Who will care for the patients?

Nidgma · May 8, 2010

If an agency nurse is contracted for a shift at a new hospital is she or he less capable of caring for the patients because it isn't their regular place of employment!! If you have checked lately, agency nurses generally make slightly more money due to the fact that they are willing to frequently move around the country filling in those, for one reason or another, short staffed units. They pay taxes in their home state as well as the state they are employed in and usually don't work full time for one reason or another. I have never seen a traveler who's goal was go to a unit to steal someone's job though I have worked many a facility where I was greeted with hostility rather than as one to come in and help out in a crunch.

If I as an ER nurse am striking to obtain the higher wages I think I deserve or better working conditions, I DO want someone to step in and take care of my community of potential patients for as long as it takes for me to hold out and get what I am willing to stand up for. $100s an hour as a labor dispute worker, common' now, if wages were that good don't you think overall wages would be a bit higher under normal circumstances, try $50!! Generally, the labor dispute nurses, like travelers are unique people who are flexible enough to do an excellent job of what they do or they wouldn't be licensed or willing to maintain a job in an ever changing environment.

As far as working straight stretches of shifts, I have worked at a number of facilities that do block scheduling up to one week on and one week off usually voted in as personal preferences!!

Obviously the term SCAB is a derogatory term and being used for that reason. Do you use other derogatory names when referring to people you don't agree with or like...I'm afraid to know as I have met a few of you on the job in ERs across the nation!!

Please try to be a diplomat and see all sides of the story, can't we all just get along... :redbeathe

dosamigos76, RN · Jun 23, 2010

Obviously the term SCAB is a derogatory term and being used for that reason. Do you use other derogatory names when referring to people you don't agree with or like...I'm afraid to know as I have met a few of you on the job in ERs across the nation!!
Please try to be a diplomat and see all sides of the story, can't we all just get along... :redbeathe

Thank you and well said. Here in MN the nurses are probably gonna be striking in July. I follow the MNA on Facebook and some of the terms describing the replacement nurses are harsh. I WOULD consider working as a scab--I support what the nurses are striking for, but patients need care while the strike is going on and I need the money. Such is life.

mystic2fire · Jul 2, 2010

Careful how harmful your words can be. Before you dog all agency nurses as "scabs", maybe you should consider the patients that us "scabs" take care of in their private homes, as most of these clients aren't admitted to long term care facilities because their care costs the facility too much. Also, as a "scab" worker, I am familiar with poor work conditions as well. To me, crossing a picket line is not something I would do, but who is going to take care of the patients, as the regular employees walked out on strike? If you want to put us "scabs" out of work, maybe y'all should quit calling in two hours before the start of your shift, pick up the pm / noc / weekends and holiday shifts, because that is where I get the majority of my hours from.

imintrouble, BSN, RN · Jul 3, 2010

I don't understand how hiring agency nurses poses a pt safety risk. If agency nurses don't work and staff-union nurses don't work, WHO WILL CARE FOR THE PTs???

Who's job do you think it is to worry about that little problem?

It's not the staff-union nurses job.

It's not the agency nurses job.

Who works, when, where. how long and how many is solely the responsibility of management.

I do not follow the logic that "scabs" are providing a service by showing up when their fellow nurses are risking their jobs to effect change for all of us.

Union nurses elevate the conditions that all of us work under. I would never undermine their efforts by walking over them to punch a time clock.

Scab is a derogatory term. Would you prefer strike buster?

mystic2fire · Jul 3, 2010

I have had a gazillion times better work conditions / treatment by management as a "scab" worker than when I have been in a (useless) union.

imintrouble, BSN, RN · Jul 3, 2010

I have had a gazillion times better work conditions / treatment by management as a "scab" worker than when I have been in a (useless) union.

Scab workers are treated well and paid well because they perform a service most of us consider repugnant. Also the salary they have to pay you is finite. There is no vacation, sick time, workers comp......... Of course their treatment of you is wonderful.