Adding new words to my vocabulary

Before coming to California two words that I NEVER associated with nursing were "union" and "strike". In LA it had a nice, glossed over feel as I felt that the union was "good" because it provided me with a 15 minute breakfast break and an hour long lunch break---something unheard of for this East Coast nurse! Living in NorCal I've added the word strike to my every day vocabulary. I'm hesitant to write about my current work situation on the off chance this would get back to the hospital and "offend" someone, but this being America, we are entitled to different opinions and freedom of speech and I am going to exercise that right on my blog.

It was not until I was in orientation that I heard the rumbles of strike and and began to learn about a whole different side of nursing. My second week here the hospital and the nurse's union called an "impasse", basically neither side wanted to continue their futile negotiations and were taking a break. During this break I did some hw on why the negotiations to their contract were a year overdue and what the issues are. This is a very basic understanding on my part of two key points:

• the nurses want a 4% raise each year (so in 3 yrs they will be making 12% more than they do now!) and also want "retro" pay for this past year they've been negotiating
• the hospital is not yet Magnet status, and to become a Magnet hospital they need to implement a more structured "clinical ladder" which involves projects and publishing articles, etc.

My first two weeks I struggled with feeling mislead, as the hospital has known a strike is/was a possibility in their near future, yet it was never mentioned in my interview. It was something I never thought to ask when interviewing because I'd never had exposure to this issue before---I will now in the future. However, I do want to give props to one of my assistant managers for informing me during my orientation and giving me a run-down on what my options as a traveler are if they would strike. Most of the other travelers I started with were not so fortunate and some faced negative comments from staff who thought we signed on KNOWING they were planning to strike and were also under the impression that we were making strike pay (strike nurses make ridiculous $, like $90 an hour, $1000 just for showing up even if the strike doesn't happen, etc.) 

I have a hard time with union & striking because they are such foreign concepts to me. I started my nursing career in NC where these two words were never mentioned, they were not a way of life. I "grew up as nurse" thinking it was natural to be hard-working, and if that meant you were too busy to eat or the unit was too busy for the charge nurse or your neighbor to "break you out" then you just made due sneaking food outside your patient's room while brushing crumbs from your mouth as you go silence a pump or hang a flush. I feel that it is a luxury here taking designated breaks with designator breakers. I'm not saying it's wrong or a waste of money to bring in an extra nurse to do this. I believe it's a very safe practice as we spend 12 long hours that require skills of observation and critical thinking to keep our patients safe and progressing along the path of recovery-so thank you union for this benefit. However, on the off chance that you do not get your breakfast break, or even if it's late, you can't help but think that their world is falling apart! (More so in LA than here) It's hard not to preach at them about how good they have it. 

Money is at the root of most of the world's problem, and we never have enough! I understand that your pay should correlate with the cost of living, and I'm glad that in America nursing is a respectable career choice that does pay well...however, it's hard to hear people complain about making $60 an hour when I was making a little over $20 per hour in NC. Granted, Duke IS the lowest paying hospital because in theory "Duke is paying you by having it's name on your resume" but still...that's 3x's the money and it comes with 3 breaks a day! 

Again, this next opinion arises from my previous exposure at Duke where I learned of the clinical ladder within the nursing field. New grads start as a CN 1 (clinical nurse), after a year you become a CN 2, and then after completing projects, being published, doing research, etc you can work towards becoming a CN 3 or CN 4 (each have a higher pay bracket). It makes sense to me, you want to be paid more than you have to do more work. Also, I think the clinical ladder is a good way for a hospital to have a substantial way of showing they have an educated and vested nursing staff who has credentials to prove their nursing experience. I just wonder how many people at this hospital realize the importance/significance of being a Magnet hospital and how their reluctance to implement the clinical ladder delays this process. To be fair, I've heard rumor of nurses being lowered from their current clinical ladder status or that in the future if they have a med error/patient safety issue they will lose their clinical ladder status and not be eligible to move up the ranks for 2 years, etc. I haven't found much info on these issues, and can understand how scary these alternatives are, and also how unjust they seem. Again, this is just a brief highlight. However, it seems to me that unions originated to help create better work environments and I'm not sure if that's the case these days. As a friend of mine put it, "Unions today are more concerned with self-serving and self-preserving."

Today, there was a "Mediation Meeting". All I can do is wait it out, knowing that possibly that first week in April the nurses may strike (89% voted in favor of striking). If they strike I do have a few options, and I've not yet decided what the best one is for me. I'm just ready for the waiting to be over as I've had to put trips on hold and tell people not to visit because I was unsure of my job status. I'll keep ya'll posted!