by Editor

MNA/NNU Launches New Campaign to Pass Safe RN Staffing Law

Sign Up Now to Join This Effort to Protect Your Patients and Your Practice

As you may know, our top 2013 legislative priority will be to pass a…

03.12.13

by Editor

Next Standard of Care Act Committee Hearing Scheduled

The Standards of Care Act has received its next hearing date. MPR listeners may have heard recently that the bill to set a minimum standard of care for patients across Minnesota would not get an important hearing in the House health policy committee, but pressure on legislators has resulted in nurses, patients, and policy experts getting an opportunity to be heard. Please support the Standards of Care Act by attending the hearing or sending a message to your state legislator that patients deserve a minimum standard of care, regardless of where they’ve chosen to receive care.

Contact your Legislator here: https://votervoice.net/MNA/Address

Join the Wednesday lobbying sessions at the Capitol and meet your legislators.

Links to the committee and the bill are below.

Friday, March 15, 2013 9:00 AM

*** Note: *** Change in meeting room
Room: 10 State Office Building
Chair: Rep. Tina Liebling

Meeting Time Note: If the committee needs to meet past noon, the committee will recess and reconvene in Room 5 of the State Office Building.
*** Note: *** Change in meeting time
Health and Human Services Policy

HF588 (Atkins) Hospitals required to provided staffing at levels consistent with nationally accepted standards, and staff level reporting required.

03.11.13

by Editor

A Recommitment to the American Ideal That Labor Rights Are Human Rights

Breaking news and analysis of politics, the economy and activism.

The makers of We Are Wisconsin—the critically acclaimed documentary about the 2011 Wisconsin Uprising and its aftermath—are sponsoring screenings of the film Monday in communities across the country as part of a National Day of Recommitment to labor rights.

“The day is the second anniversary of the signing by Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin Act 10, which ended 60 years of progress for Wisconsin workers,” note the filmmakers. “The Walker assault led to battles all over America, challenging us all to stand up for working families, and to organize to put our country back on the right track.”

“Recommitment” is well-chosen word.

Despite the battering that unions have taken in recent years—not just in Wisconsin but nationally—a recommitment to labor rights is really a renewal of ideas and values that America once exported to the world.

There was a time, within the living memory of millions of Americans, when this country championed democracy, freedom of speech, freedom of the press and the right to organize in the same breath.

When the United States occupied Japan after World War II, General Douglas MacArthur and his aides worked with Japanese citizens to write a Constitution that would assure Hideki Tojo’s militarized autocracy was replaced with democracy. Fully aware that workers would need to have a voice in the new Japan, they included language that explicitly recognized that “the right of workers to organize and to bargain and act collectively is guaranteed.”

When the United States occupied Germany after World War II, General Dwight David Eisenhower and his aides urged German citizens to write a Constitution that would assure that Adolf Hitler’s fascism was replaced with a democracy. Recognizing that workers would need to have a voice in the new Germany, they included a provision that explicitly declared: “The right to form associations to safeguard and improve working and economic conditions shall be guaranteed to every individual and to every occupation or profession. Agreements that restrict or seek to impair this right shall be null and void; measures directed to this end shall be unlawful.”

When former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt chaired the International Commission on Human Rights, which drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that would in 1948 be adopted by the United Nations as a global covenant, Roosevelt and the drafters included a guarantee that “everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.”

For generations, Americans accepted the basic premise that labor rights are human rights. When this country counseled other countries on how to forge civil and democratic societies, Americans recognized that the right to organize a trade union—and to have that trade union engage in collective bargaining as an equal partner with corporations and government agencies—must be protected.

Now, with those rights under assault, it is wise, indeed, to recommit to the American ideal that working people must have a right to organize and to make their voices heard in a free and open society. As the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. said fifty years ago: “History is a great teacher. Now everyone knows that the labor movement did not diminish the strength of the nation but enlarged it. By raising the living standards of millions, labor miraculously created a market for industry and lifted the whole nation to undreamed of levels of production. Those who attack labor forget these simple truths, but history remembers them.”

History remembers, as should we. A recommitment to labor rights is a recommitment to ideals that enlarged America and make real the promise of democracy.

(As part of the National Day of Recommitment, We Are Wisconsin showings will be held across the United States. For more information on National Day of Recommitment events, go to: wearewisconsinthefilm.com/.)

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SOURCE

03.11.13

by Editor

Tentative Agreement Reached!

Step freezes avoided, equity maintained for all. Click here for complete details: files/file/CHA Update March 7.pdf…

03.11.13

by Editor

Mary Breckinridge

Widely recognized as the founder of the Frontier Nursing Service, Mary Breckinridge was born on February 17, 1881 in Memphis, Tennessee. In 1906, she attended nursing classes at New York City’s Saint Luke’s Hospital. She received her degree in nursing in 1910. In the 1920s, she joined the American Committee for Devastated France. She realized […]

03.11.13

by Editor

MNA/NNU Nursing Practice Alert!

We will keep you posted on future meetings and hearings they hold on this issue, however, for those who were planning to attend the BORN meeting on March 13, fe…

03.08.13

by Editor

MNA Legislative Update, March 8, 2013

Standards of Care Act Update

The Standards of Care Act, MNA’s bill to establish patient assignment limits for nurses passed the Government Operations committee 8-7. The committee passed an amendment to the bill to exempt Critical Access Hospitals (rural hospitals with 25 or fewer beds that meet certain federal criteria) from the legislation. MNA continues to believe that all patients in Minnesota, regardless of their geographic location, are entitled to the same standard of safe nursing care.
In the House, the bill is now headed for the Health and Human Services Policy Committee. We will alert you when a hearing date is scheduled.

CALL TO ACTION: Contact your legislators TODAY. Legislators are telling us that they’re only hearing from hospitals about this bill. We know you’re calling and emailing, but we need to turn up the volume! If legislators only hear the hospitals’ message that staffing is fine, they’ll never pass our bill.

Use the MNA Grassroots Action Center to contact your state senator and state representative TODAY. Tell them how your patients are affected by unsafe nurse staffing, and why we need statewide standards of care to protect patients and nurses.

Nurse Practice Act

After years of discussion, MNA, the Minnesota Board of Nursing and organizations representing LPNs have come to an agreement about changes to the Minnesota Nurse Practice Act clarifying the scope of LPN practice, and the relationship between LPNs and RNs. The Minnesota Nurse Practice Act language has not been updated in over forty years, so this agreement reflects decades of advances in nursing care.

A bill based on that agreement had a hearing before the House Health and Human Services Policy Committee this morning. Thanks to chief author Representative Patti Fritz, a retired LPN, for moving this bill through the House. The bill passed the committee unanimously and will move on to a vote on the House floor. The Senate companion, SF1016 authored by Senator Chris Eaton, RN, is awaiting a hearing in the Senate Health, Human Services and Housing Committee.

Over 800 individuals participated in providing feedback on the language, including many MNA members who attended listening sessions last summer or who submitted written comments. Thanks to all of you who spoke up on behalf of your profession.

Health Insurance Exchange

After multiple hours of floor debates and over 100 amendments, the House and Senate both passed the Minnesota Health Insurance Exchange bill, creating an online marketplace for individuals and small businesses to comparison shop for affordable health care coverage. There are many differences between the two versions of the bill that will be worked out in a conference committee in the coming days.

Town Hall Meetings

Many legislators are holding town hall meetings for constituents to come learn about the legislative session and share their opinions. This is a great opportunity for you to meet your legislators and build relationships with them. It’s also a good venue to educate your legislator and your neighbors about the need for the Standards of Care Act to establish statewide patient safety standards. Check below to see if your legislator is holding a town hall meeting. (If you know of other meetings that aren’t listed here, please contact Geri Katz at 651-414-2855 or geri.katz@mnnurses.org.)

Saturday, March 9

Representative Shannon Savick Coffee and Conversation

Saturday, March 9, 9:00 am

Prairie Wind Coffee, 211 South Broadway, ALBERT LEA

Senator Kevin Dahle and Representative Kelby Woodard

Saturday, March 9, 10 am

Belle Plain Library, 125 West Main Street, BELLE PLAINE MN 56011

Senator Kevin Dahle and Representative Kelby Woodard

Saturday, March 9, 11:30 am

Le Sueur Library, 118 Ferry Street, LE SUEUR MN 56058

Senator Kevin Dahle and Representative Kelby Woodard

Saturday, March 9, 1 pm

Le Center City Hall, 10 West Tyrone Street, LE CENTER MN 56057

Senator Kevin Dahle and Representative David Bly

Saturday, March 9, 2:30 pm

Northfield Library, 210 Washington Street, NORTHFIELD MN 55057

Saturday, March 23

Representative Barb Yarusso Coffee and Conversation

Saturday, March 23, 9:00am – 11:00am

Raz’s Coffee and Ice Cream Café, 1048 Highway 96 W, SHOREVIEW, MN 55126

Monday, March 25