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UNIONIZATION OF NURSES IN HEALTHCARE FACILITIES

Unionization of Nurses in Healthcare Facilities

October 14, 2021

Abstract

Nurses and clinical staff are the backbone of any hospital system to run smoothly and are at

the center of all patient care. Despite overall union memberships decreasing in the U.S. over the

past 30 years, the field of healthcare has seen a steady increase in representation. As registered nurses are an important cornerstone of the healthcare industry and provide the preponderance of direct patient care, one must ask the question if unions, or collective bargaining units, are benefiting or harming healthcare? Recently, research has shown that unionized healthcare facilities The information below highlights key areas to consider when discussing the unionization of nurses, the impact that unionizing can have on organizational costs, and overall patient satisfaction.

Introduction

Health care facilities have recently put their efforts into movements to help provide continuous quality improvement in the services they provide to their patients and to make sure stakeholders benefit. As a manager the number one goal is to hold employees to a high standard to achieve excellence when taking care of the patients. They design the strategies that are used to help in the quality improvement of patient care. Most of the managers have shifted in a direction in which it is market-oriented that turns the patient's satisfaction surveys a better tool in the organization's overall performance (M. L. Dehkordi, 2017). The patient satisfaction survey has been a requirement since 2005. It is included as an element of quality management reports that they submit every year and can help identify problems amongst clinical staff, specifically nursing.

The nursing profession is one that is based on collaborative relationships with both

colleagues and patients. Here at Intravalley we have many nurses who are unionized workers. While many industries are leaving their union roots in the past as globalization and technological advances outpace the represented worker, nursing union membership is steadily rising.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics 20.4% of registered nurses and 10% of LPNs in the United States are union workers (Burger, 2021).

Discussion

Benefits of Unionizing

Nursing unions are prominent in many states; they are not an option for many nurses. The goal of these unions is to improve the working conditions, wages, benefits, and working hours. They also help in the quality care of the patients, which generally benefits the nurse and the health care system (K. Gaines, 2019). The unions have increased productivity to the nurses since they equip them with better training, less turnover, and sometimes the workforce longer. The nursing unions help in job security; they prohibit the termination of their jobs without the cause. They protect their own nurses’ benefits and wages (K. Gaines, 2019).

The unions help in providing better working conditions for the given nurses. These are the incentives that are being represented by the nursing unions. There is much ongoing violence in many nursing environments, and the partnerships help in such scenarios by combating the issues. The blocks have legislation that has been developed to protect the nurses from the harm they get at work. The unions have guaranteed wages, increasing their wages when needed (K. Gaines, 2019). The partnerships provide some education and training for the nurses to equip them in the coming changes. The nurses get legal representation from the union. In any way, the nurse has not followed protocol or skipped one, and they require disciplinary action. A representative from the partnership is sent to ensure that the nurses are fairly treated (K. Gaines, 2019).

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Healthcare Organizational Costs

The healthcare organizational costs include the wages and benefits that the nurses get while in practice and the professional fees given to the nurses. Products like food, medical equipment, and many more, drugs prescribed, the labor and the nonlabor intensives, professional liability insurances, and many more (K. Gaines, 2019). All of these have been assigned a percentage in which they are dispatched. The costs are plan costs in that the plan payments must cover them. At the top, we have the wages and benefits that get a 56% of the plan, followed by professional fees at 11%. The utilities are ranked as the least at 1.8% of the project (K. Gaines, 2019).

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Hourly Wages

Nursing strikes can help in wage payments in that there will be timely payment of the wages, and there might be an increase in the amount they pay as wages. This motivates the nurses and makes them work, giving quality services. The strike will also increase the benefits provided to the nurses (M. Vainieri & P. Smaldone et al. 2019).

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Quality of Care

The patients will be given a good environment that is the hospital environment is improved and well kept in a conducive environment that will help in the recovery journey of the assigned patients. This research shows that the nurses pinpoint the best courses of action to have successful outcomes. With the application of such knowledge through the given experience and the hands-on, the nurses can help their patients recover their illnesses (M. Vainieri & P. Smaldone et al. 2019).

Impact of COVID-19

Conclusion

In the past years, patient satisfaction has been a thing that has been placed on the front line. Each nurse always has to make sure that they deliver quality services to their patients. The patient satisfaction survey of the patients should be done frequently to ensure that quality services are being provided. Nursing unions are important in ensuring that the nurses are providing the quality services they are supposed to. The block train their nurses, make sure that their wages are paid well and at the right time. When nurses are protected well and delivered on time, the patient outcomes are always positive. When surveys are done, there will be good feedback from the given patients (M. Vainieri & P. Smaldone et al., 2019).

References

Lotfizadehdehkordi, M. (2017). Assessment of Patient Satisfaction and Experience Through Correlation Analysis and KANO Model (Doctoral dissertation, University of Akron). https://etd.ohiolink.edu/apexprod/rws_etd/send_file/send?accession=akron1491601729357633&disposition=attachment

Kathleen Gaines. (2019, October 7). Nurses unionizing: Benefits of working in a union hospital. Nurse.org. https://nurse.org/articles/benefits-of-nursing-union-hospital/

Vainieri, M., Smaldone, P., Rosa, A., & Carroll, K. (2019). The role of collective labor contracts and individual characteristics on job satisfaction in Tuscan nursing homes. Health care management review, 44(3), 224. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6587616/