California Patients and Nurses
Win minimum staffing ratios
Surrounded by the board of directors of the California Nurses Association, Governor Gray Davis unveiled the first-in-the-nation, minimum nurse-to-patient ratios on January 22. "We simply have to have more nurses in California hospitals if we're going to do justice to the patients who come in for critical care. We have to provide better care for people who come into the hospital, and more nurses means better care." Nurses and patients have campaigned for 10 years to win this legislation. The hospitals vigorously opposed it. The minimum nurse to patient ratios in California are:
1:2 ICU, CCU, Neo-natal Intensive Care
1:1 OR
1:2 PACU
1:6 Med Surg -- moving to 1:5 in 12 to 18 months
1:4 Step-down/Telemetry
1:2 Labor and Delivery
1:4 Pediatrics
1:4 Intermediate care Nursery
"No other state or governor in the US has taken such a profound and courageous step in the face of the heated opposition of the powerful health care industry" said Kay McVay, President of the California Nurses Association. "These ratios will help us bring nurses back to the bedside," McVay asserted. The ratios are minimums only. The governor has set aside $60 million for nursing education to fill the increased demand for nurses.
For more information on the new California law, go to <http://www.calnurse.org>.
Kentucky Legislation on Safe Staffing and Forced Overtime
Rep. Joni Jenkins has introduced HB 91, the Patients' Bill of Rights, in the Kentucky House of Representatives. The bill will assure safer staffing and protect patients and nurses against forced overtime. HB 91 is now with the House Health and Welfare Committee.
Please contact the members of the Health and Welfare Committee. You can leave a message for each one of them at: 1-800-372-7181.
Ask them to vote for safe staffing and an end to forced overtime by voting for HB 91. Leave your name and your phone number and ask that they return your call. It is crucial that all 16 of these people hear from many nurses and patients. Your input is vital if we are to move ahead.
You can also e-mail them. Some of the nurses who have taken the time to write to them are getting positive responses.
Rep. Tom Burch: tom.burch@lrc.state.ky.us
Rep. Paul Bather: <http://www.lrc.state.ky.us/Mailform/bather.htm>
Rep. Bob DeWeese: bob.deweese@lrc.state.ky.us
Rep. Stephen Nunn: snunnstaterep@glasgow-ky.com
Rep. Kathy Stein: kathy.stein@lrc.state.ky.us
Rep. John A. Arnold Jr: john.arnold@lrc.state.ky.us
Rep. Kevin Bratcher: kevin.bratcher@lrc.state.ky.us
Rep. Brian Crall: brian.crall@lrc.state.ky.us
Rep. Robert Damron: robert.damron@lrc.state.ky.us
Rep. James Gooch: jim.gooch@lrc.state.ky.us
Rep. Bob Heleringer: bob.heleringer@lrc.state.ky.us
Rep. Joni Jenkins (sponsor of HB 91): joni.jenkins@lrc.state.ky.us
Rep. Mary Lou Marzian: marylou.marzian@lrc.state.ky.us
Rep. Ruth Ann Palumbo: ruthann.palumbo@lrc.state.ky.us
Rep. Jon David Reinhardt: jondavid.reinhardt@lrc.state.ky.us
Rep. Susan Westrom: <http://www.lrc.state.ky.us/Mailform/westrom.htm>
Please let NPO know of the response you get from any of these.
Nurses Professional Organization, AFSCME, (502) 459-3393
Position Statement on RN Staffing Ratio
<http://www.calnurse.org/12202/posrnlvn202.html>
California Nurses Association
Frequently Asked Questions about California's New Ratios Law
<http://www.calnurse.org/cna/12202/faq2402.html>
Gerard Brogan, RN, California Nurses Association, February 5, 2002
AB 394, the Safe Staffing Law, requires minimum nurse-to-patient ratios for general acute care hospitals in California. The law also requires additional staff as needed based on individual patient care needs, establishes limits on the unsafe use of unlicensed assistive personnel and unsafe assignment of RNs (floating), and affirms legal scope of practice for licensed nurses. The law is similar to minimum safety standards in other areas of public life, such as staffing ratios for airlines and day care centers and limits on class sizes. The California Nurses Association sponsored AB 394, part of a 10-year campaign by CNA for safe staffing ratios. The law was signed by Governor Gray Davis in October 1999 and authored by now State Sen. Sheila Kuehl (D-Los Angeles). AB 394 stipulated that the Department of Health Services would determine the specific ratios, which were announced by Gov. Davis on January 22, 2002. ...
Nurse legislation is necessary
<http://www.post-gazette.com/businessnews/20020205bizletters0205bnp6.asp>
Julie Semente, RN, Staten Island, NY, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 05, 2002
"We will not legislate ourselves out of this ... Efforts to legislate staffing levels and prohibit mandatory overtime are misguided. They do not address the root cause of the problem, which is the unattractiveness of the profession."
As a Registered Nurse, that statement [Private Sector, Jan. 22] sent up the red flag for me. Anybody who thinks staffing levels and forced overtime do not have to immediately be corrected, are not part of the root cause of the shortage of nurses willing to work in hospitals and are not what is making the profession unattractive does not understand or hear a word of what nurses are saying. We all know of places of employment where people say, "You can't pay me enough to work in that hell-hole" or "I wouldn't work there if they paid me a million dollars." ...
I need my nurse
<http://www.post-gazette.com/businessnews/20020205bizletters0205bnp6.asp>
Betty Malone, Penn Hills, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 05, 2002
In response to Rosanne Clementi Saunders' Jan. 22 column, nurses are so very much in need, 95 percent of them are nurses in excellence, persons of worth. A nurse's kindness and compassion were heartfelt and sincere; she is a great asset to all of our hospitals, home health care including private duty. To have layoffs in the nursing field is not here in Pittsburgh because so many more are needed. Compensation for nurses is not enough for what they do. Skilled nurses and senior nurses are the ones who train other nurses who are new and become so productive to our hospitals, physicians, dietitians, physical therapists, pharmacists, laboratories, radiology technologists, social workers, aides and assistants, as Saunders listed. ...
The value in adding nurses
<http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/letters/story/1584149p-1660379c.html>
Sacramento Bee, February 5, 2002
Re "Nursing and politics," Jan. 25: The Bee apparently fails to recognize the value to patients of adding at least 5,000 more nurses to hospital staffs statewide. While the proposed minimum nurse-to-patient ratios announced by Gov. Gray Davis will lead to better care for patients statewide, these ratios will have their greatest impact on specific hospitals that have substandard staffing by forcing them to maintain a minimum, safe level. ... Diana M. Bontá, RN, Sacramento, Director, Department of Health Services
As working registered nurses, we are concerned and appalled at The Bee's disregard for the safety of our patients. Thousands of bedside staff nurses, California Nurses Association members, have struggled for more than 10 years to achieve state-mandated ratios. These ratios are the result of thousands of horror stories from patients, nurses, doctors and family members. ... Dawn Love, RN, Sacramento, & nine other RNs
The new nurse to patient ratios sound good on the surface, but patients beware. The title of "nurse" includes registered nurses as well as licensed vocational nurses. Since LVNs make an average of $10 to $12 an hour less than RNs, they are already being used in hospitals, and it's quite possible that we'll be seeing an increase in the number of LVNs hired so that hospitals can comply with these ratios at a lower cost. ... Pia Adauto, Sacramento
More is better for nurses
<http://www.examiner.com/opinion/default.jsp?story=op.letters.0205w>
Kevin Reilly, Alameda, San Francisco Examiner, February 5, 2002
WARREN Hinckle didn't get the story quite right ("Nurses and politics," The Examiner, Jan. 30). He was correct that the proposed nurse-to-patient staffing ratio announced by Gov. Gray Davis is 1-to-6. He neglected to say that is slated to go to one-to-five within a year and a half. Also, these numbers apply only to medical-surgical units. In nurseries, children's and emergency units the ratio proposed by the state is 1-to-4, and in intensive care and postoperative units it's 1-to-2. Despite what they are saying publicly, any Kaiser registered nurse can attest that, taking these categories into consideration, Kaiser comes up quite short of the new goals. The DHS regulations are mandatory and when they go into effect will improve the situation in more than 80 percent of the states' hospitals. ...
The state's nurse-patient ratios
<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/02/06/ED191377.DTL>
Diana M. Bontá, Director, Department of Health Services, Sacramento, February 6, 2002
Editor -- It's obvious that hospital patients and nurses understand what Joanne Spetz doesn't: More nurses will lead to better patient care ("Ratios are a good start, but don't celebrate yet," Open Forum, Jan. 30). The newly proposed nurse-to-patient ratios are an effort to establish a minimum, safe standard -- not the optimal staffing level for patients. These ratios will have their greatest impact on hospitals that have inadequate staffing. Spetz asks if hospitals might use the minimums as an opportunity to reduce staff. She ignores the fact that state law requires all hospitals to meet the nursing care needs of each individual patient. Sicker patients may require more nurses than the minimum standard. ...
Hinckle off-base
<http://www.examiner.com/opinion/default.jsp?story=op.letters.0207w>
Kay McVay, RN, Concord, President, California Nurses Association, February 7, 2002
IN his specious attack on the California Nurses Association, Warren Hinckle has managed to turn the world on its head ("Nurses and Politics," The Examiner, Jan. 30). The minimum nurse-to-patient ratios established by Gov. Gray Davis and the state of California will, when finalized after regulatory review, be a quantum leap forward for patients and nurses across California. No other state or governor in the United States has taken such a profound and courageous step - in the face of the heated opposition of the powerful health care industry, led by the very Kaiser Permanente corporation which Mr. Hinckle apparently adores. ...
Nurse-To-Patient Ratios Proposal Will Strengthen Patient-Care
Safety Net, But Broader Solutions Still Needed
<http://ana.org/pressrel/2002/pr0123.htm>
American Nurses Association, January 23, 2002
Washington, DC -- The American Nurses Association (ANA) today congratulated California Gov. Gray Davis for his proposed minimum nurse-to-patient ratios in acute-care facilities, stating that the governor's plan represents a "positive component in a multi-dimensional quest" to improve patient care and stem a looming shortage of nurses. "We agree with Gov. Davis' assessment that government intervention is necessary when the marketplace is not protecting patients, and we commend the governor both for putting patient-care concerns first and for addressing a nurse staffing crisis that is fast reaching crisis proportions, not just in California but across the nation," said ANA President Mary E. Foley, MS, RN. But Foley, a California nurse, was also quick to caution that "a quick-cure, one-size-fits-all formulaic approach" such as that used by numerically-derived nurse-patient ratios, would not solve the problem, and that "ratios alone are not the answer" because they do not capture the complexity of patient needs. ...
New nursing group divides ANA: AARN piggybacks on CNA's success, fights for nurse-staffing ratios
<http://www.modernhealthcare.com/currentissue/topten.php3?refid=8386&db=mh99up&published=20020211>
Jeff Tieman, Modern Healthcare, February 11, 2002
State nurses who broke away from the American Nurses Association are forming a new, national organization that could broaden the influence of the aggressive and action-oriented California Nurses Association.
The nascent group, called the American Association of Registered Nurses, could initially represent as many as 70,000 nurses from California, Massachusetts, Maine and Pennsylvania. Other states including Arizona, Missouri and New York have expressed interest in possibly joining the new association, organizers said. The ANA represents 2.6 million registered nurses (sic).
The new group's formation comes at a time when the nursing profession has garnered national attention. Earlier this month two separate studies quantified a ³severe shortage of healthcare workers² that includes a 13% vacancy rate among registered nurses. Meanwhile, last month California became the first state to adopt minimum nurse-to-patient ratios, a move that thrilled nursing groups but has been met with resistance from other camps, including the hospitals that will have to foot the bill.
At a meeting last week in San Diego, the state groups identified legislative priorities for their new association, discussed workplace improvements it intends to promote, and hired a lobbyist to represent its interests in Washington. The AARN also would serve as a union representing its members' interest in labor negotiations.
The AARN ³is a chance for the hands-on, direct-care nurse, no matter what the setting, to have a national voice and an eye and ear in Washington to keep on top of what's happening,² said Kay McVay, president of the 40,000-member California Nurses Association.
The new group's supporters said the success the CNA has had in pushing its agenda in California would move eastward as the AARN develops. The CNA sponsored California's first-of-its-kind nurse-staffing law, for which the state proposed ratios last month. Using the CNA's experience and resources, the AARN could help make mandatory staffing ratios more common, said Bill Cruice, director of the 4,500-member Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, another founding member.
Perhaps the most vocal and politically active nurse group in the country, the CNA broke away from the ANA in 1995, citing the ANA's lack of action on the legislative and labor fronts. The Massachusetts nurses also left the organization nearly a year ago, and Maine's nurses bolted from the ANA shortly thereafter.
The ANA ³has been far too moderate in its position and has failed in helping front-line nurses achieve safe working and practice conditions and the clout they need to provide the care patients deserve,² said David Schildmeier, a spokesman for the 20,000-member Massachusetts Nurses Association.
ANA spokeswoman Cindy Price said her group viewed the AARN ³as simply trying to emulate and duplicate what the ANA has and is already doing ... Splintering off creates more fragmentation, and it diminishes the voice of nursing in political and policy arenas.²
The ANA is the largest, oldest and best group representing nurses, said Joseph Niemczura, who heads a 100-member ANA chapter in Maine (Emphasis added - Editor). The ANA's resources, he said, ³would be impossible to duplicate.²
But that's not how the new association's founders see the matter.
³If (the ANA) represented nurses it would be all right, but they represent administration and possibly academia,² McVay said. ³They do not, in my opinion, represent direct-care nurses.²
The AARN has not been incorporated and has not applied for not-for-profit association status, sources said. McVay said she was not ready to say when the group would make its existence legally official.
Entire contents Copyright 1996 - 2002 by Crain Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
Nurse-Patient Ratios in New England?
Nurse union officials in Massachusetts and Maine are hoping their state legislators will follow the lead of California Gov. Gray Davis. Last week, Davis released a set of rules regarding nurse-to-patient staffing ratios for California¹s acute care hospitals.
California is the first state in the nation to regulate nurse staffing by mandating nurse-to-patient ratios, a measure the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) sees as an essential protection for patients, as well as a vehicle for ensuring working conditions that will end the growing nursing shortage.
The MNA has been fighting for similar regulations for more than 5 years and this year supports a bill before the legislature (HB 1186) that would mirror legislation filed by the California Nurses Association and passed by the California legislature in 1999 (AB 394). That bill required the California Department of Health Services (CDHS) to establish minimum nurse-to-patient ratios by licensed nurses and by hospital unit.
³These are outstanding ratios that will dramatically improve the care patients receive in California Hospitals,² said Karen Higgins, president of the MNA and an intensive care unit nurse who works at Boston Medical Center. ³The most important factor contributing to a nurse¹s ability to deliver safe, quality care is the number of patients he or she is assigned. In recent years, nurses¹ patient assignments have reached dangerous levels. It¹s not uncommon for Massachusetts med/surg nurses to be assigned seven to as many as 12 patients, which is patently dangerous.²
The ratios contained in California¹s AB 394 established a minimum staffing level and also emphasized that hospitals must continue to comply with current statutory requirements to base staffing upon patient acuity, even if that means increasing staff above the minimum ratio.
Higgins also pointed to the impact the regulation of nurse staffing will have on the growing nursing shortage. According to the MNA, a number of recent surveys of nurses has demonstrated that as many as one in five nurses is considering leaving the profession in the next year. However, most also said they would remain at the bedside if conditions improved.
³In Massachusetts we have the highest per capita population of nurses in the nation, yet we are facing a shortage,² Higgins said. ³The reason is nurses are walking away from the bedside because they don¹t feel safe practicing in the current environment. The best means of getting those nurses back is to impose ratios as has been done in California.²
The MNA furthered its point by comparing the current staffing issue in the United States with that of Australia¹s. In Victoria, Australia, similar staffing ratios were passed more than a year ago, and since then more than 2,100 nurses came back to the bedside to work under the improved conditions.
The rules put forth by California Gov. Gray Davis must go through a regulatory review process.
Meanwhile, the Maine State Nurses Association (MSNA) is continuing the push for safe staffing levels in the state¹s health care facilities.
Last year, Sen. Peggy Pendleton (D-Scarborough) introduced LD 1085, a bill that was initiated by the MSNA as an attempt to address unsafe staffing practices that the union felt put Maine patients in jeopardy. Legislators agreed to try (to) address the issue through rulemaking instead of statutes. The rulemaking changes will occur within the Department of Licensing and Certification (DHS) and will be the first step taken to address unsafe staffing in Maine.
³What we are working on now is strengthening the language in regards to staffing patterns so it does reflect nurse/patient ratios,² said Pat Philbrook, RNC, NP, executive director of the MSNA. ³We have also told the legislature that if the rulemaking does not work and they don¹t get down to safe patterns of staffing that we are going to come back and introduce the ratios in a bill.²
A public hearing addressing proposed changes is expected to take place sometime in March or April. The DHS will schedule a hearing on expanding rules that address the staffing plans of Maine hospitals. There is hope this mechanism will work; already there is agreement that direct-care nurses will be involved with the validation of staffing plans.
Nurses to talk about union
Tucson nurses frustrated with working conditions at local hospitals plan to meet Thursday evening to talk about forming a union. The nurses say their biggest concerns are staffing ratios - having to care for too many patients at a time - and having to work overtime at the end of a draining 12-hour shift. Hospitals blame nurses' problems on a nationwide nursing shortage that affects hospitals in Arizona more than those in most other states. Nurses say the shortage would not exist if nurses were treated with more respect, paid better and not forced to care for more patients than they can safely manage. "I would go home every night and wonder: 'Did I miss something? Did I do anything to harm a patient?' " said Michele Sullivan, who used to work in a hospital unit where she frequently had from seven to 10 seriously ill patients to monitor. She has felt better, she said, since she switched to working in the hospital's emergency room. The pace can be frantic, she said, but patients are either treated and sent home or admitted to a hospital room where they are another nurse's responsibility. Peg Mead, a nurse with 22 years of hospital experience, described her frustration. "One of the reasons nurses leave nursing is because you go home at the end of your shift feeling very badly. I used to feel good about my work. Now I often go home feeling discouraged," said Mead, who plans to retire soon and work as a consultant. Such doubts are widespread among local nurses, said Valerie Gomes, who quit nursing three years ago after working in two local hospitals where, she said, her ability to care for her patients was routinely compromised by short staffing. She then founded the Southern Arizona Nurses Coalition, which is hosting Thursday's meeting. She said Tucson nurses are nowhere near ready to vote on a union. "I think a union is essential for nurses," Gomes said. "You have to have contract protection. Otherwise, your job, and your patients' safety, are on the line every day." ...
UMC to increase nursing coverage nurse ratio
University Medical Center pledged Friday to hire more nurses and dramatically reduce the number of patients many of its nurses have to care for. Nurses who staff the hospital's six medical-surgical units typically have six or seven patients to care for at one time. Marty Enriquez, UMC vice president for patient care services, told nurses Friday that nurse-patient ratios in those units would be reduced to one nurse to every four patients by April 1. The announcement came the day after a meeting of the Southern Arizona Nurses Coalition drew nearly 200 nurses, union representatives and other supporters to discuss what the coalition says are unsafe nurse-patient ratios in local hospitals. ...
Nurses, seniors lobby lawmakers
<http://www.masslive.com/springfield/unionnews/index.ssf?/news/pstories/ae29staf.html>
John F. Lauerman, Springfield Union-News, February 9, 2002
SPRINGFIELD ‹ It seems like the perfect marriage: nurses working side-by-side with seniors to get health care legislation passed. Representatives from the Massachusetts Senior Action Council and the Massachusetts Nurses Association held a hearing with state lawmakers yesterday morning at the Independence House residence. Their hope was to garner support for the so-called "Safe Staffing Bill" that would set minimum staffing levels for units and services at hospitals, nursing homes and other institutions. State Sen. Linda J. Melconian, D-Springfield, said the patient and provider groups would need to be especially active to get safe staffing regulations on the books. "This has to be on the radar screen for anything to happen," she said. "The only way to do that is to build an effective group. There are so many competing interests for the Legislature's attention right now, and they have to make it one of the top priorities." Older people and nurses have taken the message to heart. They have already begun planning a joint lobbying session for March 12 when they will descend on Beacon Hill to take their message directly to lawmakers. ...
Editorial Comment: Here are some other approaches to solving the global nursing shortage:
Bill could cure nurse shortage
Gov. Jeb Bush and Lt. Gov. Frank Brogan yesterday announced their support of a bill designed to attract and keep more nurses in Florida. The Nursing Shortage Solutions Act addresses the increasing percentage of vacant nursing positions in the state, especially in acute care hospitals. The act has numerous provisions that would spend state tax dollars on recruitment and retention programs within hospitals, as well as secondary and post-secondary institutions. The bills are being sponsored by Rep. Sandra Murman, R-Tampa, and Sen. Burt Saunders, R-Naples. During a news conference yesterday, Bush said the financial incentives of working as a nurse are very attractive, but students have to be aware of the opportunities. "When you see the wages that can be earned, it's a pretty good deal when you think about it," he said. ...
Precedent-setting ruling on shift work
<http://www.cupe.ca/news/cupenews/showitem.asp?id=4763&cl=1rofile>
Canadian Union of Public Employees, February 5, 2002
A WCB panel in Nova Scotia has deemed the health effects of shift work to be compensable. The tribunal ruled that switching between day and night shifts caused a Bridgewater man¹s debilitating insomnia. The ruling is being described as a precedent-setting Canadian case, even making the front pages of both Halifax dailies. The panel said the 34-year-old Michelin tire plant worker¹s symptoms were Œat times, disabling¹ and concluded that the shift worker experienced enough sleep disruption, exhaustion and inability to work to constitute personal injury. ...
J&J Launches Nurse Ad Campaign
<http://www.newsday.com/business/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-jj-nursing-shortage0206feb06.story>
Associated Press, February 6, 2002
NEW YORK -- Johnson & Johnson has pledged $20 million to develop a campaign to attract more people to become nurses to address an acute nursing shortage which is expected to triple over the next 20 years. The campaign, called "The Campaign for Nursing's Future, was developed with nursing organizations, nursing schools, hospitals and other health care groups. The two-year effort will include national television commercials, recruitment materials such as brochures and videos as well as scholarships. Television commercials will begin airing on Wednesday and continue during the Winter Olympics. ...
OUR VIEW: Nursing makes a comeback
<http://ledger.southofboston.com/archives>
The Patriot Ledger, February 8, 2002
The news that more people are interested in a nursing career is certainly welcome.
Few shortages have the effect that a lack of nurses has. And that's been a troubling pattern nationwide - and especially in hospital-dense Greater Boston - in recent years.
Now nursing schools are seeing a substantial uptick in applicants, which they attribute to a number of factors. For one, nursing is a reliable profession and that becomes more obvious when the economy begins to sour. Fewer computer programmers society can live without, but all of us hope there is a plentiful supply of nurses available if we enter a hospital or rehabilitation facility, or a nursing home.
At Northeastern University, applications increased by 75 percent over last year, and Curry College in Milton reports a record number. Some years back nurses' salaries lagged at the same time that hospitals and doctors focused more intensely on specialization. Nurses found they were receiving less respect along with insufficient pay and long hours.
Hospital work can be difficult for nurses because of budget cutbacks and inflexible work schedules. That said, nursing is a great profession, which a man or woman can practice throughout life.
Historically, women looked to the nursing profession as something they could rely on during children's school years. Part-time nursing work is always available.
Besides providing better pay now, nursing also offers the opportunity for specialization - in hospice care, oncology or nuclear medicine, for example.
People attracted to nursing usually share one characteristic above all: they want to help people. That's as true in today's world as it was when nurses were recognized by their caps and capes.
The increased interest in nursing is not sufficient to eliminate the existing shortage, but it's a healthy trend. And the South Shore offers a range of nursing programs, two years and longer, to suit the needs and budgets of all who see themselves as nurse material.
Copyright 2002 The Patriot Ledger
Nurses spending $100,000 on image
<http://www.canada.com/search/site/story.asp?id=E271F35B-18D7-4B57-B5AB-47B33FDA0AF3>
Neil Scott, Regina Leader Post, February 11, 2002
As negotiations for a new contract for Saskatchewan's nurses resumed Tuesday, the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses announced a $100,000 advertising campaign to portray "real nurses, telling real stories,'' about their jobs. Rosalee Longmoore, the president of the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses, said she doesn't know if the series of television and newspaper advertisements planned over the next month will affect the progress of contract negotiations. But Longmoore said the union, and its membership, felt it is necessary "to show real nurses and what they're doing. "Nurses are responsible for people's lives,'' Longmoore said, adding that nurses "are also dedicated to helping and healing our patients.'' But "that reality gets lost, gets forgotten because people are so busy,'' she said. Longmoore said the advertising campaign will cost "a bit more than $100,000,'' which is the equivalent to $12.50 per nurse. ...
Washoe Med, Reno nurses claim some success with mediator
<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2002/02/08/state1032EST0055.DTL>
Associated Press, February 8, 2002
RENO, Nev. (AP) -- Washoe Medical Center and the union representing nurses have come to tentative agreements on four issues in the ongoing labor dispute. Both sides described Wednesday's session with a federal mediator as positive, but warned they are still far from achieving a contract. "I don't want to overstate the situation," Washoe Medical Center spokeswoman Judy Davis told the Reno Gazette-Journal. "It certainly was a positive meeting, but we have a long way to go economically." The nurses represented by Operating Engineers Local 3 tentatively agreed to the hospital's offer on standby pay, tuition reimbursement and a program that allows extra pay for additional professional development and responsibility, Davis said. The parties also agreed to form a committee consisting of three nurses and three managers to resolve staffing issues as they arise. Carin Ralls, a union organizer and former Washoe Medical Center registered nurse, said that provision gives nurses some say in staffing issues but still leaves the final decision up to a hospital administrator. ...
Scottish nurses pondering PG move
<http://www.canada.com/search/site/story.asp?id=5C0FA945-4E5F-49BF-A1A8-C41C63ED30F1>
Bernice Trick, Prince George Citizen, February 14, 2002
There are high hopes that five nurses from Scotland will end up at Prince George Regional Hospital soon. Dave Yarmish, recruitment consultant for the Northern Health Authority, said full resumes of the five interested in relocating here are now in the hands of the Registered Nurses Association of BC (RNABC). "We're waiting now for a response from RNABC on the eligibility on each to write the required exams," Yarmish said. A total of 14 Scottish nurses are showing interest in relocating here. They include 10 general duty nurses, who are equal to registered nurses, and four mental health nurses. ...
Editorial Comment: Here is some background on the nurse staffing crisis, just in case you need it:
Leaving Nursing
I slammed down the receiver, planning to shatter it and rip the phone unit from the wall. I failed, but the loud crack startled my fellow nurses. Unaware of the reason for my outburst, they looked over in alarm. After all, I was usually the calm one. I stood by the wall, tense and trembling. To no one in particular, I said in a shaky voice, "She's our [unprintable] ECMO coordinator. She's got to [unprintable] know better." Of the many frustrations and indignities I suffered in my eleven years as a neonatal nurse, that incident was not the first, or the last, or even the worst. But as I look back, I realize that it was the beginning of the end of my nursing career. The year was 1995, a time filled with news reports of managed care, cost cutting, hospital reorganizations, and nurse layoffs. Our university hospital was not unaffected. One round of layoffs had already cost our unit several promising new nurses, and staffing cutbacks on our top-level neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) had trimmed each working shift to the bone. ...
Accountable But Powerless
Having grown up with both a mother and a cousin who were registered nurses, I was familiar with both the value and the inherent challenges of being a nurse. My own experience of being a patient who was hospitalized twice for open-heart surgery before the age of thirty also taught me the importance of competent nursing care. Yet nothing could have prepared me for my own sojourn in nursing. The profession's sharpest dilemma crystallized for me during a 3-11 evening shift in 1996, after a nurse supervisor assigned nine patients to my care. One of them was a man with terminal cancer who required frequent increases in pain medication as his disease progressed. Following the institution's policy, which required a new prescription order for every increase in narcotic dose (rather than the more flexible range often allowed in care of the terminally ill), I phoned the ordering physician for the third afternoon in a row. He informed me that he was very busy and I was not to call him again. Instead, he demanded that I get the order from his office helper. I attempted to explain that I, too, was very busy, being responsible for eight other very sick patients, and that I was required to follow hospital policy. I reminded him that it would be illegal for me to accept a medication order from an unlicensed assistant. Furious, he asked me to produce the law in writing. Embarrassed that I had never read the law, I agreed. I obtained a copy from the state nursing board; highlighted chapter 112, section 80B, which states that an RN can only receive medication orders from an "authorized" prescriber; and mailed it to him. (Only after I promised to mail the law did he provide the verbal prescription I needed.) But after finding the law I needed, I kept reading. One particular line caught my attention: "Each individual licensed to practice nursing in the commonwealth shall be held directly accountable for the safety of nursing care he delivers ..." ...
It's enough to make a registered nurse ill xxxx
<http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/op-ed/letters/20020201-9999_1e1lets1.html>
Susan Manchester, Coronado, February 1, 2002
In Gov. Gray Davis' State of the State address Jan. 2, concerning the state's "nursing shortage crisis," he said, "One key component of California's work force is our nursing corps. We must recruit and train thousands of new nurses who are the backbone of our medical delivery system. In the coming weeks, I will propose measures to expand the number of nurses throughout the state. I will provide incentives to clinics and hospitals that support clinical placements for nursing students, new graduates and returning nurses. We will also remove barriers to qualified licensed nurses moving to California from other states and other countries." I am a returning nurse. Or, I am trying to be. I am struggling to cut through the red tape of overwhelming obstacles of bureaucracy to return to nursing. Currently, the Board of Registered Nursing states that for a former nurse to be licensed in California, he/she must first obtain an active license (reactivate a former license) in another state. ...
Hospitals Ready For Next Crisis?
Washington - While the World Trade Center attack and the anthrax mailings put stress on the public health system, hospitals coped because there were relatively few patients admitted. Next time may be different, a New York City physician told a Senate subcommittee yesterday. Dr. Richard Hatchett, an emergency room doctor at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan, said many hospitals operate on thin financial margins and have been cutting the number of beds while using "just-in-time" management to determine the staff and supplies needed on a given day. Sloan-Kettering has reduced its bed space by 20 percent in recent years, Hatchett said. A slight surge in admissions two weeks ago, he said, required 17 sick cancer patients to be put temporarily in the center's urgent-care facility. ...
Concerns raised about Nevada's medical staff shortages
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Associated Press, February 8, 2002
CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) -- Officials have been told Nevada's medical malpractice crisis and its shortage of nurses could hinder the state's response to possible terrorist attacks. Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa said the loss of doctors due to the malpractice insurance crisis and the lack of enough trained nurses could cause serious response problems. "If there is a mass casualty event, the people who are going to be on the front line are going to be nurses, physicians, law enforcement, et cetera," she said Thursday. "I think Nevada would be very wise, as part of our bioterrorism preparedness, (to) begin to address some of these shortages." Del Papa's comments to the Homeland Security Committee were echoed by state Health Division Administrator Yvonne Sylva, a member of the security panel who said medical staffing levels figure in the ranking of University Medical Center in Las Vegas as the state's only level one trauma center. ...
ER crush 'horrendous, unsafe'
Gurneys lined hallways and staff moved extra beds into a dining room to cope with a crush of patients yesterday at the Queensway-Carleton Hospital emergency room in a situation that nurses called "horrendous." At the peak of the crisis, 27 patients were without beds in the small hospital in Ottawa's west end. "It's been horrendous -- very unsafe," said nurse Melissa Smith. "People were lined up in the hallway as far as you can see. There were just too many patients. One day, someone will get forgotten." ...
Annual MNA Lobby Day
The Congress on Health Policy and Legislation is planning its annual Lobby Day. The 2001 Lobby Day was our largest ever. Please help us surpass last year's attendance. We appeal to you to help us get as many members to this event as possible. The primary purpose of this year's event is lobbying for passage of House Bill 1186, our safe staffing legislation. We will be scheduling meetings for MNA members to meet with their state legislators to seek their support of our safe staffing legislation. Please share the date with your colleagues, encourage them to get the day off, or if already off to attend. The Department of Legislation and Government Affairs can assist you in booking appointments for your members to meet with their legislators. Please contact Charlie Stefanini at cstefanini@mnarn.org or Kate Anderson at kanderson@mnarn.org with the member's name and home address.
This day provides an information-packed agenda, including:
¨ Education on how nurses can use the political process to protect their practice.
¨ Discussion of MNA legislation to mandate safe nurse staffing ratios.
¨ An opportunity to hear from legislators who support nursing issues.
¨ An opportunity to visit your own legislator to lobby for change.
Nurses in Massachusetts have much to say to legislators about what is happening to their patients and their nursing practice. Come join us on March 12th to learn what you can do to make policy makers hear your voice.
To pre-register e-mail, fax or call Martha Campbell in the MNA Legislation & Government Affairs Department. Please include your name and telephone number.
Contact Hours have been approved through the Massachusetts Nurses Association which is accredited as a provider of continuing education in nursing by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation.
We also want nurses to mark their calendars for May 1 - 8th, when the MNA will launch a statewide petition drive for Safe RN Staffing, to culminate on May 9th with a special ambulance delivery of the petitions to the Massachusetts State House. Stay tuned for further details on how you can participate in this Nurses Week campaign!