Unions in NJ

jaimealmostRN · Mar 9, 2004

Anybody??? Does anyone know any websites I could check out at least? :)

bayadanurse · Mar 15, 2004

This link gives you info on NJ hospitals. I'm not sure if it will tell you if they're union but it does give you lots of info on the individual hospitals and links to the hospitals. http://www.hospitallink.com/hospitals/NJ/

DNRme · Apr 20, 2004

I just began working at a unionized hospital, something I never thought I would do. Having the union here was a draw for me. The other place I work (I stayed per diem) has abused the staff so much with things like mandatory OT on the posted schedule, no raise for >2 years. I stayed per diem, though, because I need to make sure I have someplace to work in case of a strike.

The union dues are high here, 1% of your salary. I am not sure what that buys me yet. Hopefully, though, you have support in difficult situations. The bottom lie is that the hospital can still do whatever it wants or needs to do, they just have to follow procedures. There seems to be less favoritism because seniority is EVERYTHING.

I work at Jersey Shore. I think it's the only union hosp. in Monmouth County. I also know that St. Barnabas in West Orange and Southern Ocean County (Barnegat?) are union.

Good Luck

rnmaven · Apr 20, 2004

Hello all,
Does anyone know which hospitals are unionized in New Jersey? If you work at one of the hospitals, what is your opinion on that specific union situation. Thanks so much in advance.

I know Jersey Shore uses HPAE union....St. Barnabas and Robert Wood Johnson. I know there are more but those are the three I'm most familiar with. Personally, I have a problem with unions taking 1 to 1.5% of my earnings for their dues......I should kill myself for OT and they reap the benefits? It doesn't make sense. Quite honestly, in NJ I don't see them doing much for nurses. Alot of money being paid to them and very little benefits coming back.

jaimealmostRN · Apr 21, 2004

I work at Jersey Shore. I think it's the only union hosp. in Monmouth County. I also know that St. Barnabas in West Orange and Southern Ocean County (Barnegat?) are union.
Good Luck

Hi, and thanks for replying! Jersey Shore is my 1st choice in NJ once graduation gets here (knock wood). :balloons: Can you tell me a little bit about it? Do you know anything about their emergency dept.? Any inside info you care to share (ie. cafeteria food, mng't situations, basic salary ranges,etc?). Thanks for the help, it seems you may be the only one on this bb who works there! :)

rnmaven · Apr 21, 2004

Hi, and thanks for replying! Jersey Shore is my 1st choice in NJ once graduation gets here (knock wood). :balloons: Can you tell me a little bit about it? Do you know anything about their emergency dept.? Any inside info you care to share (ie. cafeteria food, mng't situations, basic salary ranges,etc?). Thanks for the help, it seems you may be the only one on this bb who works there! :)

Dear jaimealmostRN,

Congratulations on almost graduating.......I take it that if you are interested in Jersey Shore you must live in the Monmouth County area. I have worked there but with the agency. My background is critical care so I mostly worked in the CTICU, MICU, CCU and Trauma/SICU units. They placed me in the ER once.....it's just not my thing. If you want to work ER.......be careful and take an internship that trains you well to work there......I wouldn't want to be a new grad learning in an ER.

If I were to be tied to the Monmouth County area.......JSUMC would be my pick too to work staff......they have excellent nursing standards and over the years I can say that most of the nurses I have known or worked with from that hospital were excellent! Good luck on your job search post graduation.

lee1 · Apr 21, 2004

Dear jaimealmostRN,
Congratulations on almost graduating.......I take it that if you are interested in Jersey Shore you must live in the Monmouth County area. I have worked there but with the agency. My background is critical care so I mostly worked in the CTICU, MICU, CCU and Trauma/SICU units. They placed me in the ER once.....it's just not my thing. If you want to work ER.......be careful and take an internship that trains you well to work there......I wouldn't want to be a new grad learning in an ER.
If I were to be tied to the Monmouth County area.......JSUMC would be my pick too to work staff......they have excellent nursing standards and over the years I can say that most of the nurses I have known or worked with from that hospital were excellent! Good luck on your job search post graduation.

Be careful if you are doing critical care. Jersey Shore in particular makes their nurses take 1:3 ratios in their ICUs. What is great about that???

AACN has never recommended that kind of ratio. 1:2

HPAE is one large union in NJ.

NYSNA has several hospitals I think.

PACE has RWJUH

JNESO has UMDNJ I think.

It is better to work for union hospital as an RN. Layoffs are coming to one particular central NJ hospital however.

rnmaven · Apr 21, 2004

Be careful if you are doing critical care. Jersey Shore in particular makes their nurses take 1:3 ratios in their ICUs. What is great about that???
AACN has never recommended that kind of ratio. 1:2
HPAE is one large union in NJ.
NYSNA has several hospitals I think.
PACE has RWJUH
JNESO has UMDNJ I think.
It is better to work for union hospital as an RN. Layoffs are coming to one particular central NJ hospital however.

The last time I worked at JSUMC was in July of 2003. At least at that time, the staffing in all of the critical care units was 1:2. It was rare that it was 1:3.....for awhile they were staffing 1:3 in the MICU/CCU but unsafe staffing documents went into administration and the union.....a real effort was made to assure 1:2 ratio. Now, another hospital in the system routinely had 1:3 in their ICU.......went there for 3 weeks and didn't go back. It just can't be done these days.......I don't care what the accuity level is......if the patient is in ICU there is an expectation of care to be rendered and the documentation is very time consuming.

If I didn't need to make more money than is paid by JSUMC, I would gladly take a staff job there. I just can't afford a cut in pay and continue to live in Monmouth County. It's as simple as that!

jaimealmostRN · Apr 21, 2004

Dear jaimealmostRN,
Congratulations on almost graduating.......I take it that if you are interested in Jersey Shore you must live in the Monmouth County area. I have worked there but with the agency. My background is critical care so I mostly worked in the CTICU, MICU, CCU and Trauma/SICU units. They placed me in the ER once.....it's just not my thing. If you want to work ER.......be careful and take an internship that trains you well to work there......I wouldn't want to be a new grad learning in an ER.
If I were to be tied to the Monmouth County area.......JSUMC would be my pick too to work staff......they have excellent nursing standards and over the years I can say that most of the nurses I have known or worked with from that hospital were excellent! Good luck on your job search post graduation.

Hey! Thanks so much for the advice, I'll take all I can get at this point. All your ICU expirience is quite impressive, I actually think that would be more difficult for a new grad than the ER JMO. Just curious, which area of intensive care did you like the most? From clinical I've seen that trauma/sicu is entirely different from CCU. Which is your favorite and why? I'd love to work in CCU after I've gotten some expirence, but at this point I think the ER is more suited to me, I love that fast pace! Is there a good internship for Jersey Shore? I'm going to start making calls soon, but how is it in general? Thanks sooooo much for your help and input, it means a lot! :)

DNRme · Apr 21, 2004

Jaime,

I work nights in the OR at JSUMC. The only time I go to the ER is to see what kind of trauma fiasco may be knocking on my door. I haven't been there long enough to know anyone in other depts. Sorry.

I will tell you, though, that I was recruited by another nurse who works in the same two places I do. I don't want to say where on the public board because there are some very negative things going on there. If you pm me I'll give you more info about that. The other nurse and I, both working in two places, can really see a difference in the corporate mentality between the two. JSUMC is much more foreward thinking. My mgmt. seems to be more reasonable, for the most part. The clinical ladder is better, you don't have to reapply every year. I would recommend JSUMC over my other employer, if you want to be near the shore. I also think it is better for a new RN to be working in a teaching facility.

I went directly from school to working in an ICU. I did my senior elective there and they knew what they were getting into. If you really think you have the personality for the ER, it's a great education. You will also see more there because of the "Trauma Center" designation.

Hope I Helped,

Dawn

jaimealmostRN · Apr 21, 2004

It is better to work for union hospital as an RN. Layoffs are coming to one particular central NJ hospital however.

Lee, I've heard about the layoffs in RWJ-New Bruswick....we do our clinicals there and it's the topic of conversation and for good reason... oh yeah, is this on the DL or can we talk about it? It seems like most of the employees know about it... As I'm sure you can guess it's going to be disasterous (sp?) esp. on the med-surg/tele floors where it's already 1:5.