Big Gains for Long Beach Nurses

pickledpepperRN · Jan 4, 2006

Big Gains for Long Beach Nurses in New Pact - Salary Improvements, New Patient Care Protections - St. Vincent RNs Vote by 75% to Stay with CNA, New Pact at Desert

http://www.calnurses.org/media-center/press-releases/2005/nov2005/page.jsp?itemID=27499208

... "Long Beach has signed a contract with its nurses that provides salaries which will enable them to go to the front of the line when it comes to recruitment and retention of nurses, a key portion of the business of safe patient care," said nurse negotiator Mary Bailey, RN. "As an 18-year nurse at Memorial I feel this is a landmark agreement which meets the needs of the hospital and the nurses and thereby the community we serve."

Bailey noted the second CNA contract also "gives Memorial the tools to fill the openings for Miller's Children's Hospital due to open in 2008."

On floating, the agreement defines 12 "well-defined floating clusters," nurse negotiator Margie Keenan, RN noted, to which an RN can be assigned, keeping them in their general area of specialty. Typical clusters include medical-surgical/telemetry, critical care, emergency, women's health, and pediatrics.

"We also won fantastic lift team language which provides for 24-hour-a-day lift team coverage," said Keenan. The language stipulates that in addition to regularly-scheduled ancillary nursing staff, specific trained staff will be designated to assist with patient lifting and handling at all times. "

Nurses lead the nation in work-related back injuries, and surveys show that 52% of RNs report chronic back pain and 12% who leave the profession say back injuries were the main or a significant reason. Schwarzenegger has twice vetoed bills to require hospitals to assure safe lift policies...