, scabs are just "yes" men and women who do what's best for them and them only with no regard for the general principle of what's right or wrong for the nursing and patient population and the community as a whole.

Really, those who detest unions and come here and knock those unions have some nerve! While in the process of fighting for better patient care, the memberships of unions put money in the pockets of scabs and allow scabs to enjoy the cushy work environment that they get when they are utilized by hospitals that don't respect the assessments of the delivery of patient care by the professional nurses who run their hospitals! Hospitals put their patient's lives on the line in this process.

Unions react, they do not create the problems. The hospitals and politicians like arnold create these problems. Unions have done nothing but good for CA nurses and patients. All the unions. CNA is the most public with the largest membership, but there are other unions who protect and serve their membership under the direction of thier membership. They are an avenue for change with proven results. Show me another way and I'm more than happy to consider it.

ERNurse listen, I have respect for anyone who does not wish to belong to a union. That's your choice. I cannot respect your words however. They sting and smack of division.

I dunno, if you can live with yourself, more power to ya! Whether you like it or not, you benefit from unions no matter where you stand.

Look, I am not knocking the unions, if that is how you choose to work then that is fine. All I am saying is don't knock those who decide to actually step up and take care of the pt's when you guys walk away. I am sure that the hospitals that all of you union members work at are wonderful hospitals. Just because we don't have mandatory ratios doesn't mean that our hospitals are not wonderful hospitals. Fortunately in this country we are all able to choose which hospital and which state we work in. Lets all just leave it at that.

Specializes in Critical Care/ICU.
Look, I am not knocking the unions, if that is how you choose to work then that is fine. All I am saying is don't knock those who decide to actually step up and take care of the pt's when you guys walk away. I am sure that the hospitals that all of you union members work at are wonderful hospitals. Just because we don't have mandatory ratios doesn't mean that our hospitals are not wonderful hospitals. Fortunately in this country we are all able to choose which hospital and which state we work in. Lets all just leave it at that.

Mandatory ratios are a MUST throughout this country.

I would feel very comfortable with someone I know being a patient at my hospital and many other hospitals in this area and throughout California. There are places though, that no matter what the ratio was, I would not recommend to even my worst enemy.

There is a thread right now in the general nursing dissusion forum talking about a telemetry unit in Kentucky where nurses will soon be required to take an assignment of 6-7 patients with IV drips (specifically nitro). And you're okay with that? In your little corner of the world, all may be just dandy, but on the whole these types of MAJOR problems and issues with patient safety and the jeopardy of an RN's license are very very real.

We can encourage these nurses to stand together and fight for what's right, but what are the chances of them being heard by an obviously cost cutting or money hungry employer? And worse yet, what are the chances of change actually happening? Historically, next to nil.

So my prediction for this hospital in Kentucky is that the nurses may stand together in defiance of this ridiculus and unsafe idea and will take their concerns to administration. They will be told that they are heard, that their input is appreciated, and that it will be considered. The nurses will come into work one day and find their new assignments awaiting them. They will deal with the change, but only for so long and then they will leave and be replaced by other nurses who also will put up with it for only so long and then they will leave. Some of these nurses leave nursing for good, some just go to take the abuse somewhere else for a while.

No change will happen until an error is made and a patient is severly hurt or killed. Then there's a lawsuit, then things will change. But you know what. The hospital will not take responsibility for the error (their philosphy on ratios)...it will be the nurses fault.

We do not 'just walk away.' You just don't get this. What would you suggest these nurses do?

You do knock unions. And by knocking nursing unions, you are knocking nurses, just like Arnold. I knock union busters because they get in the way of nurses like the ones in Kentucky who try to speak up for themselves and their patients. (I have no way of knowing if this hospital in KY is unionized, but I'm 99.9% sure that they aren't)

Let's just leave it at that.

Specializes in Utilization Management.
Arnold belongs in jail.

Here's the difference between a union and a non-union state.

Arnold defied the law and put off the staffing ratios. He's now being castigated by nurses and the fight is very much in the public eye, thanks to the CNA.

Jeb Bush in Florida, in the meantime, put off the mandated staffing ratios for nursing homes, and we hear.....barely a whisper. If I could find the story on it, I'd put the link up. But I can't even find a story on it.

Just this:

http://www.ltcombudsman.org/archives/363_1792_10907.cfm

Staffing

18. FL governor seeks to delay staffing ratio increases - again

Advocates in Florida are working hard to ensure that residents receive the 2.9 hours of certified-nursing assistant care per day that a state law passed in 2001 requires. In 2001, Florida legislators limited the ability of nursing home residents and their families to sue, in return for increasing the staffing minimum to 2.9 hours per day within 3 years. Since 2001 the staffing levels have risen from 1.7 hours a day per resident to 2.6. Last year the increase to 2.9 hours was delayed, and this year Governor Jeb Bush is urging lawmakers to hold off again. Barbara Hengstebeck, Executive Director of the Coalition to Protect America's Elders and President of the National Citizens' Coalition for Nursing Home Reform, contends that because the nursing home industry has enjoyed financial benefits from legal protections, and has received more money from the state in recent years, nursing homes should be able to afford to implement the staffing increases even without more state spending. In a guest column in the Sun Sentinel, Hengstebeck also points out that last month's issue of Senior Care Investor cited profit returns of 131% to 616% in the long-term care market.

Source: Sun-Sentinel, February 2 & 14, 2005

So there ya go.

Specializes in Oncology/Haemetology/HIV.

There is a thread right now in the general nursing dissusion forum talking about a telemetry unit in Kentucky where nurses will soon be required to take an assignment of 6-7 patients with IV drips (specifically nitro). And you're okay with that? In your little corner of the world, all may be just dandy, but on the whole these types of MAJOR problems and issues with patient safety and the jeopardy of an RN's license are very very real.

So my prediction for this hospital in Kentucky is that the nurses may stand together in defiance of this ridiculus and unsafe idea and will take their concerns to administration. They will be told that they are heard, that their input is appreciated, and that it will be considered. The nurses will come into work one day and find their new assignments awaiting them. They will deal with the change, but only for so long and then they will leave and be replaced by other nurses who also will put up with it for only so long and then they will leave. Some of these nurses leave nursing for good, some just go to take the abuse somewhere else for a while.

No change will happen until an error is made and a patient is severly hurt or killed. Then there's a lawsuit, then things will change. But you know what. The hospital will not take responsibility for the error (their philosphy on ratios)...it will be the nurses fault.

We do not 'just walk away.' You just don't get this. What would you suggest these nurses do?

I have worked assignments where I had 12 patients, including a "stable" vent (18years old with an unstabilized C1-C2 fracture) chemos like Taxol and Retuxin (high risk for lifethreatening reactions) to be hung, Q1 hr accuchecks for an insulin drip (patient had no fingers, and no usable feet - we used the forearms).

Facilities will work in that "one stable vent" or that "you will only have to run chemo at night for an emergency", it you can do it just this once, and then it occurs day after day after week after year.

Specializes in Critical Care/ICU.
Jeb Bush in Florida, in the meantime, put off the mandated staffing ratios for nursing homes, and we hear.....barely a whisper. If I could find the story on it, I'd put the link up. But I can't even find a story on it.

  • 3 years Period by which Florida legislators promised to boost nursing staff in exchange for caps on damages.
  • $64 million Total Florida Governor Jeb Bush expected to save in urging legislators to hold off paying for the promised increase in nursing staff.
  • $3.1 million Basic compensation of market-leading Beverly Enterprises CEO William Floyd. (Beverly no longer in FL as of 2002)
  • $19,282 Median annual salary of a certified nurse assistant.
  • 4.55 Recommended minimum hours of direct nursing care per resident day.
  • 3.6 Actual hours of direct nursing care per resident day.

http://www.atla.org/ConsumerMediaResources/Tier3/press_room/FACTS/medmal/NursingHomeIndustry.aspx#fn

Advocates in Florida are working hard to ensure that residents receive the 2.9 hours of certified-nursing assistant care per day that a state law passed in 2001 requires.

Yep. Jeb Bush is a dirty, dirty politician. And you were right Angie, it's very difficult to find anything about this.

What's happened in this country? Or has it always been so corrupt and I've just grown older and wiser and now recognize it?

We had a nurse come to work with us. She was from a FL cardiothoracic ICU. She would tell horror stories of having 3-4 intubated usually fresh post-op patients. In watching her work, she did only the very basics and NEVER did oral care or suctioning. Hardly ever turned her patients without prompting from someone else. She did acclimate to our unit after several months, but it was very eye-opening. Some nurses kinda ragged on her for a while until she opened up. I never thought she was a bad nurse, I just think that she wasn't used to providing excellent, thorough care.

This scares the heck out of me. I feel pretty safe for my immediate family here in CA, but I have loved ones all over the country and have already had a terrible experience with piss-poor care in a hospital in another state.

What do we do? People need to be aware of this. It's truely, truely not only about pay and retirement and benefits. It's about patient care. I think hospitals deserve to get the crap sued out of them because of this. It's not nursing. It's what nursing has to work with and the odds nursing works against.

Specializes in ER, ICU, L&D, OR.

Jeb needs to follow in his brothers shoes :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

You do knock unions. And by knocking nursing unions, you are knocking nurses, just like Arnold. I knock union busters because they get in the way of nurses like the ones in Kentucky who try to speak up for themselves and their patients. (I have no way of knowing if this hospital in KY is unionized, but I'm 99.9% sure that they aren't)

Let's just leave it at that.

I am not going to argue with you over what I am for and what I am against. No, I don't support telemetry nurses having a ratio of 1 nurse to 6-7 telemetry patients. However, in nursing school nurses are taught to be advocates for our patients, not have someone else be the advocate for us. Part of the role of nurses needs to be to take some responsibility in getting things changed that they are unhappy with. Write to legislators, be politically active in trying to get things changed. This is what I believe we can do. If you want to pay someone else to do that for you, more power to you. I believe in mandatory staffing ratios, I think they are a necessity. I just think that there is better ways to go around it. I am a nurse, one of the few that seems to have become a nurse because I do care and I do want to make a difference so why would I be "knocking nurses" as you say I am

Specializes in Med/Surg, Geriatrics.

We can encourage these nurses to stand together and fight for what's right, but what are the chances of them being heard by an obviously cost cutting or money hungry employer? And worse yet, what are the chances of change actually happening? Historically, next to nil.

So my prediction for this hospital in Kentucky is that the nurses may stand together in defiance of this ridiculus and unsafe idea and will take their concerns to administration. They will be told that they are heard, that their input is appreciated, and that it will be considered. The nurses will come into work one day and find their new assignments awaiting them. They will deal with the change, but only for so long and then they will leave and be replaced by other nurses who also will put up with it for only so long and then they will leave. Some of these nurses leave nursing for good, some just go to take the abuse somewhere else for a while.

No change will happen until an error is made and a patient is severly hurt or killed. Then there's a lawsuit, then things will change. But you know what. The hospital will not take responsibility for the error (their philosphy on ratios)...it will be the nurses fault.

We do not 'just walk away.' You just don't get this. What would you suggest these nurses do?

That is exactly the way it will happen. Exactly. I have seen it happen over and over again. And to help administration out, there will be some rank-and-file nurses who will say, "well somebody has to do it" and "that's why we're here to work" and my fave, "some of ya'll are just lazy, we used to do this all the time".

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