Posted on 06/18/2010 3:21:57 PM PDT by SmithL
A San Francisco judge today reaffirmed his decision barring thousands of registered nurses statewide, including 1,800 from the UC Davis Medical Center, from walking off the job in a dispute with the University of California over staffing levels.
In his ruling, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Peter J. Busch prohibited the California Nurses Association from staging a strike until at least Sept. 30, when the current contract between the union and the university expires.
The CNA had planned to stage a one-day walkout at six university-run hospitals to protest what the union said were unsafe nurse staffing levels at the hospitals -- a charge the university denied.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
California Nurses Association is part of the AFL-CIO. I’m sure the care of patients is the last thing on their mind.
Actually, they may really have a beef. I worked in the nursing service department at a for-profit hospital in Louisiana back in the ‘80s. Whenever the patient census was low, I had to call scheduled nurses and tell them not to show up for work (without pay, of course) because our census couldn’t support the scheduled staff. Sometimes, we were left with one nurse per Med-Surg floor (ward) which might equate to one nurse per 12 patients. Staffing for ICU and PCU (step-down from ICU) was reduced, too (not at the Med/Surg rates, but dangerous to many nurses). These were full care nurses who did everything from bathing, to changing sheets, to temps/BPs, wound care, drug dispensing, etc. There were no LVNs or other ancillary floor support, except on the telemetry units. I’d like to know what the staff-to-patient ratio is in California, and also what the support staff is like before I would make a judgment.
There is a shortage of nurses. Hospitals can't find enough and can't afford to raise pay to attract more. The government mandates ratios and attached to those ratios are levels of care that nurses are required to provide. In many cases, it is litterally impossible. Government is the problem. Regulation is the problem. Nurses are quitting in droves, often for lower paying jobs. I don't support striking, but if you don't allow it, people will quit and the problem will just get worse.
Well said. The gov in collaboration with the unions are putting unreasonable demands on hospitals & health care systems. And in the middle of it all are the patients. Its ridiculous. Things have gotten so much worse since I entered nursing in 1997. I try very hard to stay healthy & pray the my family does, too, as I do not want to be a patient these days. The technology & treatments are wonderful but the care & quality of care providers has gone in the toilet.
Yep. Nurses are useful idiots for unions. I wish they’d wake up. I heard that SEIU is now pressing all Red Cross employees to unionize. How ridiculous. I worked in two hospitals that had unionized nurses & I can tell you, the care was awful & the nurses had it just as bad (if not worse) then their non-unionized counterparts.
Uh, let me get this straight. There are too few nurses as is, so let the existing ones walk off the job. That will help the patients for sure.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not unsympathetic. I understand that nurses, like teachers, are overworked and often underpaid. They perform a vital service under less than ideal conditions, and the competent ones deserve only the highest praise. But if they strike, who has most to lose? The hospitals, universities and government, or the sick patients? :-/
As a Nurse (RN) for 38 years I can say that I work hard, however thats nothing new, however I am not underpaid. Neither do I think teachers are underpaid. I knew what I was getting into. In 1972 when I started working, a older nurse told me, “ you will always have a job, and thats better than some have it. We take care of the sick, and they deserve great care, not sob stories from the bed side nurse complaining about the work load and low (???) pay”.
The hell with the UNIONS!!!
Unions SUCK!
The nurses represent the patients. The result of short-staffing is cumulative patient neglect. “Nurse extenders” don’t understand the physiological reasons for many conditions; ergo, they will “fake” a “good” blood pressure, urine output, heart rate, etc. Want to wind up on dialysis, people? Go ahead and schedule your elective surgery at an institution which is staffed by nurse extenders.
My friends are RN’s who watch out for me if I have a procedure performed at a local hospital. They advocate for me, as I do for them, when they can’t speak for themselves. Don’t have an RN buddy? Tough luck.
The ratio for medsurg is 5 to 1. 4 to 1 for tele, 3 to 1 for stepdow and 2 to 1 for icu. What has happened is that the ancillary staff gets cut whenever there is financial pressure. Our facility has cut the ratio for cna’s from 8 to 1 to 12 to 1. Not to mention dietary gets cut, lab gets cut, and a biggie is transport and housekeeping. Believe it or not without housekeepers patient flow comes to a screaming halt. Not to mention keeping infectious disease at bay.
RNs are important, we can’t be everywhere and do everything all at once. Sometimes you just need an extra set off hands. I cannot imagine working without having someone at least on hand to answer the damn phone. I can put in my own orders, watch the monitor, but that damn phone will be the death of me yet! On our recovery unit, we have no pca until 1pm, and nights has none after 9pm. The clerk/monitor tech goes home at 11pm. It is just 2 nurses after that. If someone crumps you are on screwed.
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