A strike during the past two days by 18,000 nurses at Kaiser Permanente facilities in northern and central California, including three major Sacramento-area hospitals, was the latest salvo by a powerful union that says it is intent on improving the lot of nurses nationwide.
Strikes and protests took place in 16 states and Washington, D.C., where nurses held a vigil outside the White House on Wednesday. The centerpiece of the action was the California strike against 86 Kaiser facilities in nearly two dozen cities including, Fresno, Stockton and Oakland, on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The California Nurses Association has used such mass walkouts in recent years to pressure Kaiser and other hospitals on a variety of work issues. This week, the group and its umbrella organization, National Nurses United, said they called the strike to bring attention to the dangers nurses face dealing with Ebola cases – and what union leaders say is an erosion of patient care under large health organizations.
Even after two nurses in Dallas were infected by an Ebola patient, many hospitals still lack full-body protective suits and sufficient training to deal with potential Ebola cases, said Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of the California Nurses Association and National Nurses United...
My mother is a teacher. She works normal day shift. She gets EVERY weekend off. She can have a life outside of work. She gets summers off. Her stress level is much lower than mine teaching 5th graders. Lives are not on the line. She has a government pension waiting for her at the end of her career plus a supplemental 403b. Her employer paid for her Master's 30+ credits.
Anyhow, I don't see that teaching is nearly as raw of a gig as nursing. Anyone can become a teacher.
Nursing schools actively work to wash people out.
Different mentalities for different industries.
Teaching is unionized. Nursing in much of the nation is not.
Teaching is a government job. Nursing is not in much of the nation.
Teaching has tenure and job security. Nursing does not in much of the nation.
Teaching has a defined pension plan. Nursing does not in much of the nation.
Teaching is publicly/government funded. Nursing is a mix of private and public monies.
The benefits package teachers in my state get is amazing compared to my hospital's health insurance plan which excludes a vision component.
I am a military vet. The military asks a lot, but gives you the tools you need to succeed. I don't feel nursing is on par with this. Making nursing and hospital nursing into a for profit venture, which it has become has not made the system work well for anyone. Our outcomes are horrible for the amount of money we spend per pt.
It would be nice if my hospital properly funded retirement, but they don't. I know people in their late 60s who will work until they die or can't work anymore because they have no retirement. I know our hospital used to have a pension plan, but that no longer exists. So it seems most of these folks are broke and cannot retire, but their bodies will give out on them at some point. It is a sick way of looking at the world. Essentially, management wants to own you by under funding you so you'll always be owned. it's another form of power and control.
My mother is a teacher. She works normal day shift. She gets EVERY weekend off. She can have a life outside of work. She gets summers off. Her stress level is much lower than mine teaching 5th graders. Lives are not on the line. She has a government pension waiting for her at the end of her career plus a supplemental 403b. Her employer paid for her Master's 30+ credits.
Anyhow, I don't see that teaching is nearly as raw of a gig as nursing. Anyone can become a teacher.
Nursing schools actively work to wash people out.
Different mentalities for different industries.
Teaching is unionized. Nursing in much of the nation is not.
Teaching is a government job. Nursing is not in much of the nation.
Teaching has tenure and job security. Nursing does not in much of the nation.
Teaching has a defined pension plan. Nursing does not in much of the nation.
Teaching is publicly/government funded. Nursing is a mix of private and public monies.
The benefits package teachers in my state get is amazing compared to my hospital's health insurance plan which excludes a vision component.
I am a military vet. The military asks a lot, but gives you the tools you need to succeed. I don't feel nursing is on par with this. Making nursing and hospital nursing into a for profit venture, which it has become has not made the system work well for anyone. Our outcomes are horrible for the amount of money we spend per pt.
It seems like this is a "divide and conquer"" attitude. Nurses vs teachers. The middle class at each other's throats with the 1% high fiving each other, having successful redirected the problem.
50% of teachers leave the profession in the first five years. It must not be such an easy job after all.
Not everyone can be teacher. Not everyone has the skill set. Not everyone can be a nurse either.
Teachers and nurses are both service professions that would benefit if the for profit privateers would leave them both alone. The same business model that is destroying health care...and is also bent on doing that to public education too in case you haven't heard. Just ask any public school teacher or school nurse in the state of Wisconsin. For profit charter schools are popping up all over. Teach for America says anyone can be teacher with minimal training. Teachers unions are under attack nearly everywhere, and these unions also often represent school nurses.
The problem is not middle class people. The problem is that the top 1% is making the rules for the rest of us. As they get more and more, we are asked to do more with less. It doesn't affect me. I'm retired from a long career, and now work as a substitute school nurse when I feel like working. I am concerned for my grandchildren and great grandchildren's futures..and I have both nurses and teachers in my family.
I don't know of any non-management position (nursing, teaching, factory, etc) that is a cake walk. We are all busting our butts, (or at least most of us anyway.. there are the lazy ones out there) not getting paid enough, losing our good benefits, expected to work miracles with the limited staffing and supplies available, all so that the almighty admin's get their full pay and bonuses. I'm just sick of it! I work in one of the states where they have obliterated pretty much all unions. We have allowed ourselves to get into this position and must claw our way back to the top. I don't have all the answers, but I do know things won't improve until we all start working together.
Having been in management, I can assure you that it wasn't a cake-walk by any means. Being judged on the performance of other people can be incredibly frustrating.
I hear it before, and I believe it-nursing WILL be the next nursing BOOM as the corporization (my word) it healthcare continues to tear it's ugly head in it's 20th year (at least in my area)...
lindarn
1,982 Posts
If you are not being paid for not taking a lunch break, I would report them to the Labor Board.
Lindarn, BSN, CCRN (ret)
Somewhere in the PACNW