National Nurses United

National Nurse Magazine March 2010

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NewsBriefs_Mar RAD's changes Korea back 4/2/10 6:12 PM Page 13 Eastern Maine Medical Center Nurses Win Sta∞ng Changes MAINE y using their Professional Practice Committee to document changes in staffing and their effect on patient care, nurses at Eastern Maine Medical Center have transformed the working environment in one hospital unit. The campaign started last fall when the nurses, members of the Maine State Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, noticed an increase in the number of assignment despite objection forms being filed by RNs working in the hospital's dialysis unit. The forms indicate that a nurse believes conditions on a unit compromise patient safety and are filed with the Professional Practice Committee, a board of staff nurses empowered by the collective bargaining contract to oversee patient care. "These nurses were expected to work all day long, take call that night, and come in the next day to work," said PPC co-chair Lisa Oliver, RN. "It was horrible." Working through the PPC, Oliver and other nurse leaders decided to conduct a study of conditions on the unit. They followed nurses throughout their shift, documenting each task they performed and how long it took. Then they set up a task force to develop solutions. By the first of this year, the nurses had won changes in the call schedule and convinced the hospital to fill two more fulltime positions on the unit. "Everything that we set for goals at the beginning of our subgroup we achieved," said Oliver. Oliver said when she ran into one of the dialysis nurses recently, the impact of those changes was clear. "Every time I've seen her before, she had the weight of the world on her shoulders, but this time she was lit up like a Christmas tree," Oliver said. "She said 'I slept all night and I know when my day is done, it's done. I can see my family.'" The victory provides one example of how B MARCH 2010 RNs are using their Professional Practice Committees to win gains in safe staffing in states that don't yet have legally mandated staffing ratios. And it's not the only recent win at EMMC. After hospital management this month announced plans to lay off 23 nurses, MSNA/NNOC negotiated an agreement with the hospital that avoids any RN layoffs by creating new positions for nurses displaced from their current jobs. "This is good news for our community," said bargaining unit president Judith Brown, RN. —Staff Report University of California Nurses Take Strike Vote CALIFORNIA urses at University of California medical centers voted overwhelmingly this month to authorize a strike. The 11,000 nurses are in a pitched battle against the university administration, which has refused to abide by the recommendations of a neutral fact-finder to settle the nurses' contract by providing improvements in patient care, wages and benefits. The strike vote is the latest step in a statewide pressure campaign led by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, in which thousands of nurses signed pledges of support for their bargaining committee and dozens of state legislators sent a letter urging the university administration to implement the fact-finder's suggestions. The vote comes amid rampant patient-care problems at the prestigious university medical centers, many linked to poor staffing. At UC Irvine this month, following revelations of faulty narcotics pumps, medication errors and delays in treatment, federal regulators found that the hospital did not meet national safety and quality standards and could lose eligibility for Medicare funding if conditions do not improve. UC Davis Medical Center routinely staffs one-third of its shifts with fewer nurses than indicated by its own patient-acuity system, according to internal hospital documentation. Because they care for some of the state's N 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 sickest patients, UC hospitals are legally required to provide larger numbers of nurses than the minimum mandated by state nurse-to-patient ratio laws. The fact-finder, who was chosen jointly by CNA/NNOC and UC administration, recommended that the university provide break relief to nurses, discuss staffing changes with CNA/ NNOC before they are carried out, and offer a four percent raise to keep wages at UC in line with competitors. While flouting the recommendations, the university has announced record bonuses this year for top executives. For example, UC Los Angeles Medical Center CEO David Feinberg received a 30 percent bonus this year, for a total compensation package of close to $1 million. "The university in its infinite arrogance has seen fit to give executives huge bonuses while not being willing to invest in patient care," said Geri Jenkins, an intensive care nurse at UC San Diego and co-president of CNA/NNOC. "I shouldn't have to make a choice between whether I get lunch or my patients are cared for safely, especially on a 12-hour shift." In their letter, legislators wrote they were "concerned that this year's medical center profits may have in part been due to chronic understaffing and staffing cuts." "We urge you to re-evaluate the fact-finder's recommendations…and keep the UC medical centers back on the path to worldclass status," the letter read. A strike date has not yet been set. —Staff Report N AT I O N A L N U R S E 13

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