union nurse vs nonunion non-nurse

Thank you, Analyses of the job shows the data percentage is a lot higher if done by a nurse. We have all RN's except 1 employee in a different building. She does abstract but not the same data base as we do. Our manager is very new to this position. She worked for 2 months before becoming a manager. The job posting use to require a RN. This past one did not. As our manager has been in her new role I assume she has taken the RN lable off in order to cut costs.
As soon as the posting went up our Rep from our area meet with the hospital along with all attorneys. They we allowed to hire a non nurse but it was understood that the new person would work and orientate with a person close to her level. We meet again with human resources ect on thurs.
I was by the rep that we are not required to train her nor is the new person allowed to work on our data bases. We do have a nurse on leave that looks as if she may not return. I was told they must replace with a nurse. Is this true?
We do data abstraction for mandatory data bases required by CMS.
I am just unsure about what is right and when to file a grievance. We are put in a tricky spot right now. Also there is concern they might take us out of the union if the job does not require a nurse. some of the data bases require a nurse but not all. I myself was off on workcomp injury when the data abstracting job posting came up and I applied. Most of us have had injuries but we all applied and got through the normal process.
So I am saying most of us are not able to go back to work on the floor. Thanks for all the info you have given.

She is not an abstractor. The data is required for medcaid/medicare reimbursement. Every quarter 5 charts are checked for validation to make sure they are abstracted correctly. Average must be greater than 80 percent a year or it affects the reimbursement. It is required by all acute care hospitals but not critical access hospitals yet. The data is compared nationally and many core measure questions are publicly reported on hospital compare website.
CMS gives you a list and you choose which database you want to collect. They might give a list of 10-15 and you need to collect for 1 or 2 of them.

For example surgery. They collect for antibiotic to be given within an hour of incision. For this you need to have all elements of correct ABX for surgery, date, route, and military time. If any of these are not complete you fail the measure. Getting anesthsia to document IV has been difficult.
This is an example of 1 of the measures. They are many. It is very surprising how the insurance companies and CMS dictate everything you do.
Then quarterly we present the data amd explain why they fail. It is actually a very intersting job. The definitions change or add every 6 months. 1 data base of definitions to abstract is over 300 pages not counting all the appendix's. Sorry if I explained too much.
This is why it would be so difficult to train a lay person. They would not realize the impact and accuracy the core measure elements are. Thanks for listening