November 29, 2014 / Jennifer, CNS / 0 Comments
CNA claims it’s going to restore quality care. I’m not sure how that’s going to happen when they also tell RNs not to do anything more than the bare minimum and not to go out of their way to be of assistance to anyone.
The link at the bottom of this post includes a photo of a CNA poster circulated at some Kaiser Hospitals in 2011. Here is an excerpt from that poster.
- “Do NOT Take Verbal Orders Except in an Emergency.”
- “Do NOT Work Off the Clock to Finish Your Work.”
- “Do NOT Do Anything More Than the Bare Minimum.”
- “Do NOT Go out of Your Way to be of Assistance to Anyone.”
The first two are standard instructions for RNs. Nobody expects us to work off the clock or routinely take verbal orders. The first violates our hospital’s policies, and the second is a Joint Commission standard. But the last two statements?
At Huntington, we are proud of the work we do to care for our patients. We go out of our way to provide assistance to families and patients, as well as each other. We work well as a team.
It’s insulting to their coworkers that RNs helping the CNA organize imply that the quality of care now is less than it has been. One of the CNA minions from the ED and another from the ICU have been RNs for all of two-ish years. How dare they think that they (the few who help with organizing) can speak for the rest of us?
We have questions for you CNA supporters:
- If union representation is important to you, why didn’t you go work for one of the hospitals that already has the union?
- Why does the RN who can’t afford to feed her large animals keep talking about it? She made the choice to go part time, effectively cutting her pay by 33%. If you need more money, work more hours. Or sell the animals. Life is about choices.
- Why does the one RN at the rally hide his face behind his sign every time the camera swings his way?
- Why did you pick on that poor elderly doctor? He doesn’t know what you roped him into. That was just cruel.
- When are you making another ugly poster targeting a coworker who doesn’t agree with you?
The CNA efforts at Huntington have never represented the majority of RNs. It was started by a few disgruntled nurses, looking to profit off the rest of us. And the more they hang around, the more we see what charlatans they are. We are losing respect for the RNs leading the CNA organizing efforts at Huntington. They are being paid, for one thing, and whenever they repeat another lie from CNA it is apparent they willing to cross boundaries and twist the truth in another desperate attempt to gain more supporters.
See more at:
http://www.flashreport.org/blog/2014/11/12/ca-nurses-union-bullies-kaiser-nurses-into-strike/#sthash.1Rbv2ViE.dpuf
November 20, 2014 / Jennifer, CNS / 0 Comments
We mentioned a few nights ago about the City Council meeting.
And here’s a photo of one of our nurses (who is a union supporter) getting fed what to say by the CNA man. I’m not going to the reveal the nurse’s name or gender even though this was a public meeting that is archived for anyone to view. Got to love public meetings.
This nurse signed up to lose his/her voice quite awhile back and now doesn’t speak unless CNA is there to help. Sad. But not what we want. We have our own voices and we’ll keep them, thank you very much!
#iStandwithHuntington #GoAwayCNA #WaytoGiveYourVoiceAway
November 20, 2014 / Jennifer, CNS / 0 Comments
November 19, 2014 / Jennifer, CNS / 1 Comment
Subtitle: CNA makes a lot of noise, again. Ebola, again. Sigh.
Last night was the Pasadena City Council meeting. A friend who works with the city called to give me a heads up that the employees trying to organize for the CNA planned to be there to complain about our lack of Ebola preparedness. We reached out to other iStand RNs and the disaster coordinator and our decontamination coordinator called and said they were going to be present.
Dr. Goh of the City of Pasadena did a nice presentation on Ebola preparedness by the city. Since the city and the hospital worked together to solve this problem, she knew how much the hospital had done, including training her and her staff.
Sure enough, CCU, DOU and ED RNs and a few others were there. Several of them got up to talk about the lack of Ebola readiness and training. Apparently they don’t feel like an hour of training and a computer based module was enough. Several of the employee organizers came up to the microphone to cite a litany of complaints, and said the following:
“There’s been a lot of panic and a lot of hoopla.” Yup. Agree. All of it courtesy of CNA/NNU. A classic moment was when that speaker started rambling and the CNA guy had to get up and whisper to her what to say. Taking away our voices, one nurse at a time.
“Our hospitals did not listen to the nurses, so we had to go to Sacramento and meet with Governor Brown.” Really? How do you know the hospital didn’t listen? They’ve certainly spent a boatload of funds to prepare for this thing that likely will never show up at our door.
Lucky for us iStand folks, Janet and Jen showed up to speak of the preparations at our hospital. Lots of sour faces behind them- not happy that their presentations, while succinct were received much more positively by the council. Thank you Janet and Jen, we appreciate all that you did. Nicely done.
I Stand with Huntington.
#GoAwayCNA #ScoreforiStand
November 18, 2014 / Jennifer, CNS / 0 Comments
What nurses need is protection from the California Nurses Association.
The public and healthcare workers (Registered Nurses) have a near ZERO chance of having their lives and livelihood being affected by Ebola.
The California Nurses Association however disrupts lives everyday. Strikes, protests and increased healthcare costs. This labor union’s concern is in increasing their revenue and nothing else.
November 17, 2014 / Jennifer, CNS / 0 Comments
CNA Says it is Striking About Ebola. Yet they recently defeated legislation that would have required caregivers (including nurses) to get a flu shot or wear a mask. It’s a non-issue in Pasadena because the Pasadena Health Department requires it anyway. But two people have died from Ebola in the US (both caught it in West Africa) while 3000-5000 Americans die every WEEK from flu or pneumonia (CDC statistics).
I don’t disagree with the recommendations from CNA. But the preparations made by Dr. Shriner and the team of nurses and others go beyond those recommendations. It’s too bad many people missed her excellent presentations because if you saw one you would be reassured that we will be safe should an Ebola patient arrive at our door.
Meanwhile, CNA and it’s 18,000 Kaiser union members have been staging a 2 day strike this week, supposedly about Ebola. Where is the big concern for patient safety and care for the patients and community in that action? Sad. And proving again what a toxic organization the CNA is.
#cnatoxic #goawaycna #istandwithhuntington
November 13, 2014 / Jennifer, CNS / 1 Comment
Do you believe EVERYTHING CNA says? Or those hospital employees who are organizing for the CNA?
From the IStandWith Huntington Nurses
About that rally the other day: We heard CNA organizers are saying there were “hundreds of people, stretched in a line down the block.” There was no line around the block. There were certainly no more than 60 people there total, and the majority of those were not employees. Since pictures do speak louder than words, we have two.
Left photo: Taken from the Bridge to the stairwell on the northwest corner of the LaVina Building.
Right Photo: Taken from the West Tower.
What do we see here? The left picture is the furthest south grouping of people who were participating in the rally. The photo on the right is the group furthest north on Pasadena Avenue. The tree in the upper right corner of the left photo is the same tree in the lower left corner of the right photo. This represents the entire rally.
We also looked south past the La Vina parking lot and did not see anyone down the street in that direction. And some of us walked up to the rally itself and there was certainly nobody up the street to the north. One more time, the CNA and the hospital employees who are leading the union drive make things up to make them seem important. How incredibly arrogant.
They stand outside and cry about protection from Ebola- yet I will bet that none of them attended the presentations by Dr. Shriner a few weeks ago. She shared the Incredibly thoughtful preparation for protecting employees from this disease, advanced quietly and with little fanfare but a lot of support from a lot of people at Huntington- infectious disease physicians, nurses, and members of the hospital’s administration. We are currently training ED and ICU RNs on donning and doffing the protective gear. Our protection will exceed the CDC standards and exceeds that recommended by the World Health Organization.
We are incredibly strong without you, CNA. If you ask people who have worked in union hospitals they will tell you that it’s never good for patient care when you bring in a union. Actual patient care gets worse because it’s really all about the money and they don’t really care about the patients. And if you listen to the union supporters long enough you will come to understand it is once again- all about the money, and not a thing to do with patient care.
Get lost CNA- you don’t belong here.
I Stand with Huntington- the patients, the nurses, the other employees, administration, our community.
#istandwithhuntington
November 7, 2014 / Jennifer, CNS / 0 Comments
A photo from today’s big (sarcasm intended) CNA rally. It is truly quite amazing how many people the union got to help their cause, a whopping 30 people (about ten employees and their families) out of 1200 RNs is truly a significant amount of people. It really goes to show how strongly people believe in their cause. Some people even brought their mommies (really). It’s kind of sad the rally was not any bigger than a PALM tree’s shadow.
November 5, 2014 / Jennifer, CNS / 0 Comments
Why do some of my coworkers believe everything the union and the paid employee organizers have to say?
I don’t understand it- many of these RNs with whom I have worked for years and either trained me, or were in my Critical Care Core classes or were in the more recent instructor’s Core classes. I know them to be smart, intelligent RNs. They deliver excellent nursing care. But they think the union is going to make things improve. Things like linen supplies, getting rid of Cerner or supply shortages. But the union can bargain for wages and benefits, that’s it. More linen is not considered a benefit. If you don’t believe- investigate. Type “CNA contract” into Google.
I’ve been thinking a lot about this, and I think part of it is most of these RNs work in isolation from other units, meaning they know their own unit’s routines very well. But they don’t know the other units’ routines or services. They don’t get involved in any councils or committees. I understand the desire for work-life balance but you lose an opportunity to understand the bigger picture if you don’t get involved. The Clinical Policy and Procedure Council, a council to which I am the advisor has about 10-15 RNs who show up every month and take policy assignments, revise the policies based on a literature review and present them and the rationale for changes. They are on the front end of changes that are coming. They understand that we have opportunities to improve practice through evidence-based policy revisions. They don’t get upset when there is a new CBL, inservice or skills checkoff. Sure, they may agree there are too many CBLs or that the CBLs are too long, but they understand the rationale for the change and support it.
These INVOLVED RNs spend only 4-8 hours a month on their work for the council. It’s not that time consuming, and it’s never 4 or 8 hours at once- it’s spread out over the course of the month and they can work on the policy revisions anywhere they want. If spending a few hours on them at home is better for them- that’s what they do. If coming in on a day off and using a computer in the resource center computer room is better, then they do that.
I think that is the difference. I don’t see many who support the union on councils or involved beyond their scheduled work days.
You can be a part of the change, and you don’t need a union to do it. As a matter of fact the union can’t influence anything beyond wages and benefits, but YOU can.
Get involved. Pick a council that sounds interesting, or get involved in something special on your unit.
Hanging around and discussing the low morale in your unit just makes morale lower. The way to better morale and happiness is through being involved and understanding the big picture. Improving the care on your unit or even more globally in the hospital makes you feel like you created and helped drive the change- that’s the way to improve morale. Celebrate those achievements. They speak to improving the care of our patients.
Think about it.
#IStandwithHuntington
November 1, 2014 / MicheleRNBSN / 0 Comments
CNA has decided to “rally” next week (Nov. 6) in the name of patient quality (or is it safety? Or is it money? Or is it just to make a scene? Or a media stunt?). Anyways this flyer that’s out makes some hilarious claims! So naturally we have a few questions. . .
1) When did this become about politics? How can people who DO NOT work for Huntington even speak about our issues? It is like SF 49ers telling the SF Giants how to play baseball. Plus we know unions hate the Republicans, so complaining about a Republican governor is pretty much expected.
2) We nurses, those who who are highly engaged in the use of opportunities to learn leadership skills and use our voices, have not really seen the same kind of engagement by those who think that the union is a good idea.
3) So you say its all about safety? What actual ideas do you have? Oh, by the way- saying if we will just sign a card THEN you will let us in on the secret makes it appear that you don’t actually have any ideas. We believe striking is NOT a valid option for the safety of our patients.
4) Thank you CNA! You have decided that we are “aggressive” yet we are pretty sure it was you that took a 40 person team to “march” on management in your efforts to demand recognition. How did that work out for you? Just an FYI for next time, trying to bully your way in to meet with people is not professional.
5) NOT not ALL Huntington nurses agree with you, so we would appreciate that these “marches” would not use all inclusive words, because you haven’t taken our voices just yet, but nice try. We do so much appreciate that since we disagree with you, you claim that we must have no minds of our own and the “management” must be to blame. We were smart enough to pass the NCLEX but how many of those CNA people standing on Pasadena Ave did? (P.S. this is a trick question because most of the people you have graced us with are NOT nurses, but they do have free food compliments of another hospital’s dues)
6) iSTANDwithHuntington only consists of Huntington employees who believe we do not need you. I wonder if this union business was just between those who worked at Huntington how different would this conversation be?
7) One last THANK YOU CNA! While we appreciate you think we are paid, we do what we do out of passion for the profession and we use our own hard earned money to promote facts. We know, we know, how on earth could anyone possibly do anything for free?
8) Clearing up a rumor! Did we seek help from Sherwood and Genevieve? Yes! And we are proud to have done so; since we cannot talk to management about this what did you think we would do? Twiddle our thumbs? What a double standard, people can talk to CNA organizers all they want but we am not allowed to talk or consult anyone??
We ask that all employees do their own research and understand what a union can and can not do.
#iSTANDwithHUNTINGTON #WeSTANDwithOURpatients #WeSTANDwithOURCommunity #WeSUPPORTtheScrubs
