Issue link: https://nnumagazine.uberflip.com/i/198078
NewsBriefs:Dec 2 12/18/08 10:54 PM Page 8 WRAP-UP REPORT ILLINOIS against a backdrop of growing recession and more out-of-work and low-income Chicagoans than ever before depending on the Cook County Bureau of Health Services for healthcare, CNA/NNOC registered nurses are confronting the Board of Directors and the county Board of Supervisors over just how many medical provider positions they plan to cut in the 2009 county budget, which must be approved by the end of February. CNA/NNOC's analysis revealed that county leadership is playing games with the budget by calling for adding more than 80 new RN jobs and 400 new positions in medical service areas, but at the same eliminating 900 unspecified full-time positions. CNA/NNOC RNs are concerned that the board will put on the chopping block those health facilities and services whose census figures have been eroded through chronic mismanagement and previous budget cuts. CNA/NNOC RNs have been testifying at budget hearings, joining in town hall meetings, working with allies from the Emergency Network to Save Cook County Health Services (a coalition of CNA/NNOC RNs, members of other unions, the community, and religious groups), publishing letters in the local papers, collecting patient stories, and organizing to ensure the county healthcare budget gets passed without additional loss of funding. On Dec. 8, 35 RNs attended the bureau's first budget hearing at Oak Forest Hospital and told the directors they won't tolerate further cuts, that RN staffing levels are already dangerously too low to furlough staff, and that the recent county sales tax hike must be dedicated to healthcare as promised. "Nurses say no, no, and no again," said Kathy McKinney, RN and Oak Forest steward. "Nurse staffing is at dangerously low levels and we refuse to let nurs- from left: RN Beverly Leonard, Texas State Rep. Terri Hodge, and RN Charlene Basler meet about CNA/NNOC's Texas Hospital Patient Protection Act of 2009. Hodge is the state author of the bill, which was recently presented at the Capitol before hundreds of Texas registered nurses. es or our patients pay for the county's mismanagement. This administration has taught us that we must fight every inch of the way for the rights of nurses and patients. In 2009 we stand ready to fight again." OHIO in september the Ohio hospital industry's so-called "Common-Sense Staffing Law" took effect and hospital staffing plans should be available in January. Ohio RNs know that this phony reform bill will not add up to life-saving staffing changes. The industry devised the law to block true reform and the enforceable, minimum RN-to-patient staffing ratios that the Ohio Hospital Patient Protection Act would provide. While the hospital industry's law does not require adherence to staffing plans, it does state that hospital staffing committees should include at least 50 percent direct-care RNs. CNA/NNOC is strongly encouraging member RNs in Ohio to monitor these staffing plans as hospitals roll them out and share their experiences with the impact, or lack of impact, that the law has on patient care. In addition to the plans, Ohio leadership is also collecting staffing data from as many hospitals and types of care units as possible. The data Ohio RNs provide will be used to reinforce CNA/ NNOC's position for minimum, mandated ratios. Contact CNA/NNOC Ohio organizer Marilyn Albert at malbert@calnurses.org. MAINE rns at calais regional hospital in November celebrated all their hard work paying off in a new two-year contract that gives them a much stronger voice in all 8 REGISTERED NURSE W W W. C A L N U R S E S . O R G patient care issues and better salaries and benefits. RNs won a professional practice committee (PPC), where they can address staffing issues. If management does not accept the PPC's recommendations, then nurses can appeal the issue to an outside special review panel. Nurses will also receive a 7 percent wage increase in the first year and 3.5 percent in the second with enhancements in differentials, call pay, tuition reimbursement, and maternity leave. The new contract also includes protections for patients and nurses regarding new technology implemented at the hospital. In other Maine news, registered nurses at Houlton Regional Hospital concerned about the lack of in-hospital educational courses recently successfully lobbied for a more robust program through their professional practice committee. "We have a clinical ladder program here at the hospital and if there is not an adequate selection of classes offered, nurses would not be able to keep up," said Robyn Boyer, RN and PPC chair. And RNs at Down East Community Hospital in December filed a collective grievance in protest of the facility's recent implementation of electronic charting, also known as electronic medical records (EMR). They charge that the hospital provided little actual training and now that the computers are out on the floors, RN-to-patient assignments have been too high for proper orientation. RNs are spending less time with patients and more time dealing with computer problems. CNA/NNOC/MSNA is demanding more training and a reduced patient assignment until all nurses are properly oriented. —staff report DECEMBER 2008