National Nurses United

NATIONAL I n late november, more than 100 reg- istered nurses from HCA facilities across the country held a rally outside of HCA's West Florida Division Office in Tampa, Fla. Nurses said their protest was intended to send a message to management about nurse unity and solidarity in the face of misman- agement at their hospitals across the country, and it came ahead of a wave of union contract expirations next year. In 2024, NNOC/NNU nurses at several HCA facilities will begin bargaining new union contracts as their cur- rent agreements reach the end of their terms. Nurses say contract negotiations will be an opportunity to address the same issues they raised at the rally. "HCA is the largest hospital system in the United States, so the standards they set have impacts across health care in the United States, which is why nurses are so disturbed by the way they handle their business," said Marissa Lee, RN at HCA Florida Osceola Regional Medical Center in Kissimmee, Fla. and a CNA/NNOC board member. "When you're setting standards for the entire indus- try, you should be continually raising the bar, not digging yourself a deeper hole to bury it in." "When it comes to staffing, when it comes to recruitment and retention, when it comes to all these ridiculous technologi- cal schemes that only make it harder for nurses to provide high-quality patient care, HCA is failing us and our patients," said Cheryl Rodarmel, RN at Research Medical Center in Kansas City, Mo. "We're so excited to stand alongside our union sib- lings from HCA hospitals nationwide to let management know we're standing together through thick and through thin." —Lucy Diavolo HCA nurses from across the country rally in Florida ILLINOIS R egistered nurses with National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United (NNOC/NNU) joined labor allies on Oct. 3 at a legislative hearing to rebuke industry efforts to reduce staffing in health care systems and nursing homes. This hearing addressed the origins of and practical solutions to the short-staffing and workplace violence crises that put patients at risk and push nurses to strike across Illi- nois medical facilities. Nurses will discuss how the proposed Illinois Safe Patients Limit Act provides a critical pathway to addressing these crises that negatively impact our patients and our communities. Under current law, there is no limit to how many patients a nurse can be responsi- ble for at one time in the state of Illinois. Nurses and health care workers say that must change. "Our hospitals are refusing to hire the appropriate number of nurses required to safely care for our patients," Brenda Lang- ford, RN at Cook County Hospital in Chicago and a CNA/NNOC board member. "It's life threatening to patients and danger- ous for nurses, who experience increased workplace violence and injury while under- staffed. That's why nurses across Illinois health care facilities and nursing homes are striking—we can't allow our patients' health to be put at risk." "The very future of the nursing profes- sion is on the line," Langford continued. "Qualified, licensed nurses leave their jobs at the bedside because their licenses and their patients are being put at risk by these staffing practices. We need the Safe Patient Limits Act to keep more nurses at the bed- side. The law mandating nurse-to-patient ratios has worked in California for years, and it will work here in Illinois. Our patients deserve nothing less." Hospitals are perpetuating the harmful myth of a "nursing shortage" to hide their refusal to staff units appropriately. Data clearly shows there is no true nursing short- age. In 2022, nationwide, there were more than one million registered nurses with active licenses who were not employed as RNs. In Illinois, as of May 2023, there were more than 228,000 actively licensed RNs, while BLS data from May 2022, indicates slightly fewer than 140,000 nurses are actively employed in the state. That indi- cates there are more than 88,000 RNs with active licenses who are not employed as nurses in Illinois. That's not a shortage of nurses; it's a staffing crisis. NNOC/NNU represents more than 6,000 registered nurses across Illinois. —Staff report Nurses fight for state safe staffing law O C T O B E R | N O V E M B E R | D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 3 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 9

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