Alabama Legislators Introduce Nursing Compact License Bill
Alabama legislators introduced two bills Tuesday that could allow the state to join the nationwide Nursing Licensure Compact, according to data from Legiscan. House Rep. April Weaver and Sen. Gregg Reed pre-filed and introduced House Bill 44 and Senate Bill 38, respectively, during the first special session of 2019. Both bills were referred to House and Senate health committees for further discussion. If approved, Alabama would become the 32nd state to join the Nursing Licensure Compact, which allows for registered nurses and licensed practical nurses to practice in multiple states without having to apply for a single-state license. It would also allow Alabama nurses easier access to jobs across state lines, as Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee are all members of the Nursing Licensure Compact. The Alabama Board of Nursing voiced support for the compact license legislation last Thursday on social media and in their organization’s newsletter, stating that the board decided to pursue the legislation after “very intense, detailed analysis” last September. “This was not an easy decision, as the Board was careful to pay special attention to protecting Alabama’s regulatory prerogatives and to ensure that Compact participation would not negatively impact patient care in the state,” the newsletter statement reads. “The Board is honored to recognize Representative April Weaver, RN (R-Alabaster) and Senator Greg Reed (R-Jasper) for sponsoring the historic bills (House Bill 44 and Senate Bill 38) that would enact the Compact in Alabama. Part of the reason the board wants this legislation to pass is because of the growing nursing shortage in Alabama, according to the statement. Analysts project Alabama will have a surplus of nurses by 2030, according to a 2017 labor study by the Health Resources and Services Administration, but healthcare leaders in the state say they are having problems finding and retaining nurses. Many Alabama healthcare leaders have pointed to common factors affecting the nursing shortage at a national level, including higher demand with an aging population and workforce, a lack of available educators to train more new nurses faster, and issues with pay and working conditions. Alabama is on the lower end for compensation—the average nursing salary in the state is $57,890, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. This also includes travel nursing pay, where the average contract ranges from $1,400-1,500 weekly, according to the most recent StaffDNA job board data. Despite this, Alabama remains a fairly popular destination for travelers, and nursing professionals in the state have said travel nursing is also a factor contributing to staff retention issues, according to a WFSA 12 report.
‘These Women’s Lives Mattered’: Nurse Builds Database Of Women Murdered By Men (KHN)
By Natalie Schreyer, Kaiser Health News PLANO, Texas — In February 2017, a school nurse in this Dallas suburb began counting women murdered by men. Seated at her desk, beside shelves of cookbooks, novels and books on violence against women, Dawn Wilcox, 55, scours the internet for news stories of women killed by men in the U.S. For dozens of hours each week, she digs through online news reports and obituaries to tell the stories of women killed by lovers, strangers, fathers, sons and stepbrothers, neighbors and tenants. “I’m trying to get the message [across] that women matter, and that these women’s lives mattered, and that this is not acceptable in the greatest country in the world,” Wilcox said. Her spreadsheet, a publicly available resource she calls Women Count USA, is a catalog of lives lost: names, dates, ages, where they lived, pictures of victims and their alleged killers, and the details that can’t be captured by numbers. For Wilcox, these women are more than statistics. She wants you to know Nicole Duckson, a 34-year-old Columbus, Ohio, woman whose friends “remembered her as a prayerful person and a loving mother.” And Duckson’s 4-year-old daughter, Christina, who was stabbed to death alongside her mother, “a polite, happy little girl.” And Claire Elizabeth VanLandingham, 27, a Navy dentist fatally shot by her ex-boyfriend. She had appeared in a video for Take Back the Night, the organization known for fighting dating violence, sexual violence and domestic violence on college campuses nationally. Her mother said, “Her heart was kind; her spirit generous; her soul wise. She gave her smile to everyone who needed it; to everyone who hadn’t even realized they did.” Those are just a few of the nearly 2,500 women listed in Wilcox’s album during the past two years. “Where is the outrage? Where are the marches, the speeches? I know where the silence is. It is everywhere and it is deafening,” Wilcox said. Her crusade, Wilcox said, was spurred in part by the media frenzy about the shooting death of a gorilla, Harambe, at the Cincinnati Zoo and the uproar over the killing of Cecil the Lion, shot by a Minnesota dentist as a trophy. As an animal lover, she was horrified by those killings. But as she saw the social media fury and the online petitions spread, she asked herself: “But what about women?” “Women are people and they deserve to have their lives valued,” she posted on Facebook in 2016 after Harambe’s death. “They deserve our voices speaking out on their behalf. And when they are abused, assaulted, murdered and erased they deserve our attention and our outrage.” Tracking The Data The FBI releases crime data every year, including the number of women who have been killed by men, but local police are not required to file reports to the federal agency, so some state figures are missing. Florida, for example, has not provided its data to the FBI since 1996, according to reports by the Violence Policy Center, a nonprofit organization that advocates to stop gun violence. Numbers from Alabama and Illinois have also been unavailable or limited in certain years. Since 1996, between 1,613 and 2,129 women were murdered by men each year, FBI data show. In 2017, the latest year for which data are available, the FBI counted 1,733 women. An overwhelming majority of those women were killed by a man they knew. “If you just go by the raw numbers, it is undoubtedly an undercount of domestic violence homicides,” said April Zeoli, an associate professor of criminal justice at Michigan State University and an expert on domestic violence homicides and gun laws. Still, she added, “it’s the most accurate picture we have.” Wilcox, however, is doing something the FBI does not: putting faces to the cases. Recording the correct number of women murdered isn’t the only goal of Wilcox’s effort. Her work is about searching for their stories, finding their photos, trying to learn who they were, so that these women aren’t forgotten. Touched By Abuse Wilcox is no stranger to violence against women. When she was 21, she began dating a man she met in a bar in Dallas. She’ll never forget the first time he hurt her. On a night out at a dance club, Wilcox’s boyfriend stepped into the restroom. When he came back, she said, he sprayed cologne into her face, burning her eyes as she groped her way to the bathroom to rinse it out. It was an accident, she said he told her. But Wilcox knew it was an attempt to humiliate her. The violence escalated, Wilcox said, culminating in a night that left a deep scar on the inside of her arm and a memory of abuse that echoes the stories of the lost women for whom she searches. It was hot and the power had gone out, leaving her with no air conditioning as she read a book by candlelight in her apartment. The man began kissing her leg, she said, but soon she felt his teeth digging into her as he bit her. She told him to stop, but he put his hand to the base of her throat, pushed her down onto the bed and, after telling her he wanted to taste her blood, bit into the crook of her arm, tearing out skin, she said. Wilcox went to a hospital emergency room and then fled to her mother’s home. She eventually ended the relationship with the man. He was subsequently convicted of sexual assault and kidnapping after he raped two women before forcing them into his car, driving them to a secluded, wooded area, knocking them out and threatening to kill them. The women managed to escape. Wilcox considers herself lucky. “I could’ve easily ended up one of the women on my own list.” Today, she is married to a man who said his wife’s work has opened his eyes to the pervasiveness of violence against women. “She’s inspired me,” said Mike Nosenzo,
New Jersey Compact Nurse License Bill Passes Senate
A New Jersey compact nurse license bill is one step closer to becoming law after state Senate members passed it last Thursday. The bill passed unanimously, 35-0, with five senators abstaining. The bill would allow New Jersey to join the Nursing Licensure Compact. If approved, New Jersey would be the 32nd state to join the new enhanced NLC which was fully implemented in January 2018. Currently, seven other states also have pending legislation to join the NLC. It would also provide access for New Jersey nurses to practice in its neighbor state Deleware, as well as several other compact states in the Northeast region including Maryland, New Hampshire, Maine, Virginia and West Virginia. Some business associations and nursing groups have thrown their support behind compact nurse license bill in recent weeks, including the New Jersey Business and Industry Association. “I want to first thank Senator Singleton for recognizing the nursing shortage in New Jersey and for introducing legislation that would simplify the process for out-of-state nurses to work in New Jersey,” NJBIA vice president Tony Bawidamann said in a press release. “As a result of his great work, nurses will only need to obtain a license from the state they reside in to be permitted to work in New Jersey, instead of having to go through the whole licensing process again.” One of the largest nursing and healthcare labor unions in the state, Health Professionals and Allied Employees (HPAE), has not endorsed the bill, citing concerns that it could lower the bar for workforce qualifications, according to a report by NJ Spotlight. This is the third time an NLC bill has been introduced since 2015, but the first time that it has made it out of committee and passed through a Senate vote. Senators Troy Singleton, Joseph Vitale and Fred Madden, Jr., sponsored the most recent bill. A companion bill in the New Jersey General Assembly is currently in committee and awaiting a final vote in the Assembly before moving to Gov. Phil Murphy’s desk. The next full Assembly session is scheduled for March 25, according to the state legislature’s website.
Hey, Hey! Ho, Ho! Is Striking For School Nurses The Way To Go?
By Ana B. Ibarra, Kaiser Health News As teachers across the country walk out of their classrooms, hit the picket lines and demand higher pay, they’re keeping school nurses in mind — asking for more of them or, at the very least, better pay for them. Oakland, Calif., teachers plan to strike Thursday if they can’t hammer out a deal with the district that includes a “living wage” and more nurses and counselors. Last week in Denver, thousands of educators and school nurses went on strike and marched to the state Capitol asking for a significant raise — and got it. These unions follow in the footsteps of Los Angeles teachers, who, after striking for six days last month, won a 6 percent salary increase and 300 more school nurses over the next three years, enough to staff every school with a full-time nurse. “It shows that teachers recognize the importance of having a nurse on-site at all times, but it’s sad that it takes a strike to get more nurses,” said Nina Fekaris, president of the National Association of School Nurses and a school nurse in Oregon. Student health is key to academic success, but when it comes to putting nurses in schools, the education system has often “turned a blind eye,” Fekaris said. Now, teachers are making nurses a critical piece of their contract negotiations in a bold move that seems to be working, she said. For districts, it comes down to limited funding, said Erika Hoffman, a lobbyist with the California School Boards Association. “You’ve got massive competing interests: Do I hire a new teacher, a counselor or a school nurse?” School districts do not make these decisions lightly, Hoffman added. “We know healthy kids learn better,” she said. “It’s great that the unions are looking at the needs of the whole child, but [nurses] don’t come for free.” School nurses make a national average salary of $63,944 to $66,973, according to the latest figures from the National Association of School Nurses. About 55 percent of them earn less than $51,000 a year. In many school districts across the country, there simply aren’t enough nurses to tend to students’ medical needs. Nurses often split their time among several campuses, leaving many schools without a nurse at critical times and short of the recommended staffing ratio. In some instances, teachers or support staff administer medication when a nurse isn’t around. And in at least one extreme case, when a gun accidentally discharged inside a Los Angeles Unified School District middle school classroom last year, teachers scrambled to figure out how to tend to the injuries before first responders arrived. Nonetheless, when districts face budget cuts, nurses are among the first staff to go, Fekaris said. That’s because school nurses are not required by law in most states, even though their services, such as vision, hearing and scoliosis screenings, are. The American Academy of Pediatrics used to recommend a ratio of 1 nurse for every 750 students, but the organization updated its recommendation in 2016 to at least one nurse in every school. During the 2017-18 school year, California schools employed 2,623 full-time registered nurses, according to the state Department of Education. With about 6.22 million students enrolled, that averages out to about 1 nurse for every 2,370 students. In West Virginia, teachers went on strike last year and won a 5 percent raise for all staff, including nurses. Now, proposed state legislation would improve the school nurse ratio, which currently stands at 1 nurse to 1,500 students, according to the West Virginia Association of School Nurses. In Los Angeles, the district is still working out how it will pay for the additional 300 nurses it agreed to hire. The union says there’s enough money in the district’s reserve to cover at least the first year of pay for the additional nurses and other support staff. “Our parents really wanted more nurses, and it became one of our top demands,” said Arlene Inouye, secretary of United Teachers Los Angeles. After the strike, Inouye visited Oakland to advise that city’s teachers union, which announced Sunday that it will strike this week, barring “dramatic changes” from the district. “L.A. has been an inspiration,” said Chaz Garcia, a vice president of the Oakland Education Association. “There has been a lot of focus on salaries, but that’s not the driving force and that’s not all we’re looking for,” she said. The union is asking for 1 school nurse for every 750 students “because we do not have enough to deal with students’ growing health issues,” she said. School nurses and teachers in the district are seeing more students with chronic conditions such as asthma, diabetes and food allergies — which require constant monitoring and the administration of medications such as insulin. It’s not that the district doesn’t want to hire nurses, said Andrea Bustamante, executive director of student services at Oakland Unified School District. It’s that it can’t. The district, which has about 37,000 students, budgets for 32 nurses, but seven of those positions are vacant, she said. “Like many other California districts, we have struggled to find qualified candidates to fill our vacancies,” Bustamante said in a written statement. She cited obstacles including the additional state certification required to become a school nurse and competition from hospitals. What school districts really need to do if they want to attract more nurses is offer them a “living wage,” said Sean McFarland, a school nurse at Denver Public Schools who participated in the strike there. Before working in schools, McFarland was a charge nurse in an emergency room, where he made about $16,000 more a year than his starting salary at the school district, he said. He took the pay cut because he wanted to try nursing in another setting and give back to his community in a different way, he said. When he started, he befriended four other new nurses. “Out of the five of us, I am the only one who
5 Reasons Why Travel Nurses Would Actually Want To Work Night Shift
By Alex McCoy, Contributing Writer, Owner of Fit Travel Life My relationship with the night shift has always been a tenuous balance between love and hate. Being on day shift allows for a more normal routine and definitely makes my husband more at peace with my work schedule. The feeling of being fully rested on my off days has led me to continue taking day shift assignments, but there is always a small piece of me that is envious when I meet the new night shift crew. Night shift has plenty of downsides–less support staff on duty, irregular sleep schedules, and more difficulty contacting physicians are just a few of the problems any night shift nurse could list for you. But at the end of the day, there is a reason many travel nurses prefer nights even if travel contracts don’t come with a hefty night shift differential. Less support staff at night means night shift travel nurses don’t have to learn extra procedures for working with these staff members. via GIPHY One of the first things I ask about at each new assignment is how to contact people I have to coordinate care with on day shift. Whether you are trying to contact a social worker or order lunch, there is a different procedure for these tasks at each hospital. If you work the night shift, you have the blessing—and the curse—of not having access to most of these extra pieces. While missing out on the support may cause some stress, it is nice to know you don’t have to relearn these procedures because they simply don’t apply to your shift. Unless it is a rare exception, the night shift gets to skip over this piece of knowledge when zipping through each new orientation. Less pressure from management or less involvement in unit politics. via GIPHY I wrote a whole article on the reasons why travel nurses should avoid hospital politics. The bottom line is: it’s much harder to accomplish this during the day shift. One of my least favorite scenarios is having a manager wander through on day shift and stop to ask my opinion on the unit. I appreciate the fact that they are looking for constructive feedback, but I also like to have more time to think through responses and articulate my feelings. As a night shifter, you are much less likely to get pulled into these types of conversations. If a manager is looking for some feedback it will be easier to strike up that conversation via email. For me, I prefer this method because I can still give meaningful feedback without becoming too involved in whatever issues the manager is trying to address. Patients are less likely to need to be prepped for procedures and testing. via GIPHY Another policy that can change drastically between assignments is pre- and post-procedure policy. I have seen several variances from how a patient is transported to how frequently nurses monitor post-op vital signs. I very rarely had to know the details of these procedures on the night shift. Except for rare emergent cases, my patients rarely left the floor at night. I was especially thankful as a new traveler to not have to learn the ins-and-outs of consents and transport when I was desperately trying to pick up on all the other new procedures during my short orientation. The night shift lull can be a great time to get to know your coworkers. via GIPHY During the day shift, the 2-4 p.m. period can be one of the busiest. This is when baths are fit in, discharges and admissions become a revolving door, and all the catch-up charting happens before starting the 4 p.m. rounds. On the night shift, this is what I liked to refer to as the “golden period.” Once your midnight rounds are done you inevitably cross your fingers and hope for no excitement during this chunk of the night. Some of my favorite memories as a night shift nurse were made during this time frame, where patients are finally sleeping for a bit and families have calmed down enough to get a bit of rest themselves. As a traveler, this is when you have time to get to know your coworkers. Use this to your advantage and strike up conversations or share some stories to make the shift go a little faster for everyone. Breakfast drinks are a great icebreaker to meet new friends. via GIPHY There is a weird bond that can only be formed over a glass of local beer at 8 a.m. in the dingy bar two blocks from the hospital. If you are feeling shy or struggling to make friends at your new assignment, one of my favorite ways to break the tension is to ask about the favorite night shift hangout. I have found that once you have a breakfast and beer date with new coworkers, a wall comes down that allows for more camaraderie and connection at work. Even though I enjoy having a normal schedule and not having to nap on my days off, as a traveler I truly do miss working the night shift. There is a certain bond that all night shifters share and I don’t feel like day shift has quite the same connection. I absolutely loved my night shift assignments and felt they were less stressful for reasons other than the stereotypical “Oh, it must be easy because all of your patients are sleeping” (Hard eye roll to that statement). Even if the money doesn’t necessarily change between day and night shift for travelers, I certainly understand the draw many nurses would feel to work nights as a travel nurse and am thankful for those who love the nocturnal life and adjust to it so well. Alex McCoy currently works as a pediatric travel nurse. She has a passion for health and fitness, which led her to start Fit Travel Life in 2016. She travels with her husband, their cat, Autumn and
Hawaii, Indiana, Washington Introduce Nursing Licensure Compact Legislation In 2019
Exactly a year and one month ago, the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) enacted the enhanced Nursing Licensure Compact—referred to as the NLC—with the goal of streamlining the compact license requirements and adding an extra layer of security by requiring federal background checks for all applicants. A total of 31 states have joined the NLC since January 19, 2018, including Kansas and Louisiana, which both passed legislation to join last year and are expected to fully implement their NLC programs by July 1. They weren’t the only states interested in joining the NLC last year. Illinois, Michigan, New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Jersey all had pending legislation last year to join the NLC. Of those states, only New Jersey, Massachusetts, Indiana and Michigan still have legislation pending. Three new states—Hawaii, Indiana and Washington—have all introduced some form of legislation related to the NLC earlier this year that could result in three new compact states. While it’s unlikely that these states will implement NLC programs this year, we’ve provided a breakdown of the issues surrounding each piece of legislation, and if they will realistically pass muster with their state governments. Breakdown of potential new nursing compact license states Hawaii What legislation is in the works? Hawaii does not have a bill to actually join the NLC, but on January 24, House Rep. Ichiyama Takumi introduced a bill that would establish a study to identify potential issues that could arise if the state joins the NLC. How much progress has it made so far? As of February 16, the bill has been recommended for approval almost unanimously by every House committee assigned to review it, including the Consumer Protection and Commerce, Health and Intrastate Commerce committees. The bill is scheduled for a final review with the Finance committee on February 21. Why is this a big deal? While it’s not technically legislation to join the NLC, it’s still big news that Hawaii lawmakers are considering joining in the first place. If the results of the study are favorable and NLC legislation is introduced, Hawaii could become the first non-continental state to join the compact. Hawaii is already an incredibly popular destination state for travel nurses, but it could be even more popular if its made accessible for compact license holders. It could incentivize native Hawaii nurses to travel as well since they would gain more than 30 additional states to practice in if NLC legislation is approved. What are the chances it will actually pass? Very high. Almost every committee assigned to review it has recommended it for approval and are moving it quickly through the House, so there is a solid chance the bill could pass through the House by the end of February. Indiana What legislation is in the works? House Bill 1344, introduced on January 14 by Republican Rep. Edward Clere, would allow for Indiana to join the Nursing Licensure Compact. How much progress has it made so far? The NLC legislation passed unanimously in the Indiana House on January 31 and is making its way through various committees in the state Senate as Senate Bill 436. Why is this a big deal? If Indiana passes legislation to join the NLC, not only would compact license travelers have access to a new state, but it would allow for Indiana nurses to practice across the Indiana-Kentucky state line in Louisville—an issue that is frequently brought up by compact license advocates when addressing gaps in nursing service. It would also allow for nurses without a single-state license but who have a compact license to possibly start jobs quicker, as it can currently take several weeks to obtain a permanent nursing license in Indiana. What are the chances it will actually pass? Very high. This is the second time Rep. Ed Clere has introduced NLC legislation after his first attempt in 2018 with House Bill 1317, which urged legislators to conduct a study into the impact of joining the compact, among several other provisions. The bill went into a legislative study over last summer to address any concerns, and since then has gained significant momentum and support among lawmakers, according to a Komoko Tribune report. The current NLC bill also has the support of several healthcare associations and interest groups, including Baptist Health Floyd, One Southern Indiana, the Indiana Hospital Association and the Coalition of Advanced Practice Nurses of Indiana, according to the Indiana Chamber. Washington What legislation is in the works? Washington House Bill 1882 and Senate Bill 5460 were both introduced this year and would allow Washington to join the NLC. How much progress has it made so far? Both bills have moved to committee for further discussion and debate. The Senate Health & Long Term Care Committee public hearing on February 1 can be found here. Why is this a big deal? If implemented, Washington would be the first state on the West coast to join the NLC. It would also allow for Washington nurses to practice across the Washington-Idaho state line, as Idaho is already a part of the NLC. What are the chances it will actually pass? Mixed. Some members of the business and military sector in Washington, as well as the NCSBN, support the state joining the NLC, according to several testimonies given on February 1 during a Senate Health and Long Term Care Committee hearing. “We have, as a state, already passed the Physical Therapy Licensure Compact and the [Interstate] Medical Licensure Compact, and we’ve done so because we know the compacts are effective,” Sen. Annette Cleveland, a sponsor for the bill, said during the hearing. “31 other states…already have nurse licensure compacts, others are also considering joining, and I want to ensure our state is also having that conversation.” The Washington State Nurses Association (WSNA) opposes the bill, according to a Senate committee testimony by Melissa Johnson, a spokesperson for the WSNA. Some of the concerns of the WSNA include a lack of need for the compact with the state board’s
Multiple Hospitals Evacuate As California Wildfires Spread
Multiple hospitals evacuated patients this week as the Camp Fire continued to spread across California, according to the state’s Department of Public Health. More than 300 patients across three general acute care hospitals, three skilled nursing facilities and six intermediate care facilities have evacuated since Nov. 10. Some facilities, like Los Robos Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, have started repopulating their hospitals with evacuee patients, but most of the facilities remain non-operational, according to the Department of Public Health. The blaze forced Adventist Health Feather River Hospital to evacuate on Nov. 8, and damaged the lower level of the hospital, the chiller and utility area and most of the other outbuildings, according to the hospital’s website. Full damage from the fire is still being assessed, but in the meantime evacuated patients are staying at Enloe Hospital in Chico and Oroville Hospital in Oroville. A majority of Adventist Health’s staff have lost their homes, a representative for the hospital told Bloomberg News. The Camp Fire, which started on Thursday, Nov. 8 near Camp Creek Road in Butte County, has been recorded as the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history. The fire has killed 63 people and destroyed thousands of homes and commercial structures, according to the most recent Butte County Camp Fire Incident Update on Nov. 16 Camp Fire Incident Update 11.16.18 AM#CampFire #ButteCounty @ButteSheriff @CountyofButte @townofparadise @chicofd @chicopolice @CHP_Valley @CHP_Oroville @CHP_Chico #ButteCounty @CAL_FIRE pic.twitter.com/5DL7vSd6gZ — CAL FIRE Butte Unit/Butte County Fire Department (@CALFIRE_ButteCo) November 16, 2018 View the current status of active California wildfires on the map below:
Question 1: Massachusetts Nurse-To-Patient Ratio Ballot Initiative Defeated
Massachusetts’ Question 1, a ballot initiative that would have established mandatory nurse-patient ratios in hospitals was defeated during the general election Tuesday. The Massachusetts Nurses Association, a union representing nurses in 51 acute care hospitals across the state, conceded defeat around 9 p.m. Tuesday evening. At approximately 10:20 p.m., the initiative had 969,400 votes against and 416,720 votes in favor, with more than 50 of precincts reporting, according to the preliminary results. “We are all disappointed by tonight’s results and the impact this will have on the patients we care for every day,” MNA President Donna Kelly-Williams said in prepared remarks. “We know that right now – as I speak to you here – there are nurses caring for too many patients and those patients are unnecessarily being put in harm’s way. And the problem continues to grow every year. The status quo is not a solution here.” The outcome was a victory for the Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association, who opposed the initiative for fear that it would dramatically increase state healthcare costs. The association represents 70 hospitals across the state. “This is the beginning of a conversation, not the end,” MHA President and CEO Steve Walsh said in a statement to Mass Live. “Question 1 forced some difficult and necessary discussions about the future of healthcare and the future of our workforce going forward. These conversations with our care teams and in our communities have been critically important and will continue in bargaining sessions, legislative debates, board rooms and newspapers.” An independent study conducted by the state’s Health Policy Commission found that implementing the mandate would cost an estimated $676-949 million per year and potentially save $34-47 million. The study also found that hospitals would need to hire 2,286 to 3,101 additional full-time equivalent nurses to meet the mandate.
Nurses at 2 Arizona hospitals vote to join national union
Nurses from St. Joseph’s Hospital and St. Mary’s Hospital in Tuscon, Arizona voted Friday to unionize, joining the National Nurses Organizing Committee and National Nurses United, according to a press release. About 550 nurses at St. Joseph’s and 450 at St. Mary’s are now represented by Tenet Health division of the national union, swelling the group’s membership total to more than 6,000 registered nurses and 14 Tenet facilities across four states. Both hospitals are part of the Carondelet Health Network in Tucson, which is owned by Tenet Health Corporation based out of Dallas, Texas. In a 293-110 vote, 73 percent of the nurses at St. Joseph’s voted in favor of unionizing and 221-85, or 72 percent, voted in favor at St. Mary’s. Both votes were conducted by the National Labor Relations Board, according to the press release. “I am so excited that we will now be able to advocate much more effectively for our patients,” Lowella Choate, a neuro ICU nurse at St. Joseph’s Hospital said in a press release. “I look forward to all that we can achieve by standing together with the 6000- RN-strong NNU Tenet Division at 14 Hospitals throughout the country.” As Arizona is a right-to-work state, nurses at the hospitals are not required to join the union as a condition of employment and they don’t have to pay union dues even if actions by the union benefit them. Carondelet Health Network officials told the Arizona Daily Star they would respect the nurses’ decisions and will work with them to reach a “mutually beneficial collective bargaining agreement.” Nurses at the hospitals will elect a team of colleagues to represent them in talks with hospital officials on a first collective bargaining contract, according to the NNU press release.
Michigan Medicine, Nurses Union Members Reach Tentative Agreement
Michigan Medicine and nurses with the University of Michigan Professional Nurses Council (UMPNC) reached a tentative three-year contract agreement last Friday, according to a UMPNC press release. “Details of the tentative agreement will be discussed at membership meetings, and nurses will have the final say through a ratification vote,” Katie Oppenheim, nurse and chair of the Michigan Nurses Association, said in the press release. “Our bargaining team is recommending this agreement because it will allow nurses to continue to provide world-class care. We are proud of our nurses and their ongoing dedication to patients.” UMPNC is an affiliate of the Michigan Nurses Association and represents more than 5,700 nurses at University of Michigan Health System facilities. More than 4,000 of those members voted in September to authorize their bargaining team to implement a three-day hospital strike if an agreement could not be made. David Spahlinger, M.D., president of the University of Michigan Health System and executive vice dean for clinical affairs of the University of Michigan Medical School, said the system is pleased they could reach this agreement. “Reaching a resolution is the best possible outcome for our hospital employees, our patients and our community,” Spahlinger said in a press release. “We all care deeply about our patients and our top priority is to ensure our patients receive the highest quality of care. We know families and patients choose Michigan Medicine because of our devoted teams of faculty and staff, including our excellent nurses. We are eager to move forward together.” Full details of the agreement will be discussed at UMPNC member meetings, and a ratification vote is scheduled from October 7-10, according to the UMPNC website.