I hear so much talk about striking that it scares me to think that there are so many people who would abandon their patients so easily. Maybe in some cases where safety is an issue I could consider striking (after all other methods have failed). I feel that nurses need to stand together more politically but not by striking. There is currently too much fighting between nurses at this point (adn,BSN, MSN, CNA etc.)
When people strike I hear them talk bad about agency workers (scabs). Does this mean you would like to see no one show up??
Does this mean you would like to see your patients suffer??
If so maybe it is time for you to leave nursing....
PhantomRN, what is so funny? The kid was jerking people around about a topic that is striking (pun intended) too close to home these days. Try being the nurse at Brockton, Minneapolis Fairview Hospitals, or any of the other strikes going on right now! He's so green that he doesn't realize how painful the decision is to go on strike!
Not even the strikebreakers are enjoying these strikes-- their companies are jerking them around with unkept promises of money and bonuses! (not that I feel sorry for them- if they choose to cross the picket lines, they get what they deserve!).
PhantomRN, what is so funny? The kid was jerking people around about a topic that is striking (pun intended) too close to home these days. Try being the nurse at Brockton, Minneapolis Fairview Hospitals, or any of the other strikes going on right now! He's so green that he doesn't realize how painful the decision is to go on strike!
Not even the strikebreakers are enjoying these strikes-- their companies are jerking them around with unkept promises of money and bonuses! (not that I feel sorry for them- if they choose to cross the picket lines, they get what they deserve!).
"By posting this discussion I wanted to see how far nurses would divide amongst each other. I wanted to see if there would be prostrike and non strike at first. Then moved toward views of me being a good motivated nurse or a bad nurse. It was funny to see that after posting what some of my accomplishments were people immediately started judging my character without ever knowing me. Some of the speculations were so specific."
have you been reading up on the rules of "How to Be a Troll"?
"By posting this discussion I wanted to see how far nurses would divide amongst each other. I wanted to see if there would be prostrike and non strike at first. Then moved toward views of me being a good motivated nurse or a bad nurse. It was funny to see that after posting what some of my accomplishments were people immediately started judging my character without ever knowing me. Some of the speculations were so specific."
have you been reading up on the rules of "How to Be a Troll"?
I wanted this as an experiment or introduction to a discussion of teamwork and how it plays in the workplace. So I picked a topic that I thought would elicit some strong emotions.
I am growing extremely weary of people who come on this board to express judgemental or divisive views and, after being called on this behaviour, backpedal and pretend it was some sort of social experiment in order to save face.
First, if you were in fact qualified to conduct such an experiment, which I gather from your own postings that you are not, you would know it is extremely unethical to conduct experiments of any kind, including psychosocial ones, on human subjects without their express permission. Secondly, assuming you had the knowledge to extrapolate any sort of data from the responses and analyze them, what are you going to do with that info? Publish it? (Again, unethical without the permission of the participants.) Or was it purely for your own amusement or curiosity?
Sooo---I don't buy it. I think the posters in this thread pinned down, largely from your own responses, pretty accurately who and what you are. Being young, naive, and inexperienced isn't a crime---we all started out there. But it's more than a little presumptious to judge or condemn people who have 20 or 30 times as much experience as you do and have lived and worked through the field's cycles--and evolution--for doing what they can to better working conditions for themselves and their colleagues, and provide safe delivery of patient care.
People come on this board as professionals, to let their hair down, gripe, exchange ideas, information and support, with the expectation that others are here to do the same. I, personally, don't appreciate posters who come here and waste my time trying to start arguments, foment divisiveness, or metaphorically poke me with a sharp stick to see how loud I say ouch. Come here to share, listen and learn, professional to professional, or else just go post some more scatological cartoons on your website.
I wanted this as an experiment or introduction to a discussion of teamwork and how it plays in the workplace. So I picked a topic that I thought would elicit some strong emotions.
I am growing extremely weary of people who come on this board to express judgemental or divisive views and, after being called on this behaviour, backpedal and pretend it was some sort of social experiment in order to save face.
First, if you were in fact qualified to conduct such an experiment, which I gather from your own postings that you are not, you would know it is extremely unethical to conduct experiments of any kind, including psychosocial ones, on human subjects without their express permission. Secondly, assuming you had the knowledge to extrapolate any sort of data from the responses and analyze them, what are you going to do with that info? Publish it? (Again, unethical without the permission of the participants.) Or was it purely for your own amusement or curiosity?
Sooo---I don't buy it. I think the posters in this thread pinned down, largely from your own responses, pretty accurately who and what you are. Being young, naive, and inexperienced isn't a crime---we all started out there. But it's more than a little presumptious to judge or condemn people who have 20 or 30 times as much experience as you do and have lived and worked through the field's cycles--and evolution--for doing what they can to better working conditions for themselves and their colleagues, and provide safe delivery of patient care.
People come on this board as professionals, to let their hair down, gripe, exchange ideas, information and support, with the expectation that others are here to do the same. I, personally, don't appreciate posters who come here and waste my time trying to start arguments, foment divisiveness, or metaphorically poke me with a sharp stick to see how loud I say ouch. Come here to share, listen and learn, professional to professional, or else just go post some more scatological cartoons on your website.
Well said StarGazer...It is critical at this point in our professional development that we are authentic with one another. There are enough adversarial relationships in nursing as it is, without creating more. Let us share openly and honestly. We may learn from one another.
Well seeing as how you are or were in Germany, Moving there is just not an option for me as this point in time. So, I'll stick to doing what I do best and that is take care of my patients.
I live in the southeastern US and we will never have unions down here, however, as long as Northern and western states have theirs and are able to get what they want with collective bargaining, then I say " more power to you". We down here in lovely Alabama are grossly underpaid, very shotstaffed and have absolutley NO SAY about any of the issues that we as nurses feel are important. In the ICU where I work, the big issue was what color scrubs to make everyone change to. I, for one would not walk out as I feel I am the only hope these patients have to quality nursing care, but I have NO qualms about working a strike. If I am going to work like a dog, then I may as well be compensated for it. I look forward to going to California in their upcoming strike. And as I share some of their concerns I think what they are asking for is so far above what the rest of us poor slobs make that it's a joke. They will get what they want because you know the old saying, money talks... If they can put a dent into what these money hungry hospitals make to get their point across then my hat is off to them. Hopefully, it will all come to be my gain.
I have been an RN for 18 years, and have seen the ups and downs of our numbers, but this time the shortage is for real and will not get better. Nursing school enrollment is down by at least 50% and the mean age of an RN is between the late 20's and early 50's. People are getting literally burnt out after so many years and are tired of hospital CEO's making $300,000 a year while they tell us we will have to forgo a raise because medicare revenue is down. What a crock!
Well, that's my spiel on strikes, I will be glad to be a "scab" to insure that these patients are cared for and that I can get out of debt and not be nursing when I'm 60 years old.
weeni-a much better way to ensure that your patients are properly cared for in your part of the world would be to become an activist in your area and do what is neccessary to raise salaries and increase the ratio of licensed staff. Scabbing where other nurses are trying to do something to correct the main problems facing our profession only prolongs the strike and may cause the union to lose its bid for better staffing thru better pay. This helps no one in the long run, and selfishly helps only you in the short one.
If the issues you discuss are truly of concern to you, then stay home and clean up your own backyard-let Cailifornia and the rest of the country do what they have to do to better the situation in THEIR hospitals. Only by working together can the status of nursing improve. And it has to start somewhere. So why not let those brave enough to try do so unimpeded by you? Stay home and work on bettering your own situation, instead of underminining the efforts of others who are willing to work and sacrifice for the betterment of not only themselves, but the profession of nursing.
Jenny P
1,164 Posts
PhantomRN, what is so funny? The kid was jerking people around about a topic that is striking (pun intended) too close to home these days. Try being the nurse at Brockton, Minneapolis Fairview Hospitals, or any of the other strikes going on right now! He's so green that he doesn't realize how painful the decision is to go on strike!
Not even the strikebreakers are enjoying these strikes-- their companies are jerking them around with unkept promises of money and bonuses! (not that I feel sorry for them- if they choose to cross the picket lines, they get what they deserve!).