Methodist Hospital PACU nurses recently celebrated a win that illustrates how working together and taking action can improve patient care in our hospitals.

After management denied requests for additional staff to replace nurses out on leave, Methodist PACU nurses circulated a petition and gathered the signatures of 100 percent of their fellow nurses on the unit.  They submitted the petition to the employer and within hours the employer notified MNA that they would bring in agency help to improve staffing and would post the position for a permanent replacement in the coming weeks.

“We’ve got to staff our unit.  Our contract says we’re back up calls, not first call,” said Jean Adomaitis, RN, in the Recovery Unit.  Adomaitis said they feared patient care was going to suffer and gaps in staffing would start to appear on the day shifts as tired nurses wouldn’t be able to work round-the-clock.   She said she wasn’t surprised by all the signatures and credits the unanimous consent of all the nurses to convincing management to act.

“It was almost a slam dunk,” Adomaitis said.  “The fact that everyone signed it.   They saw the whole unit, a very professional unit with lots of ICU experience.  She (nursing manager) saw all these names, and said, ‘ok, we’ll do something.’”

We are ethically and legally obligated to advocate for the safety of our patients every day, in every unit, on every shift. When our professional nursing judgment tells us that staffing is unsafe and potentially detrimental to patient health, we have to act collectively to demand better staffing. When we are denied that help the first time, we must increase the pressure on the employer until they have to respond.

The petition was Methodist PACU nurses first collective action as a unit, but other member leaders helped them out just as PACU members supported facility-wide actions in the past.  We have the collective action of the nurses who came before us to thank for our right to organize, our high standards of patient care, and the protection of our union contract. It is our responsibility to our patients and to the future members of our profession to continue that proud tradition of advocacy.

NOTES ON NURSING

HHS Secretary Sebelius Hails Nurses   National Nurses Week gives us a chance to recognize the contribution of the health care providers at the heart of our health care system.  Every day, nurses provide leadership, innovation and advocacy to meet the health care needs of Americans.

Advanced Nurses Lower Costs, Improve Care   Studies find that Advanced Practice Registered Nurses who provide preventive  care are as effective as primary-care physicians in accuracy of diagnosis and  prescription.

LABOR UPDATES

The Labor Market Won’t Be Healthy Until People Feel Like they Can Quit Their Jobs  The unemployment rate may be falling and the number of jobs rising. But there isn’t enough “churn” going on, a hallmark of a healthy job market, in which people freely move between positions.

Daily Job Death Toll:  150 Workers    The report finds that along with the 4,693 workers killed on the job in 2011 (about 13 a day)—the last figures available from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)—an estimated 50,000 workers a year (about 137 a day) die from occupational diseases. In addition, some 3.8 workers are reported to suffer job-related injuries or illnesses each year.

Battle at Kaiser Permanente is Sign of Vibrant Health Care Unions   “The old image is of a union worker being a steel worker or an auto worker but the typical person today is a teacher, nurse, firefighter or airline pilot. Nurses are one of the most unionized groups in society,” said Alex Colvin, who chairs the labor relations department at Cornell University. “This isn’t an area where unions are dying.”

HEALTH CARE

Slowdown in Rise of Health Care Costs May Persist    David M. Cutler estimates that, given the dynamics of the slowdown, economists might be overestimating public health spending over the next decade by as much as $770 billion.  Related:  Structural Changes May Be Foundation for Containment 

Same Procedure, $30K Difference in Hospital Billing   For the first time, the federal government has released the prices that hospitals charge for the 100 most common inpatient procedures. Until now, these charges have been closely held by facilities that see a competitive advantage in shielding their fees from competitors. What the numbers reveal is a health-care system with tremendous, seemingly random variation in the costs of services.

First MAT training for Mankato nurses=full house

Next time, they’ll rent a bigger room.  Maybe a movie theater.

More than 60 nurses from the Mayo Clinic Health System-Mankato showed up for trainings and organizing planning meetings to prepare for negotiations with management later this month.

Nurses showed up over two days to sign upwork with groups of 10 nurses to gather input and organize actions in the lead up to their upcoming contract negotiations through Member Action Teams (MAT).

MAT members will also be a voice of their colleagues upwards through the bargaining team so those at the table understand what’s most important for nurses in their next contract.   Nurses are driven by staffing shortages that threaten patient safety and continues to be a major issue.  Some have received more than five texts a day to pick up shifts.

“I go out and touch base with members, and they contact me,” said David Nachreiner, bargaining team chair,  “it’s an absolutely united group that’s bringing concerns to the meetings.  We all care about patient safety.”

Kris Stenzel talks to a full house.

Nurses mapped the entire hospital up floor-by-floor to ensure that no part of the bargaining unit would be left out of important bargaining news or events or would be susceptible to bad information from rumor or management misinformation.  They’ve also created a unit website that contains specific contract language and a link to email the entire bargaining unit with questions about their major issues.

“We want a safe work environment.  We want enough staff members to be able to do the job that has to be done, which is taking care of patients and to do it safely,” Nachreiner said.

They also made plans for events over the summer to show support for one another at the bargaining team during negotiations, including a family day at the Mankato Moon Dogs.  So far, six negotiating dates have been scheduled.

“We’re prepared to stand together,” Nachreiner said.

Serious talk by Mankato nurses about unsafe staffing situation

NOTES ON NURSING

Sen. Boxer Proposes Federal Regulation for Nurse-to-Patient Ratios    ”I am proud to introduce legislation that will help save the lives of countless  patients by improving the quality of care in our nation’s hospitals,” Boxer said  Tuesday. “We must support the nurses who work tirelessly every day to provide  the best possible care to their patients.”

HHS to Fund Solders-to-Nurses Program   A new program will help military veterans with healthcare experience or training  to build on their skills and abilities and earn bachelor’s degrees in nursing,  Health & Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced this week.

Nurses Drowning in a Sea of Paperwork   Nurses are “drowning in a sea of paperwork” with more than one-sixth of the working week taken up doing non-essential paperwork, a survey suggests.

Nurses Lead the Way in Better Diabetes Outcomes  A program led by certified diabetes nurse educators helped patients titrate insulin and improve key diabetes parameters, researchers reported here.