hospitals nationwide try to take down nurse unions

Hospitals are on a nationwide effort to take down nurses unions, figuring they will do it before the next shortage.  Nurses in unions have won good benefits in many states when negotiating contracts in the past.  We took advantage of our power. 

With the economic downturn has come an effort to take back the health insurance and pensions that that nurses made many sacrifices to obtain.  Hospitals say no one gets good insurance any more.  They say pensions are outdated.  They pit groups of workers in hospitals against each other.

Nurses sacrificed a lot to get to decent benefits for ourselves. We went on strike.  We sacrificed wages for benefits.

We still have the power we have always had.  We are the ones who take care of the casualties from something like the Orlando bombing.  When they stream into the emergency room, it is the nurses who receive them and take care of them.  It is an upside down world when the people who have the skills to care for complex patients have to fight for their benefits while the paper pushers get exorbitant salaries and bonuses.  It is the nurse who helps the doctor save lives not the administrator.

The question is: Will nurses take the power they have, as the backbone of the medical field without which it cannot function, or will we back down?  Its up to us. The future of nursing is at stake.

Here's to the staff at the Orlando Regional Medical Center Emergency Room

After hearing about the orlando shooting, one of my first thoughts was of the local emergency rooms who would care for the victims.  It must have been overwhelming to have all those patients come at once.  They did what ER staffs always do: dive in and go to work. What allows them to do it? Their co-workers.  Knowing they will have their backs. The video below is an example of that. The night staff arrives to work the next night and are greeted by their colleagues. This is why people stay in ERs.  So here's to the staff at Orlando Regional Medical Center....we are proud of you and thank you for your skill and dedication.

there is hope for nursing yet

Nurses are bad at standing up for themselves. Why is that? Is it because we were taught to be good little boys and girls who always behave? Is it because deep down inside we don't think we deserve any better? Is it because it's a way of taking care of other people, not wanting to make them feel bad, even if they shit on us? After all, we are caretakers to the bottom of our souls.

We are professionals with college degrees who do a complex job that requires skill and brains.  Yet we are often treated like children by our administrators,  stupid servants by doctors and bad mothers by patients and their families.

We as a profession, ALLOW ourselves to be treated this way. It drives me absolutely INSANE.  I have told mysef, too many times to count, that I was not cut out to be a nurse.  I am a fighter, a rebel, outspoken.  I don't fit in with the profession. Never will.

All of this seems depressing, yeah? Don't despair my little flower blossom. Alas, every once in a while, we, the nurses, stand up for ourselves. We actually say -ENOUGH!

I am part of one of those *ENOUGH* moments right now. It's a beautiful thing to watch.