Nurses join forces with labor union to launch healthcare platform cooperative

With support from the United Health Workers West — a 150,000-member strong union — nurses in California have launched the NursesCan Cooperative to create more opportunities to use their skills in the swiftly-changing healthcare industry.

The motivation to create the cooperative wasn’t only to provide more work opportunities, but also better work opportunities. Licensed vocational nurses are comparable to registered nurses, but those who formed the cooperative said they couldn’t utilize all their skills in most hospitals.

The NursesCan Cooperative, formed by five licensed vocational nurses, recently finished a pilot project providing on-demand, at-home care options for St. John’s Well-Child and Family Center Clinics in South Los Angeles, California, which provides patients the option of having a nurse visit them at their home. The cooperative operates a mobile platform, making it a platform cooperative.

The pilot project proved successful for both the members of the cooperative and St. John’s. The no-show rate for patients dropped dramatically, and St. John’s reported that other quality indicators also improved.

Both the cooperative as well as the union see much potential to grow this model to connect more healthcare providers and nurses. The NursesCan Cooperative is currently seeking new contracts that can allow it to expand and bring on more licensed vocational nurses as member-owners.

The cooperative model also allows the union to better expand to part-time workers who are not always under union representation or receive full benefits. In fact, none of the licensed vocational nurses work for the cooperative full-time — they see this as an opportunity for extra work that can both provide more income, but also allow them to use their skills in ways that isn’t always possible in many hospitals.

Criscitiello sees this model as a way unions can better address workers’ needs, as the traditional model is facing challenges in protecting and bettering the lives of their members.

“If we do the same labor relations we’ve always done, which is show up every three years for negotiations, employers ask for more concessions and we get screwed,” she says. “We have to do something different.”

Criscitiello says she believes this model will receive positive responses from employers who want to utilize on-demand workers more and more. Doing that through a worker cooperative can result in better work for members and happier employers — a win-win. She hopes that their efforts to build this partnership will spur other unions and cooperatives to work closely together, something she does not see happening nearly enough in the healthcare sector or elsewhere.

Source: Shareable

Photograph: © Unsplash