NURSES WEEK ACTIVITIES

-jt · May 4, 2001

the hell with the hospital. we take it to the streets......lol

NYSNA Nurses Week Activities

"RNs Demand Safe Staffing!!" buttons were mailed to every NYSNA member. Wear yours now. Wear it during Nurses Week. Wear it until the RN staffing shortage is over.

NYSNA members across New York state will be signing "RNs Demand Safe Staffing!!" petitions. Petitions have been distributed at NYSNA represented facilities, at workshops and meetings, and mailed to individual members. They will be used for lobbying in both Albany and Washington, D.C. If you are collecting signatures on a petition, mail it to NYSNA, 11 Cornell Road, Latham, NY 12110, or give it to your NYSNA representative.

Visit this link for a copy of the petition: http://www.nysna.org/IMAGES/PDFS/patientcarepetition.pdf

Two vans are touring the state. Each van carries a giant petition and sign that says "RNs Demand Safe Staffing!!". One van will tour upstate, the other downstate. The vans will stop at selected NYSNA represented facilities, where nurses will meet in the street in front of their facilities and sign on the line for safe staffing.

Visit this link for van schedules. http://www.nysna.org/news/PRESS01/vans.HTM

The whole city is getting into the act to help solve the nursing shortage:

New York Yankees Help NYSNA Recruit RNs! The Yankees electronic bulletin board on the Major Deegan Expressway carries a new message:

New York needs nurses

Nursing is a great career

Become an RN

For information: www.nysna.org

More than 100,000 cars a day pass this sign.

Come meet us on the line & add your name to our petition for safe staffing. The petition van will be joining nurses at the following hospitals around the state & nurses will be outside signing & collecting signatures. Come on down....

NYSNA Nurses Week Van Schedules

Downstate Van Schedule Days

County

Facility

Time

Monday 5/7

Suffolk

Southside Hospital

7.00am

Nassau

North Shore Univ. Hosp. Syosset

11.30am

Queens

Elmhurst Hospital Center

3.30pm

Borough

Tuesday 5/8

Westchester

St. John's Riverside Hospital

7.00am

Bronx

Bronx Lebanon Hospital Center

12.00pm

Montefiore Medical Center

(JD Weiler Hospital)

3.00pm

Jacobi Medical Center

4.00pm

Wednesday 5/9

Brooklyn

Kings County Hospital Center

7.00am

The Brooklyn Hospital Center

12.00pm

Staten Island

St. Vincent's Medical Center

3.00pm

Staten Island University Hospital

4.30pm

Thursday 5/10

Manhattan

Bellevue Hospital Center

7.00am

Cabrini Medical Center

11.30am-12.30pm

St. Vincent's Catholic Med. Center

1.00pm-1.30pm

The Mount Sinai Hospital

2.00pm-3.00pm

Upstate Van Schedule Days

County

Facility

Time

Monday 5/7

Erie

Buffalo VA

11.30am

Erie County Medical Center

12.15pm

Chautauqua

Brooks Memorial Hospital

3.30pm

Tuesday 5/8

Cattaraugus

Olean General Hospital

11.30am

Allegany

Allegany County Dept. of Health

1.00pm

Chemung

St. Joseph's Hospital

3.30pm

Onondaga

Onondaga County Dept. of Health

6.30pm

Wednesday 5/9

Madison

Oneida Healthcare Center

6.30am

Madison County Dept. of Health

8.30am

St. Lawrence

Hepburn Medical Center

12.30pm

E. J. Noble Hospital

3.30pm

Thursday 5/10

Rockland

Nyack Hospital

6.30am

Dutchess

Vassar Brothers Hospital

11.30am

Schenectady

Ellis Hospital

3.30pm

Friday 5/11

Oneida

St. Elizabeth Medical Center

12.00pm

-jt · May 4, 2001

New York RNs Demand Safe Staffing

During Nurses Week, Thousands to Sign Petitions Calling for Legislation

5/3/01

Albany, NY - May 2, 2001 - Nurses will observe Nurses Week 2001 (May 6-12) at a time when there is little to celebrate about the condition of nursing care. To draw public attention to a growing public health crisis, the 33,000 members of the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) will participate in a nationwide "RNs Demand Safe Staffing" petition campaign.

Nurses will sign petitions calling for legislation to promote safe staffing, an end to mandatory overtime, whistleblower protection, and other measures designed to improve working conditions for nurses and improve the quality of patient care. They say that while individual nurses continue to perform heroically to provide adequate care to their patients, they are being pushed to the limit.

"Nurses are telling us, 'I love nursing, but I hate my job,'" said Lorraine Seidel, RN, director of NYSNA's collective bargaining program. "During the course of history, nurses have often been called upon to care for others despite personal sacrifice. But when that sacrifice is due to gross mismanagement, or when they are asked to perform miracles for months and years at a time, nurses begin to look for a way out..."

To read complete press release go to http://www.NYSNA.org

Chuckie · May 5, 2001

fiestynurse · May 5, 2001

This sounds like a great opportunity to look this CEO in the eye, while you firmly hold on to his hand and tell him what your concerns are and what changes you expect from him. If every nurse thought of one clear statement to give to him during this handshaking, just imagine how powerful that would be!! I think this CEO has the right idea. Hospital CEOs should be more visible and meet the people that are working on the front lines.

AnneD · May 5, 2001

I'm not much into the touchy/feely of Nurse Week but the hospital that I work has some fun things...People brought up graduation pictures, we get various meals free throughout the week, ect. But best of all, we were told we were fully staffed now and would be getting our salaries adjusted to compensate for the lower salaries we have been recieving in the past...Now that's how you celebrate Nurses Week. As for me, I'm going to try to find a good book about Florence Nightengale and read it during the summeer. :cool:

-jt · May 13, 2001

A Nurses Week Public Awareness Rally at the US Capitol with similar rallies at the State Capitols around the country.... sound familiar? :

SEIU Nurses Stand Up for Patients

Two hundred nurses, flanked by more than 1,000 PAIRS OF EMPTY NURSE'S SHOES, filled the steps of the U.S. Capitol May 9th urging Congress to ensure quality patient care by ending short staffing of nurses in the nation's hospitals.

The SEIU's Stand for Patients rally brought together nurses from across the United States and is one of 10 such protests at state capitols and local Congressional offices coast to coast.

Participants at the rally asked lawmakers to help replenish the ranks of nurses--fill the empty shoes--by stopping practices such as mandatory overtime and understaffing that are endangering care for the sick and causing nurses to quit their careers.

Four U.S. senators and two former nurses now in the House joined SEIU nurse leaders in addressing the rally.

"We are facing a crisis in our nation's hospitals," Diane Sosne, a Seattle nurse and president of SEIU District 1199NW, told the crowd. "Chronic understaffing and mandatory overtime are threatening quality care for patients and driving talented nurses out of our profession."

The rally comes as the SEIU Nurse Alliance released a report, "The Shortage of Care," which documents the scope of the problem and the needed solutions to systemic short staffing at hospitals.

In a survey reported in the study, 58 percent of nurses say that at least once a week in their units, nurses have no time to provide needed instructions or education to patients about handling their illnesses. Many nurses, 54 percent, also say that at least half of the errors they report are the direct result of short staffing. View the executive summary or full report.

Participants at the U.S. Capitol rally heard members of Congress take up their calls for federal legislation to end stopgap measures adopted by hospital managers such as mandatory overtime and denial of days off.

Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.), a former nurse, told the rally about her sister's agonizing decision to abandon the nursing career she had taken up years earlier at McCarthy's invitation. "She told me she couldn't pick up the phone on her day off because it was her boss calling her back into work." McCarthy added, "When you look at these shoes, lots of them have so many miles on them. We pledge to fight to make it a better job." Rep. Lois Capps (D-Calif.), another former nurse, also addressed the rally.

"The moral test of our society is how we treat the caregivers," Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.) told participants. "I have met too many nurses who say, 'Senator, I'm working 70 to 80 hours a week for 40 days straight. The choice I face is between my livelihood and my life.'"

"Soon we're going to see who really stands for nurses," said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), referring to bills he expects his Congressional colleagues to take on to end mandatory overtime and to apply safe staffing standards to the nation's hospitals. Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Harry Reid (D-Nev.) spoke to the gathering, as well.

"I heard a lot of promises today," said SEIU nurse activist Kathy Stoddert, who lives in eastern Ohio and works in western Pennsylvania. "I am going to do everything I can to hold them accountable and make sure that nurses never let up."

http://www.nursealliance.org/staffing/nurses_stand_up.cfm