Industry experts say economic forces have dramatically affected how nurses and other health care professionals do their work. The association has negotiated 28 collective-bargaining agreements throughout the state, with approximately 5,800 registered nurses covered by those agreements. The first strike of registered nurses in Ohio occurred at Cleveland's St. Vincent's Charity Hospital in 1969, Shepard recalls. The union has recruited many health care workers in the last several years. Now it is all about the bottom line.
Every decision is made on the basis of dollars and cents.
We are saying loud and clear that the board of directors has the ability to end this. Tucker cites the number of gravely ill elderly patients now admitted to intensive care units with multiple problems. If you put a nurse on the floor with two or three of those patients, that's a lot of work. For 12 hours at a time you have to deal with doctors, families, and ancillary departments. Even the paperwork is more complicated, and yet it is mandatory if the hospital is going to get paid.