One of the most historically fascinating cities in the United States, Philadelphia is home to some of the best hospitals in the country. Some of the best nursing jobs in Philadelphia can be found at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Pennsylvania Hospital, Albert Einstein Medical Center and Fox Chase Cancer Center, which are all well-rated by US News and World Report, and all have high-ranking specialties. Many Philadelphia nursing jobs are in hospitals located… Continue reading
NEW DIRECTORS JOIN PSNA
The Pennsylvania State Nurses Association (PSNA), the voice for registered nurses in Pennsylvania, recently elected five new members to serve on its board of directors. At PSNA’s November meeting, PSNA Chief Executive Officer Betsy M. Snook, MEd, BSN, RN welcomed:
Patrick E. Kenny, EdD, RN, ACRN, APRN-PMH, NE-BC, will serve as secretary on the PSNA board of directors. He is assistant professor in the Department of Nursing and Health at DeSales University where he currently teaches courses in the undergraduate nursing curriculum. From 2007-2011, he served as president of PSNA. In addition, Kenny has held and holds several organizational positions including: director at large, Association of Nurses in AIDs Care; board member, The Eastern Pennsylvania Geriatrics Society; and treasurer, Mu Omicron Chapter, DeSales University, Sigma Theta Tau International.
Carol Ann Coles, RN, MSN, has worked as a professor of nursing at Westmoreland County Community College for more than 16 years. A member of PSNA for more than 20 years, Carol has served as PSNA vice president, former PSNA board member, PSNA-PAC chair and PSNA Awards chair.
Latasha Kast, BSN, RN, is a staff nurse at UPMC and serves as her unit’s Magnet Champion. Latasha served as president of the Student Nurses’ Association of Pennsylvania and is the co-chair of PSNA’s New-to-Practice Committee.
Donna Ayers Snelson, RN, MSN, DEd, is an associate professor and director of the Center for Nursing History at Misericordia University. As a nurse educator for more than 36 years, she has served in a number of leadership roles including: founder and director, Center for Nursing History in Northeastern Pennsylvania; vice president, PSNA District 3; member, PSNA Continuing Education Committee; and chair, Department of Nursing, Misericordia University.
Zane Robinson Wolf, PhD, RN, FAAN, is dean emerita and professor at La Salle University. She has served as editor-in-chief of Pennsylvania Nurse, editor of the International Journal for Human Caring, former president of the Pennsylvania League for Nursing and member of the Institute for Safe Medication Practices board of trustees.
BFMC Nurses Will Host Community Forum On March 6 – SAVE THE DATE!
Join the nurses of Baystate Franklin Medical Center (BFMC) and community members of Franklin County to learn about how Baystate’s business model and pract…
Call Your Legislator Today for Support on MNA /NNU Safe Staffing Bill
Call your legislator to ask for their support of safe staffing levels! Legislation has just been filed that directs the Commonwealth to set safe limits for the …
Help us show the world the real image of nursing.
Are you a nurse? We are offering $100 in our nurse photo contest! Real portrayals of the nursing profession are few and far between and instead of settling for buying fake-looking models posing in halloween nurse costumes for our stock photographs we at NursingJobs.us figured that we might as well try asking the many nurses who use our nursing job board to send us their own, real, photos and let us use them to better represent the face of nursing… Continue reading
ROBIN HOOD GETS THE GO AHEAD IN EUROPE
The Robin Hood Tax moves forward in a major way, in what is being termed a “milestone for tax policy.” Eleven nations in the European Union are participating in a financial transaction tax, sometimes called a Tobin tax, in Europe per “enhanced co-operation” rules of the EU.
It’s another sign that our movement is gathering momentum. As more countries support a Robin Hood tax, it helps eliminate the idea that traders would flee the US market if Congress passed a financial transaction tax.
By the EU rules, a smaller group within the 27-nation EU can pioneer a tax. “Those who want to move ahead, and who appreciate the merits of working more closely on taxation at the EU, can do so,” Algirdas Semeta, the European Commissioner for tax, told the press. Commissioner Semeta said it is possible that the tax could enter into force beginning January 1, 2014.
The 11 countries are Belgium, Germany, Estonia, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia and Slovakia. Other countries can opt in later. Sweden, for example, chose not to participate, saying that a “global” tax was needed to protect all national markets. The Netherlands has expressed interested, but would like to see an exemption for their pension funds.
The tax is expected to raise 74 billion Euros annually. The UK, which has a Stamp duty on stock market trading, opted not to participate at this time. But the Robin Hood tax will be collected by investors from the 11 countries when trading on the London Stock Exchange, one of the busiest in the world. This is the so-called “residence principle,” meaning that a financial transaction would be taxed in each case where a resident of one of the participating EU member states was involved even if the transaction was carried out in a country that is not a participant.
Next step: the European Commission brings forward a formal proposal for the tax. The proposal will be based on the September 2011 proposal – a coordinated minimum 0.1% tax rate for trades of stocks and bonds and a 0.01% rate for derivatives trades.
This week, proponents described the aim of the proposal is “for the financial industry to make a fair contribution to tax revenues, whilst also creating a disincentive for transactions that do not enhance the efficiency of financial markets.”
Specific uses of the tax funds have yet to be agreed upon. Some press reports suggest that revenue will go towards bank bailouts in Europe. But Robin Hood tax advocates will continue to call for revenue devoted to social and environmental purposes, to rebuild communities still reeling from the financial collapse of 2008.
Edith Shain
Edith Shain was born in Tarrytown, New York on July 29, 1918. She later attended the New York University nursing program and worked as a psychiatric nurse at Doctor’s Hospital in New York City. Upon learning that World War II had ended, on August 14, 1945, she went to Times Square with a friend to […]
EU approves financial transaction tax for 11 eurozone countries
UK abstained in vote but Germany and France among nations to impose FTT levy despite warnings by banks over losing trade
Germany, France and nine other eurozone countries have been given the green light to impose a financial transaction tax, despite warnings from banks and business groups that it will drive share, currency and derivative trading out of Europe.
EU finance ministers gave their approval at a meeting in Brussels, allowing 11 states to pursue a levy on financial transactions. The UK abstained in the vote alongside Luxembourg and the Czech Republic.
Eleven countries won the EU’s backing for a financial transaction tax (FTT), with Germany, France, Italy and Spain adding their names to eurozone neighbours Austria, Portugal, Belgium, Estonia, Greece, Slovakia and Slovenia.
The UK, which already imposes a tax on share trades, could benefit from a shift in banking business if Germany and France tax foreign exchange or derivatives trading in Frankfurt and Paris.
The levy, which could raise as much as €35bn (£29.3bn) a year for the 11 countries, is designed to prevent a repeat of the conditions that stoked the credit crunch by reining in investment banks. Following the decision, the European Commission will put forward a new proposal for the tax, which if agreed on by those states involved, would mean the levy could be introduced within months. Although critics say such a tax cannot work properly unless applied worldwide or at least across Europe, countries such as France are already banking on the extra income from next year.
“We will be able to put it into place quickly,” said Benoit Hamon, a junior minister in the French finance ministry who was at the meeting.
A tax would raise the costs of individual trades, which economists suspect are carried out by banks to extract commissions and fees from fund managers that handle large pension funds.
Opinion is divided over whether banks would continue to trade at current levels and pay the tax or cut back on the number of trades, potentially saving pension schemes millions of pounds.
Algirdas Semeta, the European commissioner in charge of tax policy, said: “This is a major milestone in tax history.”
Under EU rules, a minimum of nine countries can co-operate on legislation using a process called enhanced co-operation as long as a majority of the EU’s 27 countries give their permission.
Germany and France decided to push ahead with a smaller group after efforts to impose a tax across the whole EU and later among just the 17 eurozone states foundered. Sweden, which tried and abandoned its own such tax, has repeatedly cautioned that the levy would push trading elsewhere.
Critics say the levy could open another rift in Europe, where the 17 states using the euro are deepening ties in order to underpin the currency, and there is the growing risk that Britain could even leave the European Union.
The CBI said the tax, based on an idea proposed by US economist James Tobin more than 40 years ago, would place another barrier to growth in the eurozone because the costs would ultimately be passed on to consumers and savers.
Matthew Fell, CBI director for competitive markets, said: “The UK government is right to reject a FTT as damaging for jobs and growth.
“It is disappointing that eurozone economies are pursuing the FTT, whose costs ultimately fall on consumers and businesses, and will be a drag on the eurozone recovery.
“As the UK’s largest single trading partner, a healthy European economy is in everyone’s interests so we urge participating member states to reconsider this tax.”
CNA RNs, Labor Supporters Join Sutter Solano RNs to Condemn Illegal Attacks on Nurses’ Rights
Sutter Solano registered nurses, joined by RNs from other hospitals and local labor leaders spoke out Tuesday to condemn the Vallejo hospital executives for illegal threats and disciplinary actions against nurses who have exercised their collective rights to protest sweeping concession demands.
“Nurses across the country are watching the struggle of the Sutter nurses,” said Martha Kuhl, treasurer of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United and a Children’s Oakland RN who chaired the rally which drew more than 50 nurses and supporters.
CNA has filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board over blatant and illegal violation of Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act over threats by Sutter Solano management to the Vallejo, Ca. nurses of discipline in an attempt to intimidate RNs from joining a one-day strike in December.
“Sutter comes at us with rocks in their fist,” but nurses know “we have a right to fight for a fair and just contract,” said Sutter Solano RN Jolayne Haines.
The hospital demanded that all Sutter Solano RNs report to work on December 24, even those not scheduled for shifts on that day. After the strike, Sutter Solano issued letters of warning against the RNs for not working the one-day strike and for those who did not work during the four-day lockout which the hospital imposed.
When the threats were first issued, the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United, which represents the Solano RNs, filed immediate charges with the National Labor Relations Board over the blatant and illegal violation of Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act.
“We will not tolerate” this attack on any nurses, said CNA Board member Kathy Donahue, a Kaiser Oakland, RN. “United we stand.”
“We are an army of CNA nurses that demand fair treatment. We will not let Sutter Solano RNs fall,” said Sutter Alta Bates Summit Oakland RN Lucy Riley.
The law establishes a clear right for employees to engage in collective action, including the right to strike, without fear of retaliation, harassment, or discipline by their employer. Regional NLRB officials are expected to act on the CNA charge by the end of January.
The nurses were joined at the rally by Teamsters Local 315 leader Carlos Borba who linked the fight to the national attack on workers and unions across the country. “You’re facing the same thing all of labor is,” he said.
“Your fight is about patient care. On behalf of the 60,000 members of the Napa-Solano Central Labor Council, we are there for you,” said Jon Riley, executive director of the council.
“We are the backbone of these hospitals. It gives me a lot of strength to know we are there for each other,” said Sutter Delta RN Melissa Thompson.
Efren Garza, RN at Sutter’s Alta Bates Summit Herrick facility in Berkeley blasted Sutter management for giving out 150 percent pay raises to top executives while demanding massive takeaways from nurses, such as a proposal to effectively “give up our sick leave. We need to stay united and Sutter will be defeated. We are united. We are union.”
New Study Linking Unemployment to Heart Attack Risk Underscores Wisdom of Main Street Contract Campaign
Take a look at the story below about a new study that shows a significant increase in the risk of heart attacks for people who are unemployed. T…