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NewsBriefs:Oct Revise 10/15/08 11:53 PM Page 8 WRAP-UP REPORT WEST PALM BEACH, ORLANDO, AND CLEARWATER, FLA. rns from th rou gh ou t Florida joined together from Sept. 15 to 18 in West Palm Beach, Orlando, and Clearwater to attend continuing education classes and learn how they can organize to secure RN control over safe staffing ratios and professional practice in Florida acute-care settings. They reviewed research from numerous studies that address the RN commitment to advocate on behalf of their patients and the effect of staffing ratios on their patient's chances of survival. Instructors also helped them identify comprehensive strategies to build an RN social advocacy movement to achieve strong hospital patient and RN whistle-blower protection mandates. Class participants report leaving with a renewed determination that achievements gained in California, and more recently in Nevada, can also happen for Florida. CHICAGO, ILL. rn leaders of the Cook County Bureau of Health Services bargaining team hit the streets in front of the Federal Reserve Bank in Chicago on Oct. 1, teaming up with local activists and community leaders protesting the bailout of Wall Street while so many of their patients and their families cannot afford healthcare. "Bail out healthcare, not corporate welfare" chanted nurses as busy Chicagoans on their lunch breaks joined in. Nurses wanted to spotlight the government's misplaced priorities in bailing out Wall Street investment banks while leaving communities such as Cook County, with 900,000 uninsured residents, struggling to access basic healthcare services. AUGUSTA, MAINE maine nurses are endorsing two of their own in the election this November. Both are MSNA/CNA/NNOC members running for the Maine House of Representatives. Michael Hiltz, RM is vying to represent Portland, Maine. Hiltz started working as a nurse's assistant to help pay for college and after a short time realized that he wanted to be a RN. Since graduating in 2003, he has worked as an outpatient and inpatient psychiatric nurse with children and adolescents and as an inpatient orthopedic rehabilitation 8 REGISTERED NURSE nurse. "I hope to bring a nurse's perspective to the state capital," says Hiltz, a strong supporter of single-payer, universal healthcare. Rep. Anne Perry, RN, NP is serving her third term in the Legislature and is currently chair of the Committee on Health and Human Services. Perry is a certified family nurse practitioner residing and practicing in Calais. In addition to being a member of MSNA/CNA/NNOC, she is also active with the Maine Advanced Practice Nurses Association, Neighbors Against Drug Abuse, the Substance Abuse Services Commission, and the National Legislative Association of Prescription Drug Pricing. Perry has cosponsored and testified in favor of MSNA/ CNA/NNOC's nurse-to-patient ratio bill. LAS VEGAS, NEV. on aug. 21, more than 40 RNs working for all three campuses of St. Rose Dominican Hospitals delivered petitions containing more than 500 signatures to their employer, Catholic Healthcare West, demanding that it cease recognition of the Service Employees International Union as the nurses' bargaining representative. A plurality of RNs there voted in May to leave SEIU and join CNA/NNOC, but SEIU is exploiting labor law technicalities to stymie the process. SEIU attempted to block the RNs' efforts to deliver the petitions to human resources by requesting that CNA/NNOC RN supporters be removed from the office, but were unsuccessful. St. Rose nurses were heard loud and clear by both CHW and SEIU. Meanwhile, nurses from St. Rose Dominican and Saint Mary's Regional Medical Center in Reno met on Sept. 10 in Oakland, Calif. with RNs from CNA/NNOC's CHW statewide bargaining council. Representing 27 CHW hospitals, the council convened to discuss 2009 master contract negotiations. More than 50 nurses from California, Arizona, and Nevada evaluated various components of a future CNA bargaining survey, formed committees to explore and debate different contract points, and experienced the nationwide fellowship of an organization built by and for nurses. DAYTON, OHIO ohio cna/nnoc nurses are on a mission to garner political and community support for the Ohio Hospital Patient Protection Act. On Aug. 28, Yvonne Currington, RN presentW W W. C A L N U R S E S . O R G ed information about the hazards of unsafe RN staffing to members of the Montgomery County Democrats executive board and requested their support. The board voted overwhelmingly in favor of a resolution endorsing the measure, giving nurses their first official endorsement. A few days later, CNA/NNOC secured the endorsement of the Boonshoft Medical School chapter of the American Medical Student Association. HOUSTON, TEXAS cna/nnoc nurses, healthcare and community activists, and other labor unions and physicians joined together to increase awareness of single-payer insurance for all at a healthcare rally held Oct. 4 in Houston, Texas. CNA/NNOC member Joanne Thompson, RN addressed the group and stressed the need for a single-payer system, which operates much like an improved and expanded Medicare for all. Thompson added that a single-payer system will solve the nation's healthcare crisis and create a more humane, affordable system with one standard of quality care for everyone. For the event, the Houston Metropolitan Committee of CNA/NNOC joined in front of city hall with the Coalition of Working Poor, Healthcare For All Texans, Physicians for a National Health Program, the Houston AFLCIO, Doctors for Change, Houston Peace and Justice Center, Texas NOW, Naral Texas, Center for Research on Women's Disabilities, Live Oak Friends, and Houston Women's Group. In bargaining news, the RN bargaining team at Tenet Health's Cypress Fairbanks Medical Center continues to make major progress in negotiating a first contract, including a tentative agreement to ban mandatory overtime – a first for Texas hospitals. The team has also reached accord on a number of other important issues, including rules governing call offs of staff RNs, health and safety protections, and nondiscrimination in hiring. —staff report OCTOBER 2008