I’m in my last semester of nursing school and we are taking a class about leadership. We’re learning about unions, the process for collective bargaining, etc. My textbook seems a little biased towards management’s side and it’s frustrating.
It advised hospital nurses to consider the feelings of other healthcare professionals before deciding to unionize because non-unionized healthcare staff will receive smaller benefits packages, less vacation time and less sick days/PTO than unionized nurses. Basically, non-nurses will be jealous and it will cause resentment. The book also said non-unionized healthcare staff may not receive annual salary increases because a nurse’s union costs the facility a lot of money. These reasons could cause strain among members of the healthcare team, harm professionalism and decrease the quality of patient care, and nurses should consider these negatives before trying to unionize
First, the book specifically listed doctors and pharmacists as the non-unionized staff that would be upset with nurse’s unionizing. Yes, it literally said “healthcare staff members, such as doctors and pharmacists, may not get salary increases because of a nurse’s union.” It didn’t even mention CNA’s or medical techs that get paid the least. Why should a nurse care if a doctor of all people doesn’t get a salary increase?Second, why should nurses consider sacrificing better work conditions because other healthcare professions also don’t have that? I feel like the textbook is advising us to suffer with them. We should be telling them to unionize, too. Third, I feel like hospitals can definitely afford salary increases for everyone even with a union, but I could be wrong