Resources, Tools and Information

UAN Message Platform:
NLRB Charge Nurse Decision
June 2006

• This NLRB decision serves no one well – not patients, not nurses, and not hospitals. The ruling reflects a lack of understanding about health care delivery today and the critical role of nurses in patient care.
• There are some very big problems in hospitals today – like a critical shortage of nurses, unsafe staffing ratios, nurses forced to work overtime after shifts that are already too long, and patients who suffer complications and even death that could and should have been prevented. Redefining nurses as supervisors does nothing to address any of those problems. Supporting nurses as union members and patient advocates does.
• Every day, nurses make decisions about a patient’s care. That’s not only our/nurses’ job, it’s required by our code of ethics and our standards of professional practice.
• Some of the decisions nurses make involve directing other staff, including other nurses. Those decisions and directions are critically important to patients, but that doesn’t mean nurses are suddenly transformed into hospital supervisors. We know the difference, our nursing supervisors know the difference and hospitals know the difference. It’s unfortunate that the NLRB doesn’t – for patients, for nurses, and for hospitals.

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