Labor relations at the hospital Concerning labor relations, this important factor can determine the quality of your care. Disgruntled employees are not the people I would want to rely on for safe health-care services. Moreover, hospital managers who deal with strikes by importing personnel to cross picket lines are wreaking havoc with life and limb. I have seen many help wanted ads for nurses from agencies who specialize in this endeavor. The large print says, "Nurses desperately needed for critical care, operating rooms and other areas, one hundred dollars per hour." The small print states, "Labor dispute exists." The hospital managers are not going to properly screen such nurses because this is not a normal hiring situation with multiple interviews and reference checks. Any nurse with a license and a warm body who is willing to cross a picket line and lacks professional ethics will be standing at your bedside. It does not take much for a physician or a nurse to inadvertently transform an intravenous medication to a lethal injection. If there is any 'history of a nurse's strike in your institution, call the Nurses' Association of your state and find out what the issues were and how the managers conducted themselves during the dispute. Again, if you cannot stay away from such a place, you should know the kind of people who are in command.