I used to work as a nursing assistant for the surgical unit of a hospital.
The hospital I used to work at would habitually overwork its employees with the full knowledge that it was doing so. It would make transfer after transfer from other areas (some as many as 60 miles away) until there were days when literally each and every bed was full. This was fine when fully staffed, but as the year drew closer to its end, people would take their days off to the point where the average person working then had three to five times a higher workload and were doing the work of said three to five people. Note that without the transfers (which were all voluntary and decided by the hospital), the hospital would not even have to be fully staffed in order to adapt to state guidelines. Also, there were times gravely ill patients did not survive the 60 plus mile journey, and there was nothing the families could do about it because they would sign paperwork beforehand preventing them from doing so and were told that the journey would be the best thing they could do for their loved one-basically a scam by the state allowing this to continue. If their family member died, it would always be attributed to their condition.
Rather than decreasing transfers, incorporating a better system to take days off, or simply hiring more people, the hospital decided to just throw increasing amounts of money at the few people remaining. 1.75 to 2 times the normal pay. You made bank, but you basically exchanged it for your soul, and with the amount of work you were doing, you really deserved 3 to 5 times the normal pay. Not to mention this made it to where the only staff left were doing it for the money, which is awful when it comes to patient care. I would discuss this issue with them, especially when it came to unionization, and their mantra towards me was always, “I need the money. I need the money. I need the money.” Yikes. I do not want you as my nurse if that's your mantra.
As for the unionization itself, I was the only one who ever mentioned it. Usually, the coworkers responded with fear, either due to the fact that they were brand spanking new (I mean, I was as well. I guess they just didn't have a spine?) or they built enough experience based on not setting boundaries and not having a personal life that any new information would shatter their tiny universes.
People started quitting left and right, myself included, and working for home health care, a private practice, or a medical facility associated with the hospital that wasn't the hospital instead. I'm considering looking for another job in the medical field, and will most likely work for the latter option so I can continue to build experience for the hospital system without actually working for the hospital.
Get absolutely wrecked, hospital administration.
I honestly am surprised at this point that the hospital hasn't shut its doors, but a mixture of female low self-worth, agency staffing making absolute bank, it being slightly difficult to find another job, and sheer guilt at not providing patient care is keeping the hospital hanging by a thread.
Moral of the story: for the love of God, if you possibly can, stay in your local hospital and don't believe whatever bullshit you hear about bigger hospitals. Bigger does not mean better. Unless you absolutely need a procedure done that is only offered at a bigger hospital, the amount of things the bigger hospital can do is not worth risking your life and the lives of those around you by having fewer staff.
Also, advocate for the building of more hospitals. And all the other things I mentioned above.