Former MN Sen. Dave Durenberger Weighs in (Page 132)

From his commentary on the National Institute of Health Policy Blog:

NURSES MAY GO ON STRIKE IN MPLS – ST. PAUL
Have you ever heard of doctors threatening to go on strike if their income and hourly work demands aren’t met by their employers? I haven’t. However, doctors, unlike nurses, are able to increase their income by prescribing more medical services or creating shortages in their specialties or just lobbying for increases in pay for specific procedures. Doctors will refuse to see Medicaid patients to put pressure on state legislators; or refuse to see Medicare patients to pressure Congress. Or just not work in rural or inner city areas. Not nurses.

This is not an argument for nurses being able to do what doctors do, but a description of an unhealthy national health care system in which withholding of services is regularly rewarded, and making your professional skills and judgment more available under more difficult circumstances is penalized. It is an argument for professionalism and self-discipline among both professions. It is an argument for integrated care systems in which the risks and the rewards of patient care are shared among all those who choose to make a career of serving those of us in need.

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From his commentary on the National Institute of Health Policy Blog:

NURSES MAY GO ON STRIKE IN MPLS – ST. PAUL
Have you ever heard of doctors threatening to go on strike if their income and hourly work demands aren’t met by their employers? I haven’t. However, doctors, unlike nurses, are able to increase their income by prescribing more medical services or creating shortages in their specialties or just lobbying for increases in pay for specific procedures. Doctors will refuse to see Medicaid patients to put pressure on state legislators; or refuse to see Medicare patients to pressure Congress.
… Read more about: Former MN Sen. Dave Durenberger Weighs in  »

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In: Bargaining, Hospitals, Labor Unions, Nurses, Nursing

One of our Twin Cities nurses e-mailed Allina CEO Ken Paulus asking why hospital executives got bonuses during the 2009 economic recession. Paulus responded via the first e-mail below that none of the executives in the Allina system (which includes United Hospital, among others) got bonuses (which he calls “merit increases”) in 2009.

Then another Twin Cities nurse asks the United Hospital President, Tomi Ryba, the same question – why did hospital executives get bonuses during the 2009 recession? (Paulus just said they did NOT get bonuses, remember?) Tomi confirms in the second e-mail below that these executives did in fact get bonuses!
… Read more about: What else are they hiding?  »

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In: Bargaining, Hospitals

The video below illustrates the fundamental issue at the heart of this entire dispute: Hospitals are (1) Applying business/profit models like Toyota’s “Lean Production” to the “business” of caring for critically ill human beings and (2) Trying to keep up with one another in a medical arms race to create the fanciest, day-spa type facilities to attract patients. So, why, when caring for patients is at the heart of their nonprofit mission, do hospitals respond to the economic recession by cutting the staff caring for those patients while continuing to build outdoor boardwalks and put flat screen TVs everywhere?

And speaking of the recession, Twin Cities hospitals STILL made nearly $700 million in profits during 2009.
… Read more about: The heart of this entire dispute  »

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In: Bargaining, Hospitals, Labor Unions, Nurses, Nursing, Organizing

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact: John Nemo, MNA Public Relations, 651-414-2863

ST. PAUL (May 19, 2010) – Twin Cities nurses made history Wednesday by voting to authorize the largest nursing strike in U.S. history, with more than 12,000 RNs ready to walk off the job if a new contract agreement with six Twin Cities hospital systems can’t be reached before June 1, when the current labor deal expires.

Of the 9,000-plus Twin Cities RNs who voted Wednesday, more than 90 percent voted to reject the labor contracts and pension proposals from the hospitals.

“Thousands of us gathered here today for one simple reason,” said Minnesota Nurses Association President Linda Hamilton, an RN in the Children’s Hospital System.
… Read more about: It’s Official: Twin Cities Nurses Authorize Largest Strike in U.S. History  »

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Minnesota has been the leader in the nation and in the world for health care.  If this is to continue, the field of nursing needs to be supported.  The outlook for health care is certain in that there will be less health care providers including nurses and doctors taking care of more patients including the baby boomer generation to which my own parents belong.  This ratio can mean only one direction for health care unless priorities change.  We hit a plateau in health care in the last decade and now we are declining.  I work at an inner city private hospital and have for 13 years.  
… Read more about: An Open Letter to MN Politicians from a MN Nurse  »