Don’t 'Lean' on Me, Hospital Workers Say

[Scuba]

http://www.labornotes.org/2013/06/dont-lean-me-hospital-workers-say

Today’s hospitals are as committed to running lean as any factory. Highly paid consultants scrutinize hospital processes, measuring “metrics” such as staff-hours-per-patient-day. Who could oppose improving quality or eliminating waste? “But they’re not talking about efficiency in how we provide care,” said DeAnn McEwen, a nursing practice specialist with the California Nurses Association. “It’s really about profits.”

In health care, 50 to 60 percent of operating expense is labor. So there is constant pressure to reduce staff. “What it boils down to,” said John Borsos, secretary-treasurer of the National Union of Healthcare Workers, “is coming up with a way of dumping more work on people.”

...

What can the union do? First is to educate members to see through management’s hype—what labor educator Charley Richardson called the “tricks and traps” designed to lull you into believing you and management have the same concerns at heart. These include joint brainstorming, win-win rhetoric, and trust exercises.

One strategy is to try to get your people onto the lean team—but they probably won’t be picked, and it’s a “slippery slope,” Sheridan-Gonzalez said. Union members on joint committees should treat every meeting as if it were a bargaining session, with two opposing sides. They can say, “We don’t accept your framing. We see this as a potential for harm,” McEwen recommends.

[sigmasix]

1. there is no shortage of american nurses

The nurse shortage meme is a load of lies being perpetuated by the hospital and health care industry owners. They have been in league (illegally) with each other to drive down pay and benefits for nurses for the last couple decades. A nursing degree is one of the most powerful ladders out of poverty available to Americans. The criminally wealthy owners are attempting to convince Americans that we ought to allow them to bring in nurses from outside of the US to work in our hospitals and nursing homes. These foreign nurses are often housed in dorm-like structures during thier stay- this screens them from building relationships with the local community and demanding parity in pay. Hospitals and other health care industry owners pay these "nurses" near minimum wage and deny them basic worker's rights because they are not American citizens. and they insist that american nurses should accept this same treatment if they wish to compete with the shipped-in slave labor the wealthy always use to destroy good American jobs. People are dying in our hospitals at an alarming rate because of this continuing war on nurses being fought by hospitals. If you or your loved one is forced to spend time in the hospital, just remember that the lack of attention is due to the hospital management, not the nurses who are stretched to the max with 10 patients and no help from the hospital board or owners- as they have all subscribed to system-stress managment philosophies. This is a rather repugnant weapon of class warfare, disguised as personell management. These types of destructive, toxic attacks on labor are created by, and designed with the chamber of commerce and other right wing domestic terror organizations. In this form of managment there is high priority placed on overworking employees while underpreparing them, mostly through out-right sabotage, to accomplish thier job description. This "philosphy" enables the owners and management to keep employees' morale and personal worth in the gutter while they rake in even more profits by ignoring under-staffing issues, and the lack of safe, quality care. In the end, the criminally wealthy board members and owners are able to blame all the problems on nurses, as opposed to the wealthy "decision makers". And teabaggers support this approach because they hate meritocracies and wish to see hard working Americans fail to climb out of poverty. How can we maintain a class system if people can work hard and earn a better life?

[BrotherIvan]

2. Rec this post

This is the same crap they've been pulling on teachers for decades. The level of care is plummeting while the cost is skyrocketing. We're being told that the ACA will help that by putting a limit on profit. I don't believe that for a minute. They will just become far more creative at accounting to continue to make their obscene profits on the backs of peoples lives and suffering. It's a sick system.

I support nurses because they are on the front lines and actually provide care. In the hospital, they handle the case, the doctor shows up, looks over the chart, sees the patient for five seconds and gives orders. If you want real information or action, ask your nurse.

[leftstreet]

3. DURec

[a kennedy]

4. Kicking this.....