Ohio Nursing Independent Providers Have Options!!

Independent Providers (IPs) in Ohio can now join the Ohio Council for Home Care (OCHC) www.homecareohio.org. Governor Strickland via Executive Order provided Ohio Independent Providers with the right to organize and choose a collective bargaining agent. See the attached brochure. Download ipbrochure2.pdf

There are several thousand IPs (nurses, home health aides, etc.) in Ohio. For additional information about Ohio independent providers, click on the following link of the Ohio Home Care Program  http://www.ohiohcp.org/provider.html. 

TheSEIU is attempting to organize the Ohio IPs. The dues will mostly likely be several hundred dollars a year or a percentage of the IPs income.

What's the best option? Collective bargaining with the SEIU or joining the Ohio Council for Home Care, a trade association that has lobbyied on behalf of Ohio home care agencies and home care consumers for years? What services will the OCHC provide to Ohio IPs?

Do you think Ohio IPs should:

1. IPs should join the OCHC;

2. IPs should join the SEIU;

3. IPs should start their own trade association exclusively for IPs only;

4. IPs should start their own union for IPs only;

5. IPs should start their own combined union and trade association;

6. IP-RNs should join a combined union and professional association like the Ohio Nurses Association (see www.ohnurses.org);

7. IP-LPNs should join the Licensed Practical Nurses Association of Ohio (LPNAO) www.lpnao.org ; or

8. IP-LPNs and IP-RNs should form their own professional association; or

9. IP-LPNs and IP-RNs should form their own combined professional association and union similiar to the Ohio Nurses Association.

Although I am not an IP, I am a home care nurse. IP nurses have options. IP-RNs and IP-LPNs should seriously consider ALL the options including what's in their BEST INTEREST from a professional practice, clinical, financial, business, and legal standpoint when determining the best course of action in this situation.