Professionalism and collective bargaining: a new reality for nurses and management

The author reviews the literature on labor relations in hospitals, analyzing the opinions and actions of administrators as well as staff. She links collective organization among nurses with a new attitude toward nurses' professionalism, and concludes that health care organizations must accept the "new reality" of collective bargaining. The author further suggests that managers and staff adopt cooperative rather than adversarial roles in order to foster quality patient care and to meet future challenges.