National Nurses United

NewsBriefs:October 2007 copy 12/27/07 1:01 PM Page 7 UNITING NURSES AT HCA, AMERICA'S BIGGEST HOSPITAL CHAIN egistered nurses working across the country at Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) facilities have launched a campaign to band together through CNA/NNOC to demand safer staffing, better working conditions, and their right to advocate for patients. Already, HCA nurses in Texas have formed patient care advocacy committees at various hospitals and held a number of conferences to strategize how to resolve issues common to nurses working at HCA facilities. And a nationwide electronic newsletter is allowing RNS to share information, experience, and research about trends in the company's financial outlook, performance, and relations with staff. As the largest for-profit hospital corporation in the United States employing more than 50,000 RNs at 160 hospitals and hundreds of other facilities, HCA represents an important bellwether of trends in the hospital industry and influences the nursing practice of a huge segment of RNs. Just as HCA dictates policies from its corporate offices in Nashville, Tenn. and acts as one centralized force, so should HCA nurses, said Malinda Markowitz, an RN at HCA-owned Good Samaritan Hospital in San Jose, Calif. and a member of the CNA/NNOC Council of Presidents. Markowitz noted that during contract negotiations for nurses at her hospital, a common response from HCA has been that they cannot agree to offer certain benefits or rights because the corporation would then need to apply them systemwide. "And I always thought in the back of my mind, 'If RNs work for the same corporation, why would the corporation object to offering a basic benefits or rights package that other RNs in that corporation are already getting?'" said Markowitz. "It's not like HCA can't afford it." Good Samaritan and San Jose Regional Medical Center RNs have won substantial gains as a result of organizing, including annual step increases, real patient-to-staff ratios based on acuity, and pension benefits, in a binding contract which is set to expire in June 2008. RNs hope to use those negotiations as an opportunity to educate HCA RNs systemwide. "We want them to know what R DECEMBER 2007 we have achieved," said Markowitz. "If we can do it, so can they." Already, networking with other HCA nurses has paid off, said Joanne Thompson, a telemetry charge nurse working at HCA's West Houston Medical Center. When the hospital's nursing director was recently replaced by one who relocated from another HCA hospital in Brownsville, the Brownsville RNs briefed the West Houston nurses on the director's background and the turmoil caused by workplace reorganization programs there. "Nurses being linked together and sharing information is so important," said Thompson. "It's the only way we can have a say in what goes on in our practice." At her hospital, Thompson said that nurses have formed a patient care advocacy committee to solve problems in their hospital. They meet regularly, make plans, and address their concerns directly to management. Some of the issues they are working on include weekend differentials, unsafe patient loads, and unsafe floating. And they are educating each other through the use of bulletin boards on their rights as RNs. At Methodist Healthcare system in San Antonio, Texas, nurses were recently asked to sign a code of conduct that prohibits them from criticizing the hospital "at work and in the community" or making "negative comments" about workloads, and requires them to praise the system at all times. Outraged by this infringement on their free speech rights and on their obligation to act as patient advocates under the Texas Nurse Practice Act, HCA nurses are working through CNA/ NNOC to force the hospital chain to rescind this code. Markowitz sent an official letter to Jack Bovender, the CEO of HCA, and nurses in several states are busy collecting hundreds of postcards objecting to these rules. "I was just really brokenhearted," said Suella Davis, an RN at Methodist who's active with CNA/NNOC and refused to sign the code. "I felt like it degraded the nursing profession. This is just the first step of more control for Methodist HCA and corporate America. If we don't stand together, it's going to be the next hospital and the next hospital." A delegation of nurse leaders working at W W W. C A L N U R S E S . O R G Texas and Tennessee HCA hospitals is planning an educational visit to California HCA nurse leaders in the coming year. They expect to sit in on a facility bargaining meeting for San Jose Regional Medical Center and Good Samaritan Hospital, attend a professional practice committee meeting, and visit their colleagues to learn more about how they have made substantial improvements in their work lives. —staff report California minimum RN-to-patient ratios are set to improve in certain units as of Jan. 1, 2008. Here is a chart for your reference. Know the numbers. Stay informed. REGISTERED NURSE 7

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