National Nurses United

NewsBriefs.REV_April 6/24/10 2:39 PM Page 12 NEWS BRIEFS Video Footage Mysteriously Disappears from Michigan Hospital MICHIGAN G o approximately 50 miles straight north from the Mackinac Bridge in northern Michigan and just before you reach the Canadian border you'll come to the little town of Sault Ste. Marie (pronounced Soo Saint Marie). It's a former mining town, rich in history, home to the Soo Locks used by freighters to travel from Lake Superior to the lower Great Lakes. It's also home to War Memorial Hospital, which has a long history of anti-union behavior. War Memorial Hospital is well known to the Michigan Nurses Association for the number of Unfair Labor Practice charges the association has had to file against it over the last three years. Most recently, MNA filed a charge against the Hospital for prohibiting employees from talking to a terminated nurse and withholding video evidence that could exonerate the nurse. Where did the video evidence go? This is indeed a mystery. The case involved a mental health patient who was acting out. A nurse was fired for insubordination for refusing to help restrain the patient—a termination MNA is currently fighting. The nurse says that by the time she was asked to help restrain the patient, five people were already subduing her. A security video shows the patient going into a room, then cuts to footage of her being physically restrained on the floor by two people. Approximately four minutes of the video is gone, from the time the patient entered the room until the takedown to the floor. Was there a video machine malfunction? No. Numerous people testified during the nurse's arbitration that they saw the footage before it disappeared. MNA alleges that War Memorial management destroyed the video evidence involved in the grievance by taping over it, even going so far as to instruct a technician to save certain pieces of the video but not the evidence MNA requested. In response to MNA's complaint, the National Labor Relations Board laid down the law: War Memorial must state in writing that employees can talk to the terminated nurse. If any of the relevant video footage is still intact, the NLRB ruled, the hospital must turn it over to MNA. Since the NLRB ruling, the hospital's CEO has made threatening statements to the MNA labor representative and the president of the union, and hospital management sent an email to members of the bargaining unit accusing MNA of lying about the facts of the case. Consequently, MNA has amended the ULP charge to include the threatening statements. "The sheer effrontery of this Hospital is beyond belief," said John Karebian, MNA executive director. "The Employer is deliberately destroying evidence that could return this nurse to work. Their lack of respect for their nurses is appalling." —Ann Kettering Sincox Maine Nurses Hold Patient Advocacy Conference N MAINE early 150 nurses from across Maine gathered in late April at the Maine State Nurses Association's annual conference for education and activism in Northport to discuss advocating for patients in tough economic times. Nurses from nearly 20 hospitals and agencies attended sessions on patient advocacy, technology, and healthcare reform, as well as two clinical continuing education courses on H1N1 preparedness and replacement pain therapies. In the technology class, nurses learned about the different types of technology used in the delivery of patient care, and how they 12 N AT I O N A L N U R S E can sometimes impede nurses from providing safe, effective and therapeutic care. Maine nurses also rolled out another tool to have some control over technology in their workplaces: the Technology Despite Objection form. The forms, to be filled out if technology that a nurse is forced to use interferes with the nursing process, are available through MSNA's Professional Practice Committees. 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 Bonnie Martin, a registered nurse at Eastern Maine Medical Center and member of National Nurses United's nursing practice committee, explained how Professional Practice Committees work to protect patient safety and urged all RNs to report unsafe assignments using MSNA's Assignment Despite Objection forms. "These forms protect your nursing license and your patients' safety," Martin said. The nurses also heard from Dora Mills, Director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, who commended MSNA's commitment to H1N1 preparedness. NNU Legislative Committee Chair Sandy Eaton, RN explained how patients are affected by the recently passed federal healthcare reform law. —Staff Report M AY 2 0 1 0

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