Nurse strike back fires!

[LES]

The article in the Star Tribune today quoted 79k for full-time nurse and 62k for part-time. Seems reasonable. My neighbor is a critical care nurse and works part-time (32 hours a week) and has to pay almost 1k monthly for family health insurance. So she isnt' getting rich after taxes, insurance.

32 hours a week is considered Full Time in Minnesota?

[NOTNSS]

32 hours a week is considered Full Time in Minnesota?

[svonasek]

32 hours a week is considered Full Time in Minnesota?

Alot of places consider 32 hours a week to be full time. I don't know if it's state rules or just companies policies.

I know the nursing home where my ex works won't schedule her over 32 hours a week or they'd have to give her benefits.

[kineda]

http://www.health.state.mn.us/patientsafety/ae/staffingpatientsafety.html

In response to this charge, MDH convened a workgroup in the fall of 2009. Workgroup participants included representatives from large, mid-size and small hospitals throughout the state, the Minnesota Board of Nursing, the Minnesota Nurses Association, the Minnesota Hospital Association, the University of Minnesota, Stratis Health, and other stakeholder organizations, with workgroup member positions ranging from front-line nursing staff to quality/patient safety officers to nursing managers and other roles.

While staffing is an issue that concerned all group members, the group generally agreed that staffing-related issues emerge relatively rarely as contributing factors or root causes for reportable adverse health events, and that these events are much more often related to flawed processes or protocols than to an insufficient number of nurses or other staff on duty at the time of the event. At the same time, however, the group acknowledged that when staffing issues do exist, they can have a significant influence on work environment, work flow, and safety. As one workgroup participant phrased it, staffing can be a symptom of larger system issues, and is often a starting rather than an ending point in the analysis of an event.

interesting...

i also see that questions directly asking if staffing was a cause were added to the variance reports that are required to be filled out when such an event occurs.

[TitaniumGT]

Soo if it was just a staffing issue, then the nurses should have no problem taking a hefty pay cut so the clinic can afford to staff more nurses. Sounds like a simple solution.

[svonasek]

Soo if it was just a staffing issue, then the nurses should have no problem taking a hefty pay cut so the clinic can afford to staff more nurses. Sounds like a simple solution.

I already suggested that. That suggestion and a few other questions I've asked have been totally ignored. We only answer that questions that benefit the nurses.

So all the nurses working in a non-icu unit have the same amount of patients.

How does that work? I have to assume that there are some nurses that are better at their jobs then others. Also there has to be some nurses with little experience and some with many years of experiene within the same unit.

So are the patients with the less experienced nurses or the less skilled nurses getting poor care now or are the better or more experienced nurses not doing 100%?

I'd still like this one answered

[289Notch]

Soo if it was just a staffing issue, then the nurses should have no problem taking a hefty pay cut so the clinic can afford to staff more nurses. Sounds like a simple solution.

yep.

This whole thread is getting ridiculous. Anybody involved in this is attempting to convince us that $$ is not a factor here and some people that are emotionally involved are illustrating some things that would be expected. I don't blame anybody for wanting to make as much $$ as possible or watching their own back as #1 priority.

Nurses do not
-want to be moved around
-want to be understaffed
-want to take any pay cuts or lose any benefits they have in their expired contract

The reason this has escalated into a bitch fight is because the nurses ammo is patient care and they ignore the above quite often.

[Newbomb Turk]

Anything over 30 hours is fulltime where i'm at.

[Drunko McMoppo]

I guess to me this isn't really a non union vs. union issue. This isn't about money to the nurses- we understand that there has to be a balance. To me this is about how the contract language changes will affect the care I give a patient.
I guess it is something that is hard to explain to the public. Unfortunately, so many people are too busy thinkinking we should just be thankful to have a job so stop complaining.. or their biased against unions get in the way.
The reality is- this is a HUGE deal. Europe is having the same problems- even though their healthcare insurance is structured differently, they are having the same issues with safe staffing and safe pt. care. It will start to happen everywhere in all hospitals around the nation. The changes they are trying to make will TOTALLY change the care that nurses are able to give. If they get away with it here and in Cali, the hospital administrations everywhere are going to follow suit.
I can't expect young car guys who may have never been ill in their lives to understand how that will affect them in the future.
So many of you don't really understand what we are fighting for- you haven't seen the proposals- and some ofyou could give a shit less. It's like you just want to argue weather unions are good or bad.. or tell me how the economy sucks. Really? That is exactly the BS that the hospitals are spreading... they aren't doing this because they are hurting for money.
We get that they want to be more efficient, they want to be more profitable. Fine, but don't totally screw the nurses and the patients to do it. The hospitals do not back the nurses if a mistake is made due to a nurse being overloaded. They never have and they never will. They throw us under the bus and send us packing.. your lucky if you don't loose your licence...and good luck finding another job. Yeah, I get we'll have to make sacrafices- but I tell you what, I'm not going to make so many of them that I can't provide the proper care to people.
Liz

If it's not about money than why are you complaining about a possible pension cut? Last time I checked pensions are usually paid with money.

Nurses lost the PR on this one. I was undecided at first but after reading a very small amount of information I decided to side with the hospitals. Do you ever get tired of people bitching about something and saying, "it's for the children"? I do and whoever says that automatically loses credibility with me. When nurses are asking for a raise, increased benefits, etc. and saying it's "all about the patients" people might tend to question your true motive. Which isn't wrong. I'd want more pay/benefits/staffing, but I'd also like to bang Jessica Alba, neither is realistic.

[LES]

If it's not about money than why are you complaining about a possible pension cut? Last time I checked pensions are usually paid with money.

Are you hiring? I would be looking for weekends and 2 days a week max, full benifits , pension and $35 an hour. But really I would work for $20 an hour, it isnt about the money , but the pension.

[Drunko McMoppo]

Are you hiring? I would be looking for weekends and 2 days a week max, full benifits , pension and $35 an hour. But really I would work for $20 an hour, it isnt about the money , but the pension.

I don't sell cars for the money. I'm just dedicated to offering the public quality transportation... But I want to make more money.

That's just ridiculous. The nurses want more money but tell us it's not about the money. If the nurses just said they wanted better pensions and more money I wouldn't mind them saying that, it's the bullshit they spew that makes me side with the hospital.

To be fair though, even if they did say they just wanted more money I'd probably still side with the hospitals. If I ran a hospital I wouldn't want to get into any contract in which I may not survive under Obama care.

[Fosters]

If they want more money, go find another job that pays more money. Quit being a bunch of union mooches. I remember the douches picketing in front of the AT&T building last summer for the same reasons...

Man, everyone is quick to point out the CEOs salary when they want more money... but holy shit they won't move a fucking finger to better their situation themselves - like look for another job. I'm sure those fat cat CEOs were just born that way, got out of highschool or got their GED and became a CEO. Greedy ass bastards!

[specialk922]

If it's not about money than why are you complaining about a possible pension cut? Last time I checked pensions are usually paid with money.

Nurses lost the PR on this one. I was undecided at first but after reading a very small amount of information I decided to side with the hospitals. Do you ever get tired of people bitching about something and saying, "it's for the children"? I do and whoever says that automatically loses credibility with me. When nurses are asking for a raise, increased benefits, etc. and saying it's "all about the patients" people might tend to question your true motive. Which isn't wrong. I'd want more pay/benefits/staffing, but I'd also like to bang Jessica Alba, neither is realistic.

I don't sell cars for the money. I'm just dedicated to offering the public quality transportation... But I want to make more money.

That's just ridiculous. The nurses want more money but tell us it's not about the money. If the nurses just said they wanted better pensions and more money I wouldn't mind them saying that, it's the bullshit they spew that makes me side with the hospital.

To be fair though, even if they did say they just wanted more money I'd probably still side with the hospitals. If I ran a hospital I wouldn't want to get into any contract in which I may not survive under Obama care.

These.

[Max Power]

but I'd also like to bang Jessica Alba, neither is realistic.

Excuse me, I dibbsed.

[Drunko McMoppo]

Excuse me, I dibbsed.

When? I've wanted to bang Jessica Alba since the first episode of Flipper.