[1mg.epi]

A union was voted in at a hospital here in Arkansas. It has not done a darn thing for them. In matter of fact, my hospital has acquired a few of the nurses. If you get involved you can have a say what chairs we can sit in. In fact we picked the chairs for the hospital to buy.

Although I can say, we did move to a new hospital 5 years ago. we had to add a floor, add a wing for surgical rooms, extend the ER in to the parking lot, and its still too small. Thanks to the high priced demographic consultant firm. When from the planning stage almost every nurse in this facility said, "Its too small."


I am agenst striking, it only hurts patient care

[Anonymous]

I have always maintained that a union is just another layer of bureauracy. And if the shop steward don't like you forget it.....


WR,,, three commas for Becca

[1mg.epi]

You forgot one thing, you have to pay dues to have that bureauracy

[Anonymous]

Yeah and I don't pay for abuse...LOLL


WR,,, three commas for Becca

[medi]

Hey 1mg.epi what city do you work in?? I used to live in Little Rock & worked at the ER's at UAMS & Doctors, and the NICU at St Vincents! So somebody actually managed to unionize an Arkansas hospital?? I'm honestly amazed!

WR-- we could break into Hospital Admin but we'd have to add a degree (preferably Master's) in Healthcare Administration on to do it most likely- but it sure could be done. Why not? Nurses make terrific administrators and have excellent business minds in a lot of cases at any rate... sure, we have dingbats in the profession like any other, but we do have some beautiful minds around as well! Right?

[Anonymous]

Yeah you could add that Master's but if they see BSN as an undergrad you ain't getting the job.. Especially, if you worked in the field.. God forbid you have any actual experience.......Like being a staff nurse.. No way..


WR,,, three commas for Becca

A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and sings it back to you when you have forgotten how it goes.

[1mg.epi]

Hi medi! I currently work at Baptist Health in North Little Rock. You know we built a new hospital up near the mall. OK, ready for this, I worked the night shift at Doctors in the ER from 93 to 97 part time. By the way, St. Vincents now owns Doctors. Do you know Connie.. the trauma coordinator at UAMS. I worked with her at BMMC. I attended her first Trauma Nurse Specialist course there at UAMS. Tougher test than the BCEN test.

And the BIG answer to your question of who is now under a union, THE ANSWER IS - St. Vincents.

The sad part about a union. The Nurses who do obtain a nursing management position are now further away in you chain of command. you now have a union. The prime focus of a union is separation of management and the labor force. You need a smooth line of communication between all levels of the work force to improve conditions in patient care and working conditions. I don't feel a union provides this.

[medi]

St Vincents!!!! I wouldn't have guessed that one in a zillion years... hehehe. It's sort of funny though- actually St Vincents had the nicest work atmosphere of any hospital there when I worked them. How funny.

Sure, I remember Connie from UAMS. Do you know any of the others from the ER there? Steve Barrier?? Mike Hughes? Nigel- are they still there? Steve & Mike where in my med evac unit that went to Desert Storm..

You worked at Doctor's ER several years after I'd already left there to work in the ER at UAMS. I take it you live in NLR? I used to live in Jacksonville (near LRAFB of course). Worked St Vincents NICU, Baptist's SICU, Doctor's & UAMS's ERs, some weekends as extra duty at Rebsemen (sp?) in J'ville, some at Searcy Memorial, and for a while did weekend DON at the Red Cross Center downtown.. all before being pulled back to active duty for Desert Shield/Storm & then declared "mission essential" and kept on active duty. *LOL*

That was great for a long time though. Since I was faculty at UAMS I was paid half pay by the state the on top of my military pay until the war ended at least. And vacation time too! *LOL*

Ever considered working in the combat zone (working at UAMS's ER)??

[rnbsnonc]

nursing sucks. I made a mistake going into nursing.
1. I get no respect from managment
2. Mandatory overtime
3. [censored] pay
4. bull**** politics
5. 5 to 1 days 7 to 1 evenings 10 to 1 nights ratios
6 Rotating day night shifts rotating weekends
7. stress!! stress!! stress!!
8. New grads and their romantic views of nursing piss me off
9. more new grads than experienced nurses ( experienced nurses are getting out of the proffession)
10. I get to pick up the slack for new grads my asignments
suck all the heavy's

abandon a sinking ship!!! I am getting out. I dont care if you all go on strike. The system sucks no way to fix it. as for scabs lets all go on strike every where in the country and become scab nurses. then all the hospitals will have to pay the big bucks for our services give us rides to work buy our lunch and treat us with respect. We are a valuble commotity but in the current system we allow our selves to be treated like worthless unskilled workers. we are the system without us there is no health care sytem. we have allowed buisienss men and politicions to design and run americas health care system what do they know? Nothing about being patient advocates!!. There is no way to fix it only thing to do is to leave the proffesion.
7 years in nursing = 1 half the pay my freinds in other proffesions make. 2. I am up at 3 in the mourning on my day off because I am in the middle of my night rotation. 3. I will have one day off before my day rotation starts again. 4. I have days with no lunch 4. Days with no breaks 5. Days when I forget to go to the bathroom 5. My boss tells me that we halve to send some one home at 3:00 because a 6 to 1 nurse patient ratio is fine and we need to save money for the budget. Burned out ooo yaaaa

[medi]

Gee ... where have I seen that post before? Is this deja vu or do you think this person's posting in multiple forums? *LOL*