Issue link: https://nnumagazine.uberflip.com/i/971001
10 "Managers and unit coordinators can't help us with patient care in a CNA/NNU facility." In every CNA/NNU hospital, frontline managers and charge nurses help out all the time. We welcome managers who want to continue to provide direct patient care rather than sit behind desks. We do not allow frontline managers to be counted in the staffing matrix. For example, if the census calls for five RNs, then there should be five full-time, direct-care nurses, not four RNs plus a manager taking patient assignments. CNA/NNU advocates for strict enforcement of the Safe Staffing Ratio law, now in place in California and pending before legislatures in many other states. The law does not allow charge nurses to be counted as part of the staffing ratio. This does not mean that while waiting for a reg- istry nurse or an on-call nurse to come in that a charge nurse or manager cannot help. CNA/NNU also advocates for full-time break RNs rather than making frontline managers and charge nurses do break relief on a routine basis. An RN manager may ONLY accept an assignment to relieve a nurse for an absence from the unit for tests, transferring monitored patients, or for a break, and the manager can only do so if that manager has current validated competency for that specific unit. CNA/NNU's position is derived from California's Title 22: Section 70217, which states: " Nurse Administrators, Nurse Supervisors, Nurse Managers, Charge Nurses, and other licensed nurses shall be included in the calculation of the licensed nurse-to-patient ratio only when those licensed nurses are engaged in providing direct patient care. When a Nurse Administrator, Nurse Supervisor, Nurse Manager, Charge Nurse or other licensed nurse is engaged in activities other than direct patient care, that nurse shall not be included in the ratio. Nurse Administrators, Nurse Supervisors, Nurse Managers, and Charge Nurses who have demonstrated current competency to the hospital in providing care on a particular unit may relieve licensed nurses during breaks, meals, and other routine, expected absences from the unit." Myth #3 Truth: