STRIKE!

The RN nurses are on strike as of yesterday at Ingham regional Medical Center (hospital). Ingham is owned by McLaren Health Care. The issue on the table is about staffing. My view on the issue thus far has been the poor reporting by the local news outlets, reporting is taking things for face value, and not doing any investigative reporting to get to the truth. Even my main source, WKAR radio is more interested in raising money right now, then reporting news that affect south Lansing and its burbs.

So I guess I need to do their job for them.

RNs at the hospital work 12 hours shifts, often with little to no lunch. I can't even function without snacks between lunch, that alone no lunch. And for 12 hours! I think its not too hard to see the dangers of going to Ingham. The nurse/patient ratio on a case-by-case, floor-by-floor basis is one of the highest in Michigan, more than other Mclaren owned facilities even! When looking at the ratios, its important to consider the floors, because needs are different. Unfortunately, the news failed to point this tidbit out, spouting out ratios across the board. This strike is to help the citizens of Lansing. Show some support.

A side note, not really sure its on the table, RNs are in the professional medical field, yet Ingham doesn't support a 403B. Now that's pitiful.

McLaren states patients are safe and business is as usual, now that they have contractor nurses in place. Let's look at that in more detail...

- Sounds like patients never were safe with nurses running the long shifts with high ratios.
- In preparation of the strike, surgeries have been postponed, or transferred to other hospitals.
- To meet Ingham standards and guidelines, RNs must go through 3 months of training and be tested for the floor they are hired on. That test is being waved for the replacements.
- True, replacement nurses are RNs as far as the state is concerned. But generally they are used to fill vacancies on weekends at retirement homes! Not in ICUs in hospitals.
- In a true communist nature, The Ingham web site has nothing on the strike, not even a defense. So I guess business is as usual, nothing to see here.

As a final side note, construction workers, working on the new Heart Wing, refused to cross the picket line. I'm sure that won't last, but its nice to know there is some honor still left in the world. Makes you wonder why the other unions at Ingham didn't do the same.