Rationale:
As previously noted, 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 Break Relief and Action Team roles basically suggesting that vast majority of our ICU nurses (about 80%) nurses are unqualified to perform in Break Relief and Action Team roles. To the contrast, the Union strongly believes that every ICU RN must be competent to practice in ICU environment, and that to be a competent ICU Nurse means to have knowledge, skills, and ability to manage and perform effectively in rapidly changing situations. 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 among the other things, to be a competent ICU nurse also means to have knowledge, skills and ability to manage and effectively perform in rapidly changing situations?
| Choices | Response % | Response Count |
| Yes, I agree. The ICU competence includes the knowledge, skills and ability to manage and effectively handle rapidly changing situations. | 100 | 111 |
| No, it is not necessary for ICU RNs to have the knowledge, skills, and ability to manage and effectively handle rapidly changing situations. | 0 | 0 |
| Any additional comments? | N/A | 8 |
Click here to see all Comments left in response to this Survey Question # 9
Statistical Analysis: The survey results clearly demonstrate at 99% Confidence Level, that 100% of our ICU nurses agree that to be a competent ICU nurse in addition to other qualities also means to have knowledge, skills, and ability to manage and perform effectively in rapidly changing situations.
Conclusion: The high precision confidence level of 99% paired with 0 (Zero) margin of error, reinforce the reliability of this result, providing extremely strong evidence that our ICU nurses strongly and likely unanimously agree that to be a competent ICU nurse, in addition to having other qualities, also means to have knowledge, skills, and ability to manage and perform effectively in rapidly changing situations such as Rapid Response and Code Blue situations. As a matter of undisputable fact, it is totally in line with the Kaiser Policy requiring every ICU nurse to successfully pass written and practical exams to obtain and maintain the ACLS and BLS Certifications as a condition of employment in our ICU.
Therefore, a suggestion made by some opponents of fair distribution of Break Relief and Action Team assignments that vast majority of our ICU nurses are unqualified to perform in Action Team role is not based in reality, and is highly offensive, demeaning, and unfair to other nurses.
