National Nurses United

A P R I L | M AY | J U N E 2 0 1 9 W W W . N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G N A T I O N A L N U R S E 7 ILLINOIS R egistered nurses are filing complaints with the Illinois Department of Public Health and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) against the Univer- sity of Chicago Medical Center (UCMC) charging the hospital is failing to comply with federal and state laws and thereby jeopardizing patient safety. "Nurses across UCMC see every day on every shift that short staffing is causing delays and jeopardizing safe patient care," said Talisa Hardin, a registered nurse in the burn intensive care unit. "Chemotherapy nurses say a lack of nurses in their unit has led to waits of up to four hours for treatment." Nurses say not only is short staffing rampant throughout UCMC, but hospital management is also failing to uphold federal law addressing workplace injuries and Illi- nois law prohibiting mandatory overtime. "State and federal laws are put in place to protect the public. It is greatly disturbing to find that UCMC is flagrantly disregarding statutes designed to protect nurses and patients," said Illinois State Senator Robert Peters. "These complaints let UCMC know their behavior will not be tolerated and they will be held accountable." Registered nurses charge that UCMC is failing to follow the 2008 Nurse Staffing by Patient Acuity Act which requires hospitals in Illinois to implement and post a written staffing plan in each unit that aligns RN staffing with patient care needs. Further- more, nurses say a study of the staffing plans that have been posted, show that UCMC is only staffing according to those plans 54 percent of the time. Studies show that when RNs are forced to care for too many patients at one time, patients are at higher risk of preventable medical errors, falls and injuries, certain medical complications, increased length of hospital stays, and readmissions. Since January 2017, nurses at UCMC have filed more than 1,430 assignment despite objection (ADO) forms detailing their concerns over unsafe staffing. OSHA requires employers to log workers' injuries that require treatment or cause a nurse to miss work. These logs are necessary to evaluate the safety of a workplace, and to implement protections to protect nurses. Although UCMC maintains logs, the logs fail to note what caused the injury. Without this critical information, it is impossible to deter- mine trends of workplace injury or identify remedies to address the problems. Nurses say they are seeing an increase in injuries due to assaults at UCMC. In a 2017 survey of nurses, 32 percent reported being kicked, and 28 percent reported being hit at work. Nurses also report they are being compelled to work mandatory overtime, sometimes as long as six hours of overtime, following completion of their scheduled hours shifts. Not only is mandatory overtime prohibited by Illinois law, it also leads to nurse fatigue and patient safety issues. A 2004 study found that nurses who work shifts of 12.5 hours or longer are three times more likely to make an error in patient care. "One RN who works in ambulatory cardiology was so concerned that her unit had just two nurses instead of the necessary four, she cut her vacation short," said RN Hardin. "She said she feared if nurses were unable to respond within 24 hours to patient calls and emails, those patients would wind up in the emergency room or dying at home." —Staff report Nurses file complaints against UCMC CALIFORNIA R egistered nurses at Barton Memorial Hospital in South Lake Tahoe held a one-day strike on May 24 due to the hospital's failure to negotiate in good faith. Nurses contend that hospital management is refusing to take the necessary steps to retain experienced nurses and schedule the staffing necessary to provide the best patient care possible. "No one wants to go on strike, we want to be at the bedside taking care of our patients," said Kelli Teteak, RN. "I have worked at Barton for 18 years. This is where I get my care, and this is where my family gets care. But Barton has made it clear they don't want us to have a voice in patient care, and they are determined to bust the union. Hospital management is taking puni- tive actions against nurses who are standing up for their rights. The hospital is threaten- ing to impose a four-day lockout against striking nurses. This is a bully tactic aimed at punishing nurses by making it hard for them to provide for their families as they fight for the wellbeing of the community." California Nurses Association has filed unfair labor practices charges with the National Labor Relations Board, accusing hospital management of not bargaining in good faith. The nurses have been in negotia- tions with hospital management since March of 2018. In November 2017, Barton Memorial Hospital RNs voted overwhelm- ingly to join the CNA. "We voted in the union because we need a union to address the bare-bones staffing and the need to retain and recruit experienced nurses to our hospital," said Beth Dameral, RN. "But since we sat down at the table, hospital management has made it clear they are not willing to work with us. They have reneged on promises, they have stalled nego- tiations, and they are withholding informa- tion that we have a right to have. We feel we have no choice but to strike." —Staff report Barton Memorial RNs strike

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