DQ 6-2
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response6-2.docxDQ6-2 Tesponses
1.
Re: Topic 6 DQ 2
I do not believe unions have their place in healthcare. I feel this way because I do not feel they would have much effect. And I say this as a registered nurse, which is an occupation that employs 4 million people in the U.S. I believe this because healthcare is such a broad organization, so even if nurses and/or other healthcare discipline unionize, I do not feel they would be effective at collective bargaining. I also say this because healthcare is very much an interdisciplinary profession. It is very important to work closely with other healthcare professionals, and this makes it harder to bargain for one group. I do feel, however, that professional organizations are very important, not only to advancing the profession, but in a form of collective bargaining for their respective professions. "To the extent that professional organizations seek goals directly concerned with wages, hours, and other employment conditions and engage in bargaining on behalf of employees..." (Pozgar & Santucci, 2016, p. 473).
Collective bargaining issues that arise can be settled with labor and management rights. Employees in unions have the rights to "organize and bargain collectively, solicit and distribute union information during nonworking hours, picket, and strike" (Pozgar & Santucci, 2016, p. 481). Management, then, has rights to "receive strike notice, hire replacement workers during any strike, restrict union activities to certain areas and during nonworking hours, and prohibit supervisors from participating in union activity" (Pozgar & Santucci, 2016, pps. 481-482). These rights of union members and supervisors help regulate and ensure patient care is still a priority.
Pozgar, G. D., & Santucci, N. M. (2016). Legal Aspects of Health Care Administration (12th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones &
Bartlett Learning.
2.
There are several advantages and disadvantages of nursing unions. According to Health Research Funding (2015), four advantages include; it provides a voice against the management of the health care provider, it counters the public releases that always occur during compensation negotiations, it puts the focus on care instead of just profit and it gives a nurse job security. When facilities are looking to save money and cut costs, salaries can be at the top of this list. This usually means cutting jobs or freezing wages. With a union, the wages remain whatever was negotiated, so management couldn't reduce them.
“A nursing union can help to put the focus back onto care because skilled care provides a better change for 100% recovery” (Healthresearchfunding.org, p.2). When nurses can take time to themselves and give time to their families, they can recharge and be better care givers to their patients when they come back to work, rather than felling like they are constantly being over worked.
According to Health Research Funding (2015), the disadvantages of nursing unions include; nursing unions require regular dues, union actions aren’t always effective, the idea of nurses striking is not something many people in the general public support, and it could result in a proactive termination. When nurses go on strike, it is usually because they are feeling over worked and underpaid. However, in any position where people go on strike, the company will just find other individuals who are qualified and willing to do the work. In many cases, this results in the employees going on strike not getting what they want and potentially losing their jobs because they walked out and may have been replaced. The most arguable topic of a nursing union is salaries. While a pro is that a union can stop an organization from eliminating positions or freezing wages, a con would be that typically the wages are limited to a contract. When a facility signs a contract with the union, they will most likely have a base wage for all nurses and an incremental increase annually for the length of the contract. However, if the facility is having viable years and are giving their other employees a 3% increase but the union’s contract only states a 2% increase for the nurses then they would be limited to the 2%. On the flip side if the company was not profitable and only gave 1% to their employees, the nurses would still get the 2% from the contract.
In my opinion unions are not a good fit for nurses. In a way it creates conflict between the nurses and the leadership of the hospital. When nurses are employees of the hospital, they are comfortable with going to leadership and asking for things and buy in to more of what leadership is trying to accomplish when they feel they have a stake in the game.
Reference: (2015). 8 Pros and cons of a nursing labor union. Retrieved from https://healthresearchfunding.org/8-pros-and-cons-of-a-nursing-labor-union/
3.
Re: Topic 6 DQ 2
I must first start off by saying, I was not aware of health care facilities being Unionized. How I feel about Unions in the first place is that they are no good. I am against them due to experiences. A labor union (aka, a trade union) is an organization of workers that is formed to protect and advocate for its members’ interests. Most often, this advocacy takes the form of collective bargaining aimed at improving employees’ wages, hours, working conditions and benefits (Gerardo, 2017). However, this is not they actually do (again speaking by experiences while I worked at a famous hotel in California in my younger years). I believe that a health care facility will affect more the nurses than it will the physicians.
Through collective bargaining it will allows for working professionals to have the right to join together with their colleagues (in this case physicians and nurses) to form a union and negotiate with their employer on important workplace issues (Miller, 2019). Through the process of collective bargaining, employees are able to develop a binding contract that guarantees specific salaries, benefits and other conditions of employment.
There are Pros and there are Cons to everything. Here are a few Pro:
PRO’s
It provides a voice against the management of the health care provider.
It counters the public releases that always occur during compensation negotiations.
It puts the focus on care instead of just profit.
It gives a nurse job security.
Better working conditions
Guaranteed wages and pay increase
Process for addressing grievances and complaints which protects from reprisal and actively facilitate resolutions.
There are other benefits which can include grants for education. Not all unions offer this.
CON’s
Unions Dues. Unions collect initiation and membership fees which are deducted from one’s paycheck. This is a requirement.
Union actions aren't always effective (that’s the true).
The idea of nurses striking is not something many people in the general public support. As a union member one must join in the strike without pay.
Deal with co-worker attitude if one did not join the strike
It could result in a proactive termination.
Procedures may make it difficult to fire nurses for inappropriate behavior or incompetence.
Seniority over performance. Raise are base on how long one has been there.
Union mediation for everything which leads to adversarial relationships between employees and their managers which would lead to complicate things for all.
References:
Gerardo, P. (2017, June 29). Should I Join A Nurses Union? Pros And Cons. Retrieved from Nurse.org Staff: https://nurse.org/articles/pros-and-cons-nursing-unions/
