Why are u just focusing on their wages? That is not their main concern. Their main issue is staffing and retention
If people aren’t going to be sympathetic to their plight, then who are they gonna be sympathetic to? The hospital execs?
They specifically asked for a nearly 30% increase in their compensation package over the next three years....
Sympathetic to people working that don't make $43 dollars an hour and aren't asking for an additional 30% increase over the next 3 years? Nurses are already very well paid as an industry for the level of education required. There are other professions that are more short changed from a financial standpoint.
yeah, for a reason…it’s a bargaining ploy The strike followed months of failed negotiations — with nurses asking for about 30% pay increases over three years to improve retention and prevent colleagues from quitting and leaving hospitals chronically understaffed. Picketing nurses said wage hikes are important, but that more consistent staffing levels are key. Second-year nurse Madi Gay said she had reduced her nursing hours at Southdale over the stress and the threat to her livelihood of being asked to care for too many patients at once. "How long can you keep this up?" she said. "My license is on the line." The rate of nurses leaving hospital care has accelerated, said Larissa Hubbartt, an intensive care nurse at St. Luke's. "The trauma of working short, what we see on a daily basis, it adds up over time. There is no relief. We used to have a bad day now and then. Now, on a day when we have the appropriate staff, you feel guilty almost. Because you can take a lunch break." Angie Nolle joined the Essentia picket line Monday after working for 16 hours in a behavioral health unit at St. Mary's Medical Center in Duluth. She was only scheduled for eight but picked up a secondovernight shift when the unit was short two nurses. "We do that to help our patients … and we are feeling the brunt of it," she said. Negotiators for the Minnesota Nurses Association, the union representing the nurses, acknowledged that high wage demands could end up as abargaining chip to gain staffing guarantees. "We have very little interest in decreasing our offer any more until our hospital talks to us about staffing. That's what's important," said Melisa Koll, a nurse at Children's in St. Paul who is part of thenegotiating team.
It's about supply, though. There's a constant nursing shortage. Up until the last couple of years, there was not a shortage of teachers. There is now. Expect similar strikes for better pay, working conditions and QOL improvements soon.
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How many of these other professions carry the stress of nursing and having people’s lives in their hands? And they are not on strike just for a wage increase, that’s all you’ve chosen to focus on. The Minnesota Nurses Association, a union whose members also work in Wisconsin, North Dakota and Iowa, said that while its nurses have sought solutions to staffing shortages and retention issues, hospital executives have focused discussions solely on raising wages. But remedying the fallout from more than two years of pandemic burnout will take more than that, and not doing so puts patients at risk, the union said. “Nurses do not take this decision lightly, but we are determined to take a stand at the bargaining table, and on the sidewalk if necessary, to put patients before profits in our hospitals,” Mary C. Turner, a registered nurse and president of the union, said in a statement. Some 15,000 nurses in Minnesota walked off the job on Monday to protest hospital understaffing that their union says has harmed patient care and exhausted health workers as they negotiate a new contract with hospital executives. “Hospital executives have already driven nurses away from the bedside by their refusal to solve the crises of staffing and retention in our hospitals," the union's negotiating team said in a statement, adding that nurses were "understaffed and overworked."
I agree with this 100%. I hear you on all of it, and I completely understand where you're coming from. Physicians are thought of as emotionless, and in some cases, taught to be, and that's unfair, for sure. I also laugh when places honor the nurses, police members, first responders, etc. They're forgetting a whole large group of auxillary staff. And I know the burnout is real. My wife's uncle was a physician. Was because he just killed himself a couple weeks ago because of burnout. Stay human, my friend.
They ARE on strike for a pay increase. They have demanded a nearly 30% increase in pay over the next three years and they already are well compensated in an industry where healthy care costs are the highest in the world. If they get it, then good for them but a lot of people are not going to feel overly sympathetic for a group that makes an average of $43 dollars an hour and if they get what they are asking for will get over $55 an hour. They are already compensated for it being a stressful job, they earn a very high wage for someone with an associates or bachelors degree in many cases. Also there are a lot of other hard jobs out there, it isn’t just nurses. The medical system in the USA is fractured and a lot of things need to change including administrative costs and some elective end of life care that is done. I am far more concerned about people making less than half of what nurses make. Hell there are some nurses making more than GP’s and that is unconscionable.
no, a pay increase is just part of why they are on strike…that is the only part u have chosen to focus on it’s been stated multiple times what the issues are that have led to this strike They are overworked and constantly understaffed which can result in dangerous patient outcomes and negatively impact care. They want to see changes, but we shouldn’t be sympathetic because of what they make? How many of these jobs are overworked and short staffed while having millions of people’s lives in their hands? Nurses are basically the backbone of the entire healthcare system. So what other hard jobs are u comparing them with? A nurse making more than a GP? Maybe if you’re comparing the top 1% of earners in a HCOL state like California to the absolute bottom earning GP.
PCPs make 180ish, pediatricians even less. The people that go into the latter especially are usually extremely passionate about what they do, despite having 300k + in debt they choose to do it. Heck there are fellowship trained physicians such as infectious disease (5 years training after medical school) that make that much too. Point is as Nook said everybody in the medical world is generally compensated very well with the exception of resident doctors who are basically brutalized and paid far below minimum wage for slave labor. the market also drives everything. If travel nurses can make that much you know what sure. The reasons the hospitals aren’t budging is that they can afford to even close floors due to short staffing because in 2 -3 years the nursing workforce can explode. Having said all that, at least in my area I feel the nurses deserve a pay raise. Sometimes it’s not just the amount of money, it’s the indication you value someone. I would prefer the latter and have in my career (get out of toxic environments not worth all the money in the world). That way there can be continuity and less turnover which is also better for patients. Having a good group of invested nurses vs these ticktockers and insta obsessed ones is worth forking it over for but I’m not sure 30% raise across the board for everyone is something the system can consume right now. In all honesty it would just get passed to the patient
Of course, if they get it then good for them. I am just not overly sympathetic to a profession that requires only a bachelors degree or less and makes over $40 an hour and wants a 30% raise over the next three years.
It’s kind of shocking but you’d be surprised at the number of people that have thought about suicide (usually in residency with 80+ hr weeks, **** pay, bad working conditions, and low low pay only enough to pay rent and some). I know of quite a few folks that went through with it too. This is where physicians can learn from nursing profession and attitude (unless it’s the nature of job who knows). Due to a hyper competitive atmosphere it can get toxic, and attendings eat their own/exploit. What I’ve seen with other professions such as nursing , therapists is more nurturing. The stories of abuse I’ve witnessed first hand man…it’s crazy. Luckily a lot of those folks were fired , and maybe perpetuated what was done to them in all seriousness I push people to go into dentistry in this new era of corporate medicine. No call, good pay, no residency, you actually have weekends off?! And if they tell you they don’t like teeth ask them if they like sleep. Maybe @rezdawg can add
30% raise is a bargaining ploy…Why are people talking like these nurses went on strike solely for a raise when that is not the case? A raise isn’t even their most pressing issue or biggest concern.
I think you're hitting the nail on the head. There's a frustration amongst hospital workers seeing the executives profit off of borderline illegal billing practices across the board. There's a frustration at seeing care sacrificed for billing purposes, and I think it exists on some levels at nearly every facility out there. I think a 30% wage hike is steep. But I also think that many nurses are just following the money with traveling. I would. The rest are frustrated by it because they're sick of working with the travellers. The answer, unfortunately, is increased pay, and retention. Maybe not 30%, but let's say 10%. Hold onto these employees, build a good team, and everyone benefits. As I laid out in an earlier post, you could go from 550 to 800 nurses, cut travellers, and have the entire team get a $5/hour pay raise. I'd that's not acting in good faith, I don't know what is. These are the kind of changes people want. This leads to a better team, more staffing, more invested staffing, and a better patient outcome. This is not for nursing only. It's for all the staff. Allied health and everyone. And I also get that there's a tightrope being walked with travel because some of these nurses are encroaching upon physician pay, while incurring zero responsibility. I can sense that in your comments, and I think that it's totally valid. I think there are very nuanced positions in this thread, and I think it's a good discussion. I also think that, as I said, like everything else, the answers are in the gray area. I also hear you on burnout amongst physicians and residents being treated like subhumans. We're friends with a few current and former residents, and it seems crazy.
