Rationale:

In order to substantiate their position, some of the opponents of fair distribution of Break Relief and Action Team assignments have claimed that only a small group of our ICU nurses (about 20%) possess “merit and capability” and are “skilful” enough to perform in a role Break Relief RN basically suggesting that vast majority of our ICU nurses (about 80%) are incompetent to perform in a role of Break Relief RN. Such suggestion is extremely alarming because the Union strongly believes that every ICU RN must be competent to practice in ICU environment. To test if our ICU nurses agree with the Union’s position, the Union has included the following question in the survey:

Do you agree that every ICU RN must be competent to practice in ICU Environment?

All responders (100% of the survey responders) have answered this question by stating: “Yes, I agree. Every ICU RN must be competent to practice in the ICU environment.”.

Statistical Analysis: The survey results clearly demonstrate at 99% Confidence Level, that 100% of our ICU nurses agree that every ICU RN must be competent to practice in ICU environment.

Conclusion: The high precision confidence level of 99% and 0 (Zero) margin of error 0 reinforce the reliability of this result, providing unassailable evidence that our ICU nurses strongly and likely unanimously agree that every ICU RN must be competent to practice in ICU environment are adequately prepared to relieve other ICU nurses for breaks. It should be also noted that this result is totally in line with the Kaiser’s policy of hiring only adequately trained and/or competent nurses with minimum of one year of ICU experience to practice nursing in our ICU. Therefore, a suggestion made by some opponents of fair distribution of Break Relief assignment that about 80% of our ICU nurses lack “merit and capability” and/or are not skillful enough to relieve other nurses for breaks is a preposterous one because if true, it means that our local HR and management have dropped the ball by hiring unqualified nurses and allowing them to practice in our ICU. To make it clear, unlike the opponents of fair distribution of Break Relief assignments, the Union doesn’t believe that we have incompetent nurses practicing in our ICU. The Union believes that a suggestion that only about 20% of our nurses have “merit and capability” and/or are “skillful” enough to relieve other nurses for breaks is highly offensive, demeaning, and unfair to other nurses. Even novice nurses who may have doubts and/or performance anxiety, should be reassured and encouraged to grow professionally.