Are Nurses The Modern-Day Slave?
In December, 11 members of an interventional radiology and cardiovascular team at ThedaCare Regional Medical Center-Neenah were offered new jobs at Ascension NE-St. Elizabeth Campus in Appleton, Wisconsin. In the group were 7 healthcare workers of which 4 were R.N.s and the others were radiology technicians. They were offered new jobs with better salary and benefits. [Click for Story]
ThedaCare filed a motion asking a court for a temporary restraining order and injunction to prevent the healthcare workers from transitioning to the other healthcare institution. It is shocking that ThedaCare would file such a motion.
Fortunately, the Judge in this matter denied that motion saying that there was not enough basis to prevent these employees from going forward. “ThedaCare has only itself to blame for failing to maintain a competitive working environment for its medical staff, opting instead to underpay the essential workers and even refusing to make a matching offer to these employees when given ample opportunity to do so.”
It is sad that nurses are becoming the pawns of these and similar actions. These nurses were not allowed to work until this matter was resolved.
Hospitals had better hunker down and figure out how to keep their nurses or nurses are going to continue to leave in droves. This may be the right time to revisit my Nurses Bill of Rights, a critical listing that I created years ago.
Nurses are not asking for more money, but they are asking for things that hospitals can do right now such as to allow nurses to speak their minds, have reasonable and fair assignments, pay more for higher acuity patients and, at the end of the day, leaving them to go home feeling like they have done a great day’s job, just to note a few.
Nurses get to choose where they want to work. Nurses are not slaves and should not be restricted from going to a competitor. This is a free market and nurses can decide where they want to work and under what conditions they find acceptable.
Click here if you would like your own personal copy of The Empowered Nurses’ Bill of Rights.
