Nurse News: 15K NYC Nurses Strike as Governor Declares Emergency, The Pitt Golden Globes Win, and Nurse.org Is Hiring

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Welcome to Club Nurse. I'm Colton Lord, your host. By you being here today, it shows me that you are someone who wants to learn, grow, laugh, Connect and just let your emotions flow. We are here to share real stories and hear real life experiences from real people. You are not alone in this, and Club Nurse is here to show you that. Don't forget to follow the show and share today's episode with someone you love. Now let's dive into today's conversation.

Hello everybody, and welcome back to the Club Nurse Podcast. My name is Colton Lord, your host. We are doing some nurse news today. Uh, if you've been following along, uh, we are trying to stay up to date with nurse news. And bring you the most breaking news and most interesting things that are happening around nursing and healthcare. And this week, I really wanted to focus in on the strikes that are happening in New York City. I am sure you have heard of what is going on through social media, but I kind of wanted to dive into it a little bit, talk about it, what it means, why are people striking. I think a lot of us—I've talked about this before—you know, the beginning of my nursing career was in Arizona. It And we didn't have nursing unions where I worked. And so I really didn't understand what was going on or what the big hype was around unions and what they did and why people strike and what, you know, what it even really meant. And I'm not trying to sit here and tell you I'm an expert. I've never been on like a committee or a board for a union, but I have been a part of unions now in my career. And so I have a little bit of insight as to what it means. I've worked places where they've been very close to going on strike. Yeah. I've never done any kind of like strike contracts for facilities that are striking. But let's talk about it. I think it's important to dive into. Let's just kind of start this off though. I just wanted to make a couple announcements. So nurse.org is hiring. If you're looking for a creative endeavor, they're looking for a short-form video creator that is nurse-focused. This is contract and part-time. So nurse.org is a leading nurse media company, helps to shape the future of nurse-focused content and social. There is a Huge social media presence with nurse.org. So it's a really fun opportunity. There's millions and millions and millions of engagements and views and content that goes out every week. There's a lot that goes into it. So what a great opportunity to be a part of something super cool, super awesome. Basically, you can go to nurse.org/news. You can find the article that tells you all of the responsibilities that you'll have, things that you won't be responsible for, and just little requirements that maybe they have as to what they are really looking for, for somebody to come in and And help make some content. I know that I've been kind of keeping you guys up to date on The Pit, which I don't really need to. I don't think anybody that's a fan of the show or has been paying attention knows that they've been sweeping like every award show that they've been a part of. But they just were a part of the Golden Globes. They had many accolades there. They really are standing out at these award shows, as they should. They deserve to be. Let me see here. What exactly did they win at the Golden Globes? I did watch it, by the way. I fell asleep because you know what? When you live on the East Coast, these things are so late. Like, I'm from the West Coast, and that's one of the things that I realized when I moved to the East Coast is everything on TV is so much on so much later out here, um, just because of the time difference. So at the Golden Globes, The Pit won Best Television Series Drama, and for Best Actor in a Drama Series, Noah Wyle. So again, The Pit out there. And in his acceptance speech, he did again mention healthcare workers, nurses, and just giving all that things back to us. So it's appreciated. The show was great. Very representative of healthcare. So thank you. But let's get to it. Let's focus on what I wanted to focus on for the news this week on, on the Club Nurse podcast. So let's talk about striking. So I pulled this up because I wanted to talk about this and kind of just give like a little basic understanding of what, of, of what a picket line is, like what the striking is. So I pulled this up. I literally Googled this so that I could make sure I gave you the most accurate information as to what this exactly means. But a picket line is a group of striking workers who gather at the entrance of their workplace to peacefully protest raise awareness and persuade others, which is workers, customers, the public, to not, not to enter, thereby disrupting business operations and showing solidarity for their cause, often by carrying signs and explaining the dispute. So for anybody out there who's not aware, who does not understand, who has never seen this, I encourage you go look at the Katie Duke, um, go look at Nurse Blake on Instagram. They both have joined forces in the New York City nurses strike as social media content creators, influencers, people with a platform who are raising awareness, and they are there marching with the nurses of New York City. So I really encourage you to go take a look at that. It's really inspiring just to see. I mean, you know, it sucks that they even have to, have to protest and have to strike, I suppose, to get just basic needs met, you know, staffing and, and adequate pay, especially for somewhere like New York City, which is so expensive to live in. And that's what they're asking for, is just these things that are like, give us some safe staffing, safe safe ratios, give us better pay so that we can afford to live comfortably in, in this city. It's a wonderful city. So again, I encourage you to go take a look at Katie Duke or Nurse Blake and see kind of what they're sharing on their, on their platforms. So the purpose of a picket line is to inform, persuade, solidarity, and disrupt. How it works— so typically the workers, which are called picketers, stand at the entrances, gates, or other points of access to the workplace, many of them carrying signs or chanting things as they're walking to peacefully explain the dispute and why they are there. And so crossing the picket line is a term that I kept hearing when I was new to a hospital that had a union and they were about to strike. And I was like, what does this really mean? I don't really understand. That is the act of entering the workplace to work or patronize the business during a strike, which is considered a serious act of disloyalty by strikers and their unions, often labeling those who do as scabs. I've heard this term. I'm sure you've all heard this term as well. And when you get on, you know, I was a travel nurse. I traveled with a company who you could get on their website site, and you could pull up all the contracts, and you would see these contracts that are like, oh, come out, you get $10,000 for 3 shifts or something crazy like that. And it's because these hospitals are in a really bad place. These healthcare systems will literally throw money out because they need to just keep the engine running. And guess who keeps the engine running? The healthcare workers. They are the fuel that keeps the engine of the hospital running and getting money in the door. And so of course they have to, they have to make these crazy contracts for people to come work. And I did see something the other day that I found interesting. It's like, okay, so what do you think about just a travel nurse in general then? It's kind of the same idea. But I think this is just, this is really highlighted. You're really under a microscope and it's really frowned upon to do this because as these nurses are in solidarity and they're there together, you know, bonding and coming together to speak up for what is right and to get them better pay and better staffing, you know, it's frowned upon to see other nurses coming in to collect the paycheck. But I don't, you know, there's two sides to that. I don't be, don't be so quick to judge. You never know the situation that somebody else is in. And you, you know, if you're in a really hard place financially and you see this opportunity, you can't necessarily fault these people. Sometimes you've, you know, you've got kids at home, you've got, you've got to just do what you've got to do to survive. And while it may be frowned upon, you know, they're there to make money, help people who— because people are still going to be sick. Somebody has to be there. But I get it. There's two sides of that because then that's the whole idea. That's the whole idea that these healthcare systems are like, well, we have to keep the engine running. Our fuel. Is running away and not helping us. And so I get it. It really is a double-edged sword. I just think it's important to, you know, to put that out there, to not be so quick to jump down the throats of these people who— these nurses who are going in on strike contracts. While it's not, you know, probably the most ethical or best practice, there's nuances to it. And, you know, people have got to do what they've got to do to survive these days. These— the people striking know, you know, it's hard to survive financially in, in the economy and world we live in. So I think we could all just show a little bit of grace for each other in that sense. But when you know better, you do better as well, because maybe some people don't know what the big issue is with, uh, doing a strike contract.

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So, uh, 15,000 nurses have officially gone on strike. This is the largest in New York City's history. So they walked out at major New York City hospitals after negotiations failed over safe staffing, workplace violence protections, wages, and benefits, escalating one of the most significant labor actions in U.S. nursing history. There were some hospitals— because I think previously when we talked about this last week on the news, there was upwards of like 22,000 nurses, I believe, that they were expecting to walk out. But it sounds like there were some hospitals that were able to avoid the strike. But their core disputes still remain unresolved. But yes, there were several smaller hospitals that had reached a tentative agreement, pulled back strike notices, and were able to keep their nurses kind of on the ground running. I don't know exactly what that means, if the— if it's, you know, they have ongoing negotiations, but they were able to reach some kind of agreement, it sounds like. Union leaders are still emphasizing patient safety and frontline nurse protections as non-negotiable priorities. And this was something that I learned during this as well. So New York's emergency order temporarily opens doors for out-of-state nurses, and this is how they get people to come work who, you know, they post these strike contracts, people sign up and they go. Similar to kind of what happened during COVID a lot of the license barriers or limitations were lifted during the pandemic because we just needed nurses from anywhere. For example, I went and worked in Rhode Island during the pandemic. I did not have a Rhode Island license. They issued me like a temporary license overnight, and that's what I used for most of my contract there. I did end up getting a Rhode Island license because there was talks that they were going to get rid of it. And, you know, I was just paranoid. So I went and got one, but I was practicing on just a temporary license. So this is similar. The governor of New York signed an executive order number 56, which declared a disaster emergency and temporarily waives New York licensure requirements, allowing qualified out-of-state nurses to practice during the strike. So that's how they get people in. And I just, again, This this is not me supporting nurses going and working during a strike and taking these contracts. I think that the term scab is a little bit just feels derogatory. Just not you know that's not it's not cozy. It's not comfy. Again, I can see both sides, but I think that I just I don't know that term just like doesn't sit well with me. Just seems a little a little harsh. But some people could say that what they're doing is also harsh. So why nurses are threatening to strike? We've talked about this: safe staffing, wages and compensation, healthcare benefits. They want the I saw that. Mayor Mondani went on and was speaking and was showing his support about how these CEOs are making millions and millions of dollars. The nurses are not looking for multimillion-dollar salaries. They're just looking for these basic things for their pensions to be safeguarded. These are important and this matters. Okay, so there are some things to know if you are one of the nurses that are going to work these strike contracts. Again, I'm not here to judge you. I just think it's really important that you understand these things. This is on nurse.org/news. There are articles with this written that you can go look at and refer back to. And I think that it is important that you do understand what your contract shows. See the written language of what are the floating expectations? Are there guaranteed hours? What's the cancellation policy that you're walking into or agreement? What unit are you gonna be assigned to? And what, like, just these things matter. Like what's the security and the safety of what you're walking into? There needs to be clear boundaries as to what the expectation really is. If you're coming to New York City and you're not used to being there, this can be really difficult and really stressful. I know during the pandemic when they brought nurses in, they were shuttling and It was a it was really from from the stories I heard, it was a kind of a free-for-all. You just got there; you had no idea where you were being assigned. Didn't matter what your specialty was; they they were just throwing people everywhere—bodies, nurses with a license to go and help. And I'm I knew personally newer nurses who went and bagged some of that money. Very different circumstances during the pandemic, but just know what you're walking into. Avoid filming. Do not engage in conversations with. Anybody really, I think you just keep your head down. You go in there, you work, you help the people you're there to help, make your money, and you get out. That's my recommendation as far as if you're going to pick up these strike contracts again. It's it is frowned upon, and when you have that many nurses, emotions are heightened, and they're trying to fight for things that they deserve. I just feel like this could get a little dicey. I've never been in this situation, really. I haven't. Like I said, I've been a part of a healthcare organization that was very close to striking. I believe I actually it was very awkward for me because I think I was actually a travel nurse at the time. And so you're like, oh, I mean, if they strike, I know them now. I've been here for a while. Do I strike? Like, I don't get paid. I don't know. It's a very touchy subject. So I will let you make your own your own opinion on it and what you feel is morally and ethically right for you. And I am not here to judge that for you. But all right, so that is that's the news this week, guys. I really really really wanted to touch on the strikes in New York City. I think it's a huge headline. I think it's really important to talk about again. I'm not like an expert on unions, all the nuances with them. There are people. Out there who are, but I just encourage you to go to nurse.org/news, look at these articles, read through them, see the things that are being reported. Like I referred you to Katie Duke on Instagram, Nurse Blake was there in New York City. You can even go to the mayor of New York City, Mom Donnie, and go look at his page and see what he's talking about. Look these things up, be informed. It's important. And these things are huge for nursing. And I support the New York City nurses. I'm sending my support to New York City and the nurses. They, again, They live in this like such an expensive city, an amazing city. They deserve to be able to live there and to live comfortable lives. So I really hope that something great comes from this. When nurses and people who of any kind of organization band together and fight for what is right, you always hope that they, they come out on the other side with a little bit of some safer regulations and pay to compensate them for what they're going through. So that is the nurse news this week. Again, my name is Colton Lord. Thank you so much for listening to Club Nurse, and we will see you guys next week. Bye.

From the bottom of my heart, I wanted to thank you for being here at Club Nurse. I hope you gained something valuable from today's episode. And if you did, remember to share this episode with someone that you love. Follow me on socials @NurseDaddies or @ColtonLord17, and be sure to follow nurse.org to stay informed with all of the hottest healthcare topics. Until next time, take care of yourself the way you take care of everyone else. Love ya. Bye. Bye.