Issue of Unionization in the Nursing Profession

Nurses in private and nonprofit hospitals and nursing homes have the right to organize for purposes of collective bargaining subject to the terms outlined in the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Despite their legal right to do so, many nurses have not chosen to unionize. Estimates are that approximately 18 percent of nurse and service workers in acute care hospitals are union members; however, 90 percent of the nation's approximately 6 million healthcare workers are not unionized (Flarey, Yoder, and Barabas, 1992, p. 15). The American Nursing Association (ANA) has established policies to accelerate unionizing efforts and the number of union members in the nursing profession is expected to increase dramatically in the coming decades.

One of the problems with unions is that they favor the traditional approach to healthcare and are resistant to change. Unions are based on a pre-World War II factory model of employment characterized by a rigid labor-management hierarchy. Such a structure cre

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ty revolution. As Rhoades (1987) puts it, "Hospitals and nursing departments are responding to the fight for survival by resorting to business thinking, business language, and business personnel who make high policy decisions" (p. 66). Decentralization in hospitals improves staff morale by moving decisionmaking accountability closer to the patient care unit level. Hospitals that have established the modern approach to healthcare have proven that decentralization can achieve the dual goals of cost containment and increased quality of patient service. In other words, these two goals need not be mutually exclusive: "Cost savings will come from 'turned-on' teams of professionals committed to providing excellence in service delivery" (Rhoades, 1987, p. 54). Nurses often turn to unionization because of the frustration and stress experienced in performing their duties in light of constant pressure to improve productivity. Working conditions and work environment dissatisfaction is widespread in the nursing profession. Among the complaints frequently voiced by members of the profession are "major elements of the practice environment, specifically, a lack of autonomy, supervisor support, and the excessive amount of bureaucratic co
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Approximate Word count = 1563
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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