Issue link: https://nnumagazine.uberflip.com/i/518097
added that some outcome studies on "retention" made no mention that their graduates are under contract to stay in the program for two years. Many of these "residency" programs also stress online training over the traditional, hands-on preceptorship. Versant, in fact, develops computer software for that online training. When pro- grams rely on online learning, they are cheating nurses out of something valuable, said Cathy Kennedy, a neonatal intensive care RN in Sacramento, Calif. "There's something missing when you don't have a face-to-face human," Kennedy said. "It's hard to learn about cultural sensitivity online. You don't get to debrief or vent or ask questions. It's nice for an inexperienced nurse to have an experienced nurse to talk to. A computer doesn't replace a human being." Bass said, based on her 20-plus years of nursing and now precept- ing new nurses, that the preceptorship period is invaluable and cre- ates a foundation upon which the nurse's career will be built. "The new nurse should have plenty of time and opportunity to be integrat- ed into the hospital, to educate herself, to validate her competencies and develop new competencies, and to be given enough time and appropriate assignments to do that," said Bass. "The trend now is to give them less time, and it all ends up affecting the care they provide and retention. If nurses are not going to have a good experience, there's a very high chance she is going to leave." A fter Marina Bass and other staff nurses at Cali- fornia Hospital Medical Center figured out that the 11 new RNs were working for free, they convened through their professional practice committee to brainstorm what to do about the situation. They decided to circulate a petition denouncing the "RN Transition" program, saying that the hospital's claim that it was doing the RNs "a service because the new RNs cannot find employ- ment is absurd" and demanding that the hospital respect the new nurses' licensure and hire them immediately, especially since there were open RN positions. Everybody signed the petition. Then Bass said the next natural step, because the staff nurses believed the program was wrong, was for nurses who were asked to precept the new nurses to refuse to participate, effectively boycotting the pro- gram. The hospital and Rio Hondo College had no choice but to suspend the program, sending out emails in the third week of February to the 11 nurses that there were "logistical" issues and the pro- gram was being put on hold. The poor nurses were in a panic, but quickly learned that the nurses union was advocating for them to be permanently hired. "When I found out the union was fighting for us, we were so excited," said the RN who was the first nurse in her family. "It was a mix of emotions. I remember those waiting days. We were scared that they were going to just cancel the program. We had spent so much time, energy, and money on the program. At the same time, there was a hope at the end that we were going to be hired." Behind the scenes, staff nurses and their union representative were forcefully making the case to Dignity Health, the corporate parent of California Hospital, that the "RN Transition" program was potentially violating a number of labor laws and the nurses' union contract. Within the constraints of the contract, such as giving current staff nurses oppor- tunities to apply for open positions, the hospital must officially hire the 11 nurses, they asserted. To Dignity's credit, management agreed. After a month of being in limbo, the nurses received the good news from the hospital by email that they were being hired and that their official start date would be April 13. "I cried," said the RN. "I think all of us cried." The RNs returned to California Hospital on April 13 for orienta- tion and precepting, but this time, there was a big difference: They were hired staff nurses making $42.19 an hour. "I am so grateful that the union and the nurses stood up for us," said the other new RN we spoke with. "It was so exciting to know that the RNs had pulled together, that the RNs said 'No' to something that they didn't like that was going on. And now we're one of them!" When we contacted the Rio Hondo "RN Transition" course instruc- tor, Catherine Page, RN, with questions about the program, she denied that the nurses were "working for free." Page said that Rio Hondo received grant money from the state to run the "cooperative work experience" and that this year's collaboration with California Hospital was the third time the college has held the course. She also claimed that students were not due refunds of their tuition and fees because the "course is continuing." The new nurses dispute this, and say they have had no contact from the school since the initial email informing them the course was suspended. Bass said that the debacle prompted the union to request bargaining dis- cussions with Dignity to revisit the provision of their contract that addresses preceptor- ships and to make that section uniform among all Dignity facilities. "If these nurses are capable of providing quality care, to not be compensated was not fair," said Bass. "This is really fundamen- tal and a big thing. Everybody was on the same page from day one. That's why we were so united." Emily Wilson is a freelance writer based in the San Francisco Bay Area and Lucia Hwang is editor of National Nurse. "You actually have to pay…It's something to put on your resume to stand out from other new grads to hopefully get a job, but that's not guaranteed at all." A P R I L | M AY 2 0 1 5 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 N A T I O N A L N U R S E 19