PROFESSIONALISM AND COLLECTIVE BARGAINING IN NURSING

One of the most contentious areas of unionization has been the health care field. The potential for work stoppages in this area tends to worry the average citizen more that does such potential in almost any other area. In a unanimous decision in 1991, however, the United States Supreme Court upheld the right of professional nurses to form collective bargaining units in hospitals and other health care institutions (Blottin & Brent, 1994, p. 9). Thus, regardless of what some members of the general public may think, regardless of the opposition of hospital administrators, and regardless of the misgivings of some professional nurses, collective bargaining is a reality in professional nursing. This research explores the issue of professionalism in nursing as the concept of professionalism may be affected by collective bargaining by nurses.

It was not until 1974 that the National Labor Relations Act was amended to extend collective bargaining rights to all employees in all health care institutions. From the time of the enactment of the Taft-Hartley Amendment to the Act in 1947 to 1974, collective bargaining rights had been denied to employees of nonprofit hospitals, although the employees of proprietary hospitals had such rights. With the great majority of American hospitals in the nonprofit classification, this restriction meant that most of the country's nurses were denied collect

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estimated that approximately 25 percent of these professional nurses were members of unions. Most of these union members were represented through bargaining units established by their state professional nursing associations. The issues which caused the greatest difficulties for nurses in the consideration of unionization were not money issues (Beletz, 1985, pp. 110-117). They were professional issues. The most important of these professional issues were the following: 1. Would collective bargaining undermine public trust in the commitment of nurses to the general welfare of patients? 2. Would collective bargaining weaken claims by nurses to autonomy in practice? 3. Would collective bargaining strain the relationships between nurses and their colleagues who practice as supervisors and administrators? Advantages and Disadvantages Nurses have traditionally taken quite seriously their commitment to the general welfare of patients (Sargis, 1985, pp. 23-27). In this context, the traditional attitude of nurses has been that collective bargaining will cause the general public to feel that "bread and butter" items take priority over patients' interests with nurses (p. 23). The emphasis in recent literature, howe
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Disadvantages Nurses, Nurses' Association, Amendment Act, Krouse Holloran, Nurses AAIN, collective bargaining, Relations Act, Blottin Brent, Association CSNA, AFL CIO, Nursing Management, health care, professional nurses, pp 23-27, 1992 pp, care delivery, health care delivery, welfare patients, professional nursing, 1985 pp, delivery health care, employees nonprofit, collective bargaining rights, collective bargaining nurses, sargis pp 23-27,
Approximate Word count = 2170
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)

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