Issue link: https://nnumagazine.uberflip.com/i/198021
NewsBriefs.REV_April 5/8/10 2:28 PM Page 5 beyond a contract's expiration date. Thousands of lawn signs reading "Minnesota Nurses—We Care For You," were immediately snapped up and distributed within days of printing, and the demand spurred a reprint of the popular item. MNA has also blitzed the roads and highways of the Metro area with billboards bearing the same message. Many of the boards are strategically placed where employers see them every day driving to and from work. Nurses are sporting stickers and signing petitions in support of their bargaining teams, while social media forums are buzzing with nurses and friends discussing the negotiations. In less than an hour after MNA posted a message on Facebook, more than 160 people pledged support on an online petition. Nurses continue to speak out on Twitter, Facebook, the MNA Blog and other outlets about their determination to advance innovative staffing proposals that will keep patients safe. The strongest message has been delivered in person, however, by MNA members representing every bargaining unit who crowd behind their negotiating teams in bargaining sessions. The April 6 meeting with Allina Health Care Systems included 500 nurses, spouses and children, dressed in a sea of red t-shirts. Nurses brought their toddlers to demonstrate to employers the impact of the negotiations on children's futures. "They are trying to take away our benefits. When that happens, everyone loses, especially patients," said Lorna Eikelberg, a registered nurse at United Hospital in St. Paul. Eikelberg held up a document for hospital negotiators to see that calculated the financial effect of their proposal to raise the number of days the hospital could send nurses home due to low patient census. The lost wages from such a change, Eikelberg said, would amount to six mortgage payments for her family. United Hospital Bargaining Unit Chair Glenda Cartney, RN announced at the table she was representing "all 6,000 RNs of Allina," and said she had no plans to move backward. "I've lived the '80s," she said. "There's no need to return." The union will conduct informational picketing at several of the hospitals on May 6 and 12 to shine a light on the employers' refusal to discuss staffing issues. —Jan Rabbers APRIL 2010 A Message to the Public: We're Fighting forYour Care By Brenda Gieser, RN, United Hospital A version of the following commentary appeared in the Minneapolis Star Tribune April 15. M ore than 12,000 Minnesota nurses are in the midst of negotiating a new labor contract with six Twin Cities area hospital systems. While the hospitals continue to be about their bottom lines, the bottom line for RNs is quite different. Read on: My name is Brenda, and I will be your registered nurse today. I will be administering medications prescribed to you. I will make sure you do not have allergies to these medications, and if you do have an adverse reaction to the medication, I will take action. I will be watching for signs the medication is working for you. I will deliver your baby, or grandchild, in case the physician does not arrive on time. I will assist you with breastfeeding, watch for hemorrhage and make sure your bladder is functioning after the trauma of childbirth, and I will intervene as needed within my scope of practice. I will assess and address your pain needs before, or when, you ask for pain medications. I will help to re-intubate your preemie neonate in the middle of the night when he extubates himself. In other words, if your new baby stops breathing, I will save his life and help him start breathing again. I will make sure your IV is running. I will initiate CPR if your heart stops or take action if your heart has irregular rhythms. I will check your new surgical incision for bleeding, and reinforce the dressing and call the physician as needed. I will apply a new bag to your colostomy or other stoma, and do so in a manner that helps ease your discomfort, embarrassment, and anxiety. I will educate you and your family about self-catheterization, in a respectful manner. I will lift the heavy CPM machine, making sure you get your therapy as ordered, pre-medicating you with pain meds. I will educate you about your new joint, pain management, importance of routine stretches and exercise. I will remind you of limitations with your new joint. I will suction you if you are a patient with HIV/AIDS, and I will attempt to be assigned to you for continuity of care, not because you are an easy patient to care for, but because studies show continuity of care is best for the patient. I will also care for you if you have MRSA, VRE, H1N1 or other communicable diseases. I will put myself in harm's way when an out-of-control psychotic teen threatens himself, his peers on the unit, my colleagues or me. I will care for an elderly patient with dementia who needs to be fed, bathed and lifted out of bed. I will crush her pills and ask peers if she prefers applesauce or ice cream, so when I feed her the meds prescribed she might take them. I will assess for skin integrity each shift. I will hold your hand when you are dying. I will call a physician in the middle of the night to advocate for my patients, even though I know this particular doctor might be perturbed. I will conduct myself in a manner becoming of a professional RN, on- and off-duty. I will attend seminars and read research articles and study while off-duty to keep myself professionally astute. I may go eight hours without taking a sip of any beverage or using the restroom, or work overtime during a snowstorm or a weekend or a holiday, not because of overtime pay, but because otherwise patients may not have adequate staffing and my colleagues will end up having an awful shift. We are called to this profession. This is not just our job. Nurses deserve a fair labor contract. Nothing more, nothing less. N AT I O N A L N U R S E 5