Who's the Boss? Gaining Control Over Our Nursing Practice

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

Shared Governance: Is It a Model for Nurses to Gain Control Over Their Practice?

Governance is about power, control, authority, and influence. It answers the question in an organization, "Who rules?" Nursing shared governance extends that rule to nurses. It surfaced as a radical break from traditional hospital governance where nurses had little power within a rigid formal hierarchical bureaucracy. Nursing shared governance is a managerial innovation that legitimizes nurses' control over practice, while extending their influence into administrative areas previously controlled only by managers

http://nursingworld.org/ojin/topic23/tpc23toc.htm

TRADITIONAL AND NON-TRADITIONAL COLLECTIVE BARGAINING: STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE THE PATIENT CARE ENVIRONMENT

ABSTRACT

Acquiring organizational autonomy and control over nursing practice, through a combination of traditional and non-traditional collective bargaining (CB) strategies, is emerging as an important solution to the nursing shortage crisis. For the past 60 years, nurses have improved their economic and general welfare by organizing through traditional CB, particularly during periods of nursing shortages. During the past decade, however, the downsizing of nursing staffs, systems redesign, and oppressive management practices have created such poor nursing practice environments that improvement in wages no longer is viewed as the primary purpose of CB. Much more essential to nurses is assuring they have a safe practice environment free of mandatory overtime and other work issues, and a voice in the resource allocation decisions that affect their ability to achieve quality health outcomes for patients. The thesis presented in this article is that traditional and non-traditional CB strategies empower nurses to find such a voice and gain control over nursing practice. This article describes the current shortage; discusses how CB can be used to help nurses find a voice to effect change; reviews the American Nurses Association's (ANA's) history of collective action activities; explains differences between traditional and non-traditional CB strategies; and presents a case study in which both strategies were used to improve the present patient care environment.

http://nursingworld.org/ojin/topic23/tpc23_5.htm

COMMON DENOMINATORS: SHARED GOVERNANCE AND WORK PLACE ADVOCACY - STRATEGIES FOR NURSES TO GAIN CONTROL OVER THEIR PRACTICE

Alexia Green, PhD, RN, FAAN

Clair Jordan, MSN, RN

ABSTRACT

It is important to the future of health care that we identify strategies that provide support for nurses as they take on the challenges of the new century. Shared governance has long been stressed as an effective strategy for enhancing autonomy and providing avenues for nurses to gain control over their practice. A newer strategy, defined at the local, state, and/or national level, is work place advocacy. This strategy builds upon many of the principles contained in shared governance. This article identifies common denominators found in both shared governance and work place advocacy.

http://nursingworld.org/ojin/topic23/tpc23_6.htm

[WyomingRN]

I found the article "Nursing - and the Health care Crisis" at http://www.insearchofliberty.org/medical.htm very interesting. Nurses need to look at and consider the whole picture.

[jnette, ASN, EMT-I]

Good read, Karen. Thank you. Definately believe shared governance should be just that. Always have felt that, don't understand why it would be any other way. But it isn't... and we need to change this.