RN's are part of one huge CULT!

http://www.howcultswork.com/

What would happen if nurses and healthcare staff (the ones that actually) work all went on strike simultaniously? Could they then demand better?

I will retire in six years. Halleluja.

The mingling of the business model and nursing will not do the nurse of the patient any good. It is a depressing picture that you paint madwife. What is to become of us? I think of this often but have no answers. Anybody out there with any good ideas? I'm close to the end and am crawling to the finish line. The disturbing thought is that I might have to be a patient!

My honest opinnion is - their is no shortage of money in private/civilian healthcare. No one will ever convince me that when a private civilian Healthcare system's CEO makes million dollar salaries there is a money shortage. It just doen't make ANY sense. How can you pay a multi million dollar salary and have the audacity to cry poor? And ask for state and federal funding, reinbursement , aide and handouts that these greedy crack pots believe(delusionally believe) their institutions are deserving of??Cut that corporate payroll and put it back into the operation of that healthcare institution!! Simple, not rocket science!! Why in anyones right mind would you cut the nursing and medical staff- the very people who have the legal licensed body of knowledge, responsibilty and accountability of that patient's safety? It is a total departure from logic or substance abuse.With this in mind- there is a shortage of nursing JOBS- a 'man made, willfully engineered' job shortage to PROTECT that multi million dollar salary. The rules of good conduct, civil rights, professional ethics have been deliberately ignored, bent and totally chucked out the window to PROTECT that multimillion dollar salary. That's all it is. If Mr/Mrs CEO was truely interestd in quality safe patient care and outcomes that they would want their own family members subjected to- there simply would not be the situation that exists today in healthcare.(poor staffing, patient safety and practice issues and negligence)Benefits aside for the moment. Why would a place of business/employment even ask about something so personal as does the nursing candidate have Genital Herpes or even smoke cigarettes? Can they perform thier job? Do they ask the new hire doctors if they have genital herpes- probably not! do they ask the new hire accountnt if they smoke or have genital herpes- probably not! or the new hire coder or auditor?? Or what about the new hire lawyer in risk management?? Probably not. I bet money on it - they don't!!The only answer I believ to all this- to stop this insanity is to have the government take over the running of these healthcare systems. The government at least respects the laws of it's own. The healthcare industry has become the embarassment of this country because of this greed. Just last week - a federal report on the bureau of labor statistics came out giving alcolades to the the AUTO industry for the creation of thousands of new jobs and described the health care industry as "dissappointing" with reference to job growth. The next sentance in the report was the increase in unemployment in the month of June. This is an embarassment. Looks like the talented business minds are employed in the Auto industry!! (Throw the second rate MBA's to the healthcare industry.)

Well said kcmylorn I couldnt agree more!

"The average compensation nationally for a hospital CEO was $452,400 in 2010 and the average for the CEO of a health system was $683,000, according to a survey conducted by Integrated Healthcare Strategies, a business consultant specializing in the health care industry".http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/hosp...as-997155.htmlSome of these salaries are seven figures. They constantly cry about struggling to make ends meet, yet they can pay top dollar for CEO positions? Can any of us even imagine making over $1 million a year? EVERY YEAR? Yet we have to take unpaid days if we call off sick more than three times in a year? We have to pay $1000 out of pocket for our health care expenses and we WORK for health care facilities? Isn't it ironic? Shouldn't health care workers at least have great health benefits?Yep, I believe you may be right.

A big part of the problem, is that say 25 years ago, the CEO of a corporation used to make 20x the salary of the most populous employee. Now, CEO's demand multiples in the hundreds, not just about 20x. This squeezes the heck out of the rest of the company. This sort of thing is what is killing american companies more than anything.Sheer greed.Jane

And amazingly enough when management and the CEO have family members in the hospital they are given extra staff, the VIP room, all staff is alerted to the fact that there is a VIP pt. So these families never see what really goes on. And you make sure that the pt recieves flawless, seamless care (often to the detriment of your other pts) because you don't want to get your ass fired for not being perfect

To Madwoman 2002,I love it! But more nurses and more patients should know that's how healthcare is run today. There are so many of us that if we could just team up we'd be a force to be reckoned with. But we'd all have to do it. Problem is we believe there is a shortage of jobs, we believe we should be used as shills to cover for hospitals and insurance companies, but we really should be with the patients while others' trained in other fields should be doing that paperwork. Now, we have the science of medicine, the business of medicine and no one considers the Art of Healing. Human connection helps to heal, and unless we get back to basics and help nurture and educate our patients there won't be healing in our healthcare. There will be body mechanics and techies but without human touch we'll have given away our strongest healing tool. Besides, nurses need to look at how else they can be advocates for patients. Defenseless defenders are no good at all. How does our organization back us? And if they do, we should know what they do. I've been searching so I think I'll call them or write to them today, and find out how they have our backs....

KCM...... you are 100% correct! Not 99%. Cutting nurses is a joke. All they have to do is cut a little at the top! All I want to see is::::::: the salary of the top dogs plus the bonuses. They do not get paid by the hour. They get extra bonus which is taxed differently, by making more $ by cutting staff. My fantasy is to have these hugely salaried people as patients in the hospital. Of course the nurse will be told that they have a V.I.P. (big deal). My fantasy is that they are not there for anything serious of course, but that it will take time to get to them, etc. hee hee let them experience the truth.

Quote from *LadyJane*A big part of the problem, is that say 25 years ago, the CEO of a corporation used to make 20x the salary of the most populous employee. Now, CEO's demand multiples in the hundreds, not just about 20x. This squeezes the heck out of the rest of the company. This sort of thing is what is killing american companies more than anything.Sheer greed.Jane