National Nurses United

NewsBriefs.REV_June REV 7/30/10 6:07 PM Page 10 WRAP-UP REPORT California the legislature's Assembly Health Committee in late June approved the California Universal Healthcare Act, California Nurses Association-sponsored legislation that would establish a private-public partnership to provide quality healthcare for all Californians. A companion bill, SB 810, was approved by the state Senate in January. The legislation would take the approximately $200 billion that California spends annually on healthcare and redirect it into a "Medicare for all" system where care would be paid for by the state but delivered by private providers. "Now, more than ever, we need to improve the delivery of our health services so we can guarantee care for every patient, and do so in a humane and targeted manner," said Geri Jenkins, a co-president of CNA. "The only way to achieve that for our state is through passage of SB 810, which will make sure that our patient care dollars are actually spent on patients instead of on insurance company executives and their outsized bonuses." The bill must be heard and ratified by the full Assembly before it can become law. Florida florida nnoc rns are pushing for safe RNto-patient ratios on many fronts, including at the local government level. In July, RNs testified before the Gulfport City Council to ask that members pass a resolution calling on the legislative delegation that represents Gulfport to support the NNOC-sponsored ratio bill. Once these resolutions are passed, RNs can use them as evidence of community support when lobbying at county level legislative hearings Florida RNs ask for Gulfport City Council's support on ratios. this fall and winter before the state legislative session opens in Tallahassee this spring. Texas Ohio ohio is notorious for its weak or nonexistent regulation of hospitals, and is the only state which does not license hospitals. Since 2006, the state Department of Health has begun requiring hospitals to disclose more data about safety and care and posting the information to a website titled Ohio Hospital Compare, but numbers about RN staffing are still missing. Registered nurses in Ohio with NNOC/NNU have stepped in and been campaigning since January for mandatory posting by Ohio's hospitals of their actual RN-to-patient ratios. NNOC Ohio is now participating in a nurse staffing workgroup which will make recommendations to the Department of Health in September. While RNs in Ohio are working to pass true mandatory ratios, their Healthcare Stat of the Month Estimated percentage of the one million people living with HIV/AIDS in the United States who do not know they are infected Source: Kaiser Family Foundation 10 N AT I O N A L N U R S E short-term goals are to: require posting of all hospital RN-topatient ratios, unit by unit, shift by shift; require posting of the hospitals' rates of "failure to rescue," often linked to poor staffing; and require posting of the hospitals' adverse events, including "never events" and "sentinel events." Thanks to Michelle Mahon, RN of Cleveland, and Beth Stevenson, RN of Columbus, and others for representing the nurses well in the workgroup. 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 newly organized Texas HCA nurses have made tremendous progress in a little more than a month toward growing their union. Facility bargaining committees have been elected at all locations, and some 166 RNs now serve as elected FBC members to support contract negotiations and as nurse representatives in their units. Negotiating committees have also been elected at each location. FBC members are receiving training, bargaining priorities are being discussed, and membership drives are under way in all of the facilities. NNOC-Texas is also strengthening its organization at the state and national levels. In late July, the NNOC/NNU National HCA Bargaining Council convened in Houston and the first-ever NNOC-Texas Bargaining Council met the day after. The new Texas council includes RNs from each of the five HCA facilities, from Tenet's Cypress Fairbanks, and from each of the six NNOC Metro Committees in Texas. Nurses at Tenet Healthcare's Cypress Fairbanks Medical Center in Houston ratified in late June the first collective bargaining agreement for private-sector hospital RNs in Texas history. The contract guarantees RNs the right to serve as patient advocates, including refusing to accept an assignment that would put patients at risk. It also gives staff nurses the right to select the majority of members on the hospital's state-mandated staffing committee, provides paid educational leave, and boosts RN pay by 11 percent over the three-year term. —Staff report JUNE 2010

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