Southern Nurses Better Off Than The Rest?

[-jt]

You may not believe this (or maybe you will!) but I just heard that nurses from states in the South (ie: Mississippi) recently stated to other nurses at the national American Nurses Association convention in Philadelphia that:

"there are no problems with staffing and mandatory overtime" in their states.

If that statement is true - great! Maybe they can tell the rest of us how they did it! (I wonder if the nurses working in pt care in the South know how good they supposedly have it there).

But we also heard from the unionized states in the South (GA, FL, KY, AL, WV, NC, to name a few) that there are terrible problems with staffing in that region of the country. Apparently it is just the non-union Southern states that think everything is just peachy at the bedsides in the South.

These RNs are the leaders elected by nurses in their states to speak for nursing to the legislatures, media, & profession as THE voice of nursing in those states, and they are saying that their states nurses have no problems at the bedsides!!

Any RN here from Mississippi who can back that up?? :)

If some of the Southern RN delegates at the convention are really unaware & misinformed (and are misinforming their legislatures & the rest of the country about the real deal that staff RNs are facing in their states), then staff RNs really need to get into those Southern state nurses assoc & give those people an education, or else nothing is going to get any better for the RN at the bedside in those states.

I wonder why they havent heard from the staff nurses about the staffing shortages they are experiencing. Or have they heard & are just not telling the truth to the rest of us? Or is it true as they say that there are no staff shortages??

Anyway, Southern staff nurse BB friends - please clear this up for me - Do you really NOT have a problem with staffing or mandatory OT in your states?????

thanks

[-jt]

I know of 2 VA hospitals there where the RNs are unionized with the North Carolina Nurses Association/UAN. Also, interestingly enough, Duke U & another NC university (I forgot the name) has invited that union to come & present a forum on RN unionization to its nursing schools. For more info, contact one of the NC union delegates to the UAN (& staff RN) - Mike Boucher, MSN, RN (Lillington, NC). He is conducting the presentation -

[email protected]

[Burn NA]

I live near Duke Medical Center, and I worked at the Durham VA a few months ago. In fact, the Durham VA may have been unionized (I really can't remember), but they are still having a very difficult time attracting nurses. Some of the Duke nurses fought hard for one, but it was voted down.

As for the VA, they have excellent starting pay for nurses ($20/hr + differentials), but the environment is less than stimulating. I would HATE to work there, and many of my fellow student nurses feel the same way.

None of the major medical centers are unionized in NC, or places where people would actually want to work (ie. non-governmental).

[nu one]

Here in South Texas, we don't have mandatory OT.Management has come up with a "solution" by offering regular staff almost double the regular pay if they work more that 40 hours per week. Somehow, it has helped solve the shortage. Also, they've hired GVN's who are about to or have just taken their licensure exams. Kinda hard at first, with just one RN , one LVN and two GVNs working a 22-bed floor. But once the GVN's have established their routines and stuff, everything started to run smoothly again.

[live4today, RN]

Originally posted by NRSKarenRN

Cheerfuldoer:

If you don't want to live in NY, can come to Philly burb. Can find nice homes around $120,000 with quality Blue Ribbon schools.

Nurses at Crozer ratify contract---Look what they $$$ won

https://allnurses.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=18964

......With an average base salary of $54,000, Crozer nurses had been seeking a limit to the number of patients assigned to them per shift. The union proposed reducing to 5-to-1 the ratio of patients to nurses in medical and surgical units and 2-to-1 in critical care.

Wages for nurses with one year of experience begin at $25 per hour and increase to $37.54 per hour for nurses at the top of the wage scale. In two years, the range will be $27.22 to $41.38 per hour.......

I wouldn't mind living in Upstate New York area or the Philly suburban areas. I have family up that way......so does hubby since he's from Harrisburg, PA. My daughter lives in Delaware and loves it, plus I have boo-koo relatives in Maryland that I hardly see....some I don't even know......we tend to meet at family reunions when I hear "Didn't you know we were related?" :chuckle

Anyhoo......thanks both of you for the listings posted. BTW: Anyone live in Erie, PA? How is the job market there? :kiss

[-jt]

Thank you everyone for your honest answers. I knew what those nurses were saying about there being no shortages at your Southern bedsides could not be entirely accurate. I have no idea what kind of nursing they practice or if they have even seen a bedside in the last decade. My guess is they are not staff RNs. I hope you all dont mind that I invited others who had heard their comments to come here & read the truth from nurses who know what theyre talking about. Thanks again.

[VickyRN, MSN, DNP, RN]

JT, don't mean to sound flippant, but I have seen FAST FOOD RESTAURANTS with better and more consistent staffing than my CICU!!! The shortage is very real here in this part of North Carolina!!!

[Level2Trauma]

jt,

[NoBrainer]

I can only speak from my own experience about this. And from that experience I can tell you that nursing in the North has been much different from any experience I ever had in the South. I come from Alabama and know of no union in that state. Of course it has been 3 years and I suppose it is possible that one has developed.

In the 7 years I worked as a nurse there, I was only ever mandated for 8 total hours of OT. Lucky for me there happened to be enough people that I worked with who wanted the OT that I just gave it away. It wasn't the walk up to you at the last minute and say "Sorry you can't go home" mandatory OT. It was the "the new people aren't off orientation yet and if everyone will just pick up 4 extra hours this schedule we will get through until they are" kind of overtime.

I worked ICU and ER. Don't remember feeling chronically understaffed. Occasionally a call in went uncovered, but that is life. Was never told I couldn't take a patient upstairs because there was no nurse, perhaps no bed, but never no nurse.

Where I work now there is often no nurse and patients are held in the ED. Also a recent vote has a union representative trying to negotiate an almost 50/50 staff. It was a very close vote. The floors are chronically understaffed and I heard others talking about mandatory OT. When they approached me about it the first time I said, "Well, I can leave here at 7 and come back tomorrow, or I can leave here at 7 and not ever come back." I haven't been pressed about mandatory OT since that time, but I know that others are.

All things being equal, it was nicer being a nurse in the South.

[Sleepyeyes]

Also I should probably add that there is an amost palpable fear of job loss associated with openly criticizing your employer here.

Shortage or no shortage, in our area, we are well aware that the employers would rather fire nurses than hire and pay them. (New nurses make less than more experienced nurses. You get to a certain level, and suddenly---wham! something is trumped up against you or subtle threats are made, and you know you're outta there. I've seen it. In LTC facilities in this area, at least 5 admins and DONs were fired in a six-month period following the new JACHO staffing rules. Why? Because these experienced people made more. They were replaced with newer, less experienced, thus "cheaper" employees.)

This is an at-will state, and if you make a peep, they'll fire you.

Seriously. And there is no one to help you, not even anyone to enforce the labor laws they already have.

If I was younger and I didn't need a steady income, I'd fight it, but I'm not and I can't put my family through a battle.

So fear of retaliation is the main problem with honestly addressing nursing issues in this state, IMHO.

[-jt]

Just this past weekend, RNs on several of our units called to say they were ordered to work mandatory ot for the next shift because someone was on vacation, or someone was on disability, or someone was on family medical leave - and had been - so the staffing hole on the schedule was well known for a month in advance from when their schedules were first posted with the shortages already there. But 2 hrs before the end of the day shift, RNs were being told they couldnt leave because they now had to fill those holes. Well, in our contract, mandatory ot is severely restricted to external disasters and unplanned staffing emergencies only (like if the whole shift on one unit got the flu at the same time & called in sick for that night). And even then, management has to provide us with proof that they were unable to hire agency, float from another unit within the division, obtain volunteers for ot, or bring in our per diems. Having someone on disability for a month is not a disaster or unplanned shortage. They had a months notice to plan for that shortage. So when this clause of the contract was read to the supervisor that day, she had to cancel the mandatory OT order or be in violation. She cancelled the mandatory OT without even so much as an argument & those who didnt want to work OT were able to go home at the end of their shift. RNs who were off that night & had previously placed themselves on an availability list for voluntary ot were called & worked instead.

[sunshine3630]

North, South, East or West it doesn't matter. We're all in the same boat! If you read any recent research literature, the average vacancy rate is 10-11%. I believe I read Georgia has the worst (some areas being 20-22%). It would be nice to see nurses as a whole pull together and do some serious brain storming. There is well over 2 million of us--power in numbers. Ladies and Gent's were are only at the beginning. With baby boomers needing more health care & baby boomer nurses retiring, it is going to be rough!! If we don't fix it ourselves, somebody else will and I don't think that will be pretty

[nimbex, RN]

WOW, this has all been said so difinatively!!!!

In the south we have a serious nurse shortage. Few hospials are unionized, almost all are right to work states.... "we'll fire you on a heart beat.... you owe us your life meanwhile".

In NC, Fayetteville, we are required 12 hours of call in a two week period, we work 3 12 hr. shifts..... This is MANDATORY OVERTIME. ANYONE WORKING CALL IS WORKING MANDATORY OVERTIME..... smarten up!

At anytime you are displeased and feel the need to alert administration be advised you can easily be terminated.

Must admit, despite the mandatory call/ overtime... hospital looks out for nurses best they can... staffing is not always ideal... but they try, hence the call system.

In fayetteville we have no union, but really don't need one..... Came from NY where you HAD to be union to work... didn't do a thing but prepetuate troubled employees and made them impossible to fire

Have seen both sides.... My hospital is opting for a nurse chosen float pool which should pay $55. plus per hour..... what we are paying agency... the nurse signs on for a select day to take call. The areas she/he chooses ICU... Step down's.... floor's... then if they are needed they are floated to the area in need of help. this would be voluntarty, but you know you can end up in one of several places you choose.

This eliminates the mandatory OT and gives those who want OT at premium rates the CHOICE to CHOOSE.

We have a CEO and COO who listen now to nurses needs... maybe all you need to call your board of directors or governing board and demand the support you deserve...

I now have it..... it is invaluable

Carol