Should nurses strike?

[clint]

Should nurses strike? Would you cross the picket line?

[Spidey's mom, ADN, BSN, RN]

Yes, the union reps did dress like that and no, they weren't a nursing union per se . . . .I cannot remember which one it was though. Pretty funny in a farming/logging community to have those guys show up. We voted the union down.

I guess I am lucky here. Rural nursing means the hospital does not have a huge pool of nurses to choose from. They NEED us. So we sorta have them over a barrel so to speak.

Actually, they have responded very well to our needs. When I first started 5 years ago I usually had 8-10 pts (when we were busy) and worked 90-100 hours at times and I was getting burned out fast. After the union vote, we all met with administration and I very bluntly told them I could not continue working the hours I was working, that I had a family and their needs came first. Anyway, long story short . . .we have been staffing by aquities and things are better. Plus, I now work part-time since having a baby two years ago.

If I worked in a large city and encountered the problems you have described, I'd give working within the system a try and then I'd give two weeks notice and find another job. They would have two weeks to call in a traveler.

steph

[pickledpepperRN]

Originally posted by RNstudentK

I just graduated from a highly ranked prestigious University where I studied psychology and I still and will never assume what people are thinking. I am now a nursing student who works very hard. I know what is ahead and I am ready to work long hard hours. What I am not ready for is to leave my patient's bed side when they need me most. We are suppose to be advocates for the Patients...We are not suppose to abandon and neglect people when they need us most. The patients that come in are sick and frightened...they don't need nurses who took the oath to be the patients' advocates leaving them when they are most vulnerable. If you picket....I will be there picking up your slack and taking care of my patients. My point is that nurses go into this profession because they have something that no other profession has....We CARE....How can you care when you are leaving them. There has to be a better solution than to practice negligance.

So does that mean I have no right to protest an assignment to float to pediatrics? I have been an adult nurse in five decades. The fact that I have BLS and PALS does not make a beloved child safe in my care! When told by hospital management, "Go or be fired what to do?

1. Risk the very lives of sick children as the only RN on the unit?

2. Quit the job to avoid being fired?

3. Stay at the hospital ready, willing, and ABLE to care for adults. Leave when told you are fired and therefore trespassing, then file a grievance. Win your job back in arbitration. Tell the above to fellow nurses, propose a ban on floating without validated competency (the law in my state).

4. Give a ten day strike notice when the management refuses to discuss the issue of floating competency at the bargaining table?

It was not me. I was the first test because of having taken PALS This was used to assign me to be charge on pediatrics. It was after the hospital went back to the table, allowed the text of their own licensing regulations to be in the contract with RNs. There was NO STRIKE, but it would have happened if the hospital had refused to agree in writing to follow the law!

I told the supervisor, "I have not been oriented or trained as a peds nurse. This assignment is unsafe. She magically got the nurse manager of peds to come in until a competenct registry nurse could come in. Then we worked there together.

[pickledpepperRN]

Not even the elected Officers of the all RN union would tell the RNs at a facility to strike! Without overwhelming support nurses will not strike. That is good. As the last resort after all other means to force management to do their job of running a hospital have been exhausted almost all nurses will quit or strike. Sad it comes to that.

From the STAFF NURSE GUIDE:

Strike Facts

With CNA, strikes are rare and are typically 1-3 days. A strike is the most

drastic tactic and it is used with caution and careful preparation. Nurses voted

to strike in only 18 CNA contract negotiations out of more than 375 in the past

ten years. In 95% of CNA's negotiations, RNs have successfully negotiated

contracts without strikes.

RNs organize to improve patient care and their working lives and

professionals, not to strike

When RNs do vote to strike, they create mechanisms to ensure the well being of their

patients and the community. These include a Patient Protection Task Force and a ten-day

written strike notice to give the hospital time to prepare.

Strike Facts

With CNA, strikes are rare and are typically 1-3 days. A strike is the most

drastic tactic and it is used with caution and careful preparation. Nurses voted

to strike in only 18 CNA contract negotiations out of more than 375 in the past

ten years. In 95% of CNA's negotiations, RNs have successfully negotiated

contracts without strikes.

RNs organize to improve patient care and their working lives and

professionals, not to strike

When RNs do vote to strike, they create mechanisms to ensure the well being of their

patients and the community. These include a Patient Protection Task Force and a ten-day

written strike notice to give the hospital time to prepare.

Only RNs themselves can decide to strike

CNA organizers, representatives, or other staff do not call strikes. A strike occurs only after

a majority of the represented nurse in your hospital decide to do so in a secret ballot strike

vote.

How CNA Nurses Protect Patients in the Event of a Strike

When CNA RNs strike, they create several mechanisms to ensure the

well-being of their patients and community.

Ten-Day Notice: The nurses give the hospital written notice, ten days in

advance, of their intent to strike as required by law. This is to give the hospital

time to stop admitting new patients and begin the process of transferring

patients who can be safely moved.

Patient Protection Task Force: A task force of RNs meet to help make the

process of patient transfers and hospital phase down go as smoothly as

possible. Several days before the strike begins, the task force will determine

which patients may be safely transferred each day.

Nurse-Controlled Emergency Care: The Patient Protection Task Force will

make a professional nursing assessment of each situation where emergency

assistance is requested after the strike begins and will assign a nurse to

stabilize the patient if necessary.

[donmurray]

RNstudentK, your naivety shines like a beacon through your post. Listen to your experienced elders.

"I just left a job where I taught mentally and behaviorally challenged teenages from the ages of 12 to 18....the next step for these kids was jail or a psych. ward...they had diagnoses of oppositional defiant disorder, ADD, ADHD, schizophrenia, Bipolar and so on. I got verbally abused by these kids and only received $14 an hour. Even though I was a 22 year old female teaching way to many challeged kids at once, I did not complain or give up because I knew these kids needed me. At times I was scared for being a young female among sexual abusers and no one else to support me."

Choosing where to start is difficult....

You were willing to work alone, understaffed, with a dangerous patient group, whilst fearful for your personal safety, being verbally abused, without complaint.

Individuals willing to work under those conditions are a danger to themselves, their patients, and their colleagues, to whom they are held up as an example of how "Good" nurses should behave.

Even with adequate staffing, risk assessment, and security staff, a UK nurse died on a ward (floor?) at the hands of a patient this week. Nurses may be providing a caring service, but they all deserve to go home at the end of their shift, safe and well. If management cannot or will not provide a safe workplace, then a nurse has the right to choose not to enter it. Unions are not just about pay.

[bender73]

donmurray, you said...

"You were willing to work alone, understaffed, with a dangerous patient group, whilst fearful for your personal safety, being verbally abused, without complaint.

Individuals willing to work under those conditions are a danger to themselves, their patients, and their colleagues, to whom they are held up as an example of how "Good" nurses should behave."

Your calling her a danger to herself and her patients? Are you serious? That is one of the most absurd statements I have read. Your taking a person who works with troubled kids and does not complain about hard work and say she is a danger? She is obviously a dedicated teacher and chose to work in an environment that a lot of people would probably be afraid to work in.

You say she is a danger to her colleagues as well?

Absurd. I swear I don't know where some people get their logic!!!

[pickledpepperRN]

Seems like common sense to me that a dead nurse will not be providing any more care!

Who cannot distinguish between "hard work" and "UNSAFE"? Unsafe for the patients and for the staff!

https://allnurses.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5515

Please read the above link to a discussion regarding an RN killed by a patient. Please read below to find what a group of experienced nurses did. I believe the state did uphold common sense as well as the law.

Publication date: 08/19/2002

Nurses are sick of attacks by patients

BY J.K. DINEEN

Of The Examiner Staff

____An alarming number of psychiatric nurses at San Francisco General

Hospital have been brutally attacked by patients in recent months.

____Nurses at the hospital say more than 15 of their co-workers have been

attacked, prompting Supervisor Gavin Newsom to request a hearing on the

matter and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to investigate.

____Newsom, who will bring the issue up at today's Board of Supervisors

meeting, said The City has "an obligation to make sure nurses and doctors feel

safe when they go to work every day."

____"I have a fundamental belief that if you can't protect your staff, what

kind of message is that sending from a management perspective?" Newsom

said.

____OSHA spokesman Dean Fryer said the agency is investigating the

complaints and is examining whether the hospital has "improper safety

communication and workplace safety issues."

____Newsom's action comes after a string of attacks that have put several

nurses out of work.

____In late July, a female nurse working the night shift was "beat down" and

bitten by an immune-compromised patient with hepatitis C, according to

interviews with a half-dozen nurses on the unit. Several days following that

incident, a loaded pistol was found in a patient's duffle bag in Ward 7B.

____"The gun was the line in the sand," said Roland Washington, nurse and

shop steward of Service Employees International Union Local 250. "For most

people, it was like, 'I can't take it any more.'"

____One victim, Karen Briggs, was injured so badly during an attack that it's

unlikely she will ever work again. Briggs and another nurse were attempting to

put a violent patient into wrist restraints on Oct. 30 when she was knocked

down with punches to the jaw and upper body.

____"She hit me so hard in the jaw she knocked my bridge out," said Briggs.

____The assault also dissected Briggs' vertical artery, which caused a blood

clot to form. Briggs, 61, said she consequently lost all vision in her right eye

and her finances have disintegrated to the point where she is filing for

bankruptcy.

____Nurses are hoping the hospital will beef up security, with regular police

rounds through the wards.

____They also want the hospital to invest in a more sophisticated alarm

system -- which would have individual nurses carry mobile alarms for

emergencies -- and want hospital management and the court system to

prosecute assaults more seriously.

____"There are not a lot of them, but there are a few patients who spend all

day saying 'I'm going to kick your ass,'" said Washington. "And then they do

it."

____A hospital spokeswoman said she could not comment on the recent

allegations, and the deputy director of the psychiatric unit did not return calls

on Sunday.

____Ron Bingham, who has been a nurse for 20 years, said patients are

generally younger than they were a decade ago, and more likely to be drug

addicts. He said many come to the unit straight from jail after charges against

them have been dropped.

____"Some days, it feels like a powder keg with all the tension," said nurse Jeff

Gaughan. "The patients are terrified, too. How safe can they feel when they

see the staff getting attacked?"

greg in mass

" A nurse was killed on the job [in Florida]by a patient at a psychiatric

facility. I feel deeply sorry for this nurse and everyone who was involved.

Some people do not realize how violent psychiatric facilities can be. Many

times if you compare a psychiatric facility with a prison, you will see that the

violence levels and injuries on staff and other patients happen more often at

psychiatric facilities. To be honest with you, I'm not surprised that this has

happened. Why? Because I have worked in psyche for many years, and

dangerous things happen often....especially when there is insuffient amount of

staff."

------------------------

jimbob

"Let's hope that no-one else has to die, but I not putting any money on this gamble... Would you?"

-----------------

Amy_psychrn

"I work as an RN on a 14 bed adolescent psychiatric unit. We too have all the safety measures; belongings search of new admissions, no contraband(pt's can't even wear shoes), silverware sign out, etc.

However, it is unfortunate for me to say that I too, have experienced work

place violence. Almost a year ago, a co-worker was sitting with a constant

visual obs pt. who was displaying S&S of psychosis. It was after 9p.m and

there were only 2 staff on due to our census. This staff person was attacked,

punched and kicked several times before the 2nd staff could come to her

defense. Still, there was 15 minutes that went by before they could restrain

this pt. and get to the phone and call for help.

-------------------------

I, also work in an adolescent unit. I work in a state mental hospital.

We use CPI, and it is good, as long as you can trust that your partner is going

along with you. These psych units can be so dangerous, it's scarey.... last

year about this time, I was attacked, by a girl was had managed to pull her

had free out of a restraint cuff (so she had BOTH hands free) during her

rotation cycle, and it took 6 staff to free her hands from my throat and hair. It

wasn't pretty. Not something easy to forget.

-----------------------------------

This staff person is still suffering the consequences of the attack."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2002/07/13/BU204307.DTL&type=printable

Strike averted at 2 hospitals

Tentative contracts with nurses

Victoria Colliver, Chronicle Staff Writer

Saturday, July 13, 2002

©2003 San Francisco Chronicle | Feedback

----------------------------------

URL: http://www.calnurse.org/cna/news/cna.htm

After six days of reducing the number of patients and services in preparation for a potential nurses' strike, St.

Luke's Hospital in San Francisco and its nurses' union have reached a tentative agreement, averting a one-day

walkout next week.

Late Friday afternoon, the nurses also called off a potential July 17 strike at Alta Bates-Summit Medical Center in

Berkeley and Oakland, where 1, 500 nurses work.

[bender73]

spacenurse,

I understand, but how does that make RNstudent a danger to her pts and colleagues? That statement makes little sense and somewhat belittles her.

[Gator,SN]

You say she is a danger to her colleagues as well?

Absurd. I swear I don't know where some people get their logic!!!

bender, where is your logic about this matter?? ANYTIME a therapeutic milieu and effective nurse-patient realtionship cannot be maintained, all parties involves are at risk! The patient, the nurse, the visitors, other patients and her co-workers! Safety is always the number one goal! If this is not acheived, then there is no way to move on to any therapeutic intervention for the client. Since you are a NP you are aware of the effects of ODD and the fact that you would defend, in any manner, the type of working conditions that that RNstudent describes makes me seriously wonder if you even went to nusing school, musch less advanced practice! Hello?? psyche 101.....ring a bell? What did you learn about milieu management?

"Hard work" as you put it, is far from the point in this matter. Ineffective outpatient therapy will eventually land her patients in the very jails and psyche wards that she pretends to want to keep them from. They will not be small children forever.

You stated that you work in an ER, are you implying that in your practice of nursing that when a psyche patient comes into the ER and is verbally aggressive or insulting, you simply "put up with it" because you think that it makes you are good nurse by not saying anything about it? You have done nothing to aid your client or your coworkers, therefor you have contributed to the danger of yourself and others. That is the whole point! The nurse has treatment responsibilites and can be held liable if the patient does not recieve adequate treatment in a timely manner. By the way,Terasoff act sound familiar?? Do you follow the law, or just turn a blind eye?

I cannot believe that RNstudent would be foolish enough to come on here saying shes a psychology major and then actually admit that she has, in the past thrown her patients, (poor sick children) to the wolves with her stupidity and total lack of knowledge and then hide behind, "I work hard and don't complain"....how absurd!

It is a good thing that Rnstudent got out of the facility she worked in....good for the patients and families that is.

I guess I'll just wait and see if she bothers to come up with a response, though I doubt it. You really don't need to defend someone you don't even know bender, you have no clue what is in the mind of another person.

Gator

[pickledpepperRN]

Originally posted by bender73

spacenurse,

I understand, but how does that make RNstudent a danger to her pts and colleagues? That statement makes little sense and somewhat belittles her.

Bender:

I am sorry. I seem to have misunderstood you. Perhaps donmurray did as well.

The situation described was clearly dangerous. That does not mean that the education and experience of nursing school and beyond won't lead to RNstudent being a fine nurse.

[Gator,SN]

WHERE'S CLINT??

[bender73]

No problem spacenurse.

[donmurray]

In some ways, it is about control. The clients are there because they are not in control of themselves in some manner. If you are not in control, as is apparent from the described situation, then anything may happen. If one tolerates a workplace environment such as described without complaint, then while you are there, not only do you place yourself at risk, and the clients, but you perpetuate an unsafe situation, placing your colleagues at risk also.