CNA nurses to strike this week

[smoke over fire]

Please respect the choice these nurses made by honoring their strike.

13,000 California RNs to Strike June 10 as Part of Largest Nurses Strike in U.S. History

25,000 RNs at UC Medical Centers, Twin Cities, MN, and other CA hospitals join forces over crisis of patient safety in America’s hospitals

As many as 25,000 registered nurses from California and Minnesota have issued one-day strike notices Friday morning over patient care issues in contract negotiations at their facilities, the California Nurses Association and Minnesota Nurses Association announced today. All the nurses are members of National Nurses United, the nation’s largest professional association and union for RNs.

In both California and Minnesota the key sticking point is safe nurse to patient staffing. Short staffing has become hospital industry standard across the country. This has left serious patient care issues unaddressed. Nurses are demanding safe RN-to-patient ratios at all times, including during nurse meal and rest breaks.

The nurses are seeking to establish nurse-to-patient ratios through collective bargaining in states such as Minnesota, where ratios are not currently law. A recent study conducted by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania has demonstrated that thousand of lives could be saved annually by improving nurse-to-patient ratios.

In California, where hospitals must follow minimum nurse-to-patient specific ratios under state law, the nurses are seeking to strengthen enforcement of the ratios and guard against politicians and the industry who seek to roll them back. Nurses also want to protect other patient safeguards including guarantees that nurses – who typically work 12-hour days - receive rest and meal breaks during their shifts.

Secondarily, the RNs are fighting to protect their retirement, which is a key factor in recruitment and retention of experienced nurses.

The California nurses come from five University of California Medical Centers—San Diego, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Davis—as well as four other facilities: Citrus Valley Medical Center (Covina), San Pedro Hospital (San Pedro), Marina del Rey Medical Center (Los Angeles) and Olympia Medical Center (Los Angeles). The 12,000 Minnesota RNs come from six hospitals that are a part of the Twin Cities hospital systems.

[mdfog10]

Thank you for your post and your support. I am a California Nurse. California hospitals , in my opinion, ignore the piece of the ratio law that speaks to patient acuity. The ratios are a floor and patient acuity dictates if increased staffing is called for. Management can praise their own leadership and maybe the RN staff when hospital indicators, and patient satisfaction numbers are in a good place. Things are good in my hospital because the RNs care and work incredibly hard--to our own detriment. We deliver and yet when we document and articulate unsafe conditions, lack of adequate break coverage, inadequate staffing we are met with no response. Delay and Deny , and collect incredible profits, that is their baseline behavior. My CEO sent us a letter chiding us for how much money the strike would cost. We all know that money could be saved and better spent if they just followed the law and did the right thing. Unfortunately that is not my reality. Every day, every year we will continue the fight to advocate for our patients and our profession.:redbeathe:nurse::redbeathe:

[elizabethjk]

California nurses rule!!!

[Not justa male nurse]

We need a national union, that can take on all the state board of nursing to reorganize to become an agent for a national RN license.CNA should be the first state union to act like a union and set up retirement and health care options for it's RN members who have dedicated a life time of caring for others.If the other unions: Police,Fire,plumbers,electricians Dry wall hangers, bakers, assembly line workers are provided that type service why aren't we?

There needs to be national RN meeting in every state set on the same date and time,it needs to be heavly advertized, maybe we could get Bill Gates or Steve Jobs to help set up a vertural webcast availible for everyone including the public tohave all the state boards to put ratio's in their nurse practice act, as a standard of care. The public knows we have their back, we need them to have ours.

Speaking of backs, we need lift teams, transporters,unit clerks! Hey that sounds like job creation to me.Lets get President Obama to call a meeting of every CEO of every hospital in the US to meet with him and a national RN union president and elected regional Vice presidents to put universal healthcare for all hospital employees.Lets make California the first state to have every RN and every healthcare provider and everyone else who makes a living taking care of others have a union based retirement,low cost healthcare coverage.It is embarassing when patients learn a working nurse doesn't have the healthcare that they are providing others..,or after a life time of care for others we don't have a union sponsored health plan when we retire until medicare kicks in at age 65. So what do you think? Do you think young bright people might see nursing and other healthcare careers as a option.We are going to be" hurtin for certin" if we don't get more students in the pipeline.We need financial aid to pay the 10k it take to go from RN to BSN so nurses can move into teaching and make our career theirs!

[imanedrn]

California nurses barred from strike, but Minnesota nurses ready for June 10 D-day - FierceHealthFinance - Health Finance, Healthcare Finance

Judge ruled to prevent CA nurses from striking. The article presents some other information also.

[smoke over fire]

not justa male nurse;we need a national union, that can take on all the state board of nursing to reorganize to become an agent for a national rn license.

the state boards of nursing are usually consumer protection agencies. but the nln is ready when we can have all nurses's unions work together. it would very difficult for all nurses' to belong to the same union. a union has most power to influence change at the local level, on the job imho. you may want to read more posts in this forum to see that unions have had issues with raiding other unionized nurses rather than focus on getting into non-union workplaces. the bad blood runs deep and there are battles going on right now in which nurses and other healthcare workers are trying to get power back from larger organizations. there will never be a one size fits all until we can agree to focus our efforts on getting all nurses organized even if it means they want to stay independent.

it would be awesome & more helpful if nurses would respect picket lines of those who are pushed so far to the limit, they must strike.

cna should be the first state union to act like a union and set up retirement and health care options for it's rn members who have dedicated a life time of caring for others.if the other unions: police,fire,plumbers,electricians dry wall hangers, bakers, assembly line workers are provided that type service why aren't we?

local leaders work benefits out in contract negotiation. alot of union nurses have these benefits along with 401k, health savings accounts, and health insurance.

there needs to be national rn meeting in every state set on the same date and time,it needs to be heavly advertized, maybe we could get bill gates or steve jobs to help set up a vertural webcast availible for everyone including the public tohave all the state boards to put ratio's in their nurse practice act, as a standard of care. the public knows we have their back, we need them to have ours.

i agree! let's go.

speaking of backs, we need lift teams, transporters,unit clerks! hey that sounds like job creation to me.lets get president obama to call a meeting of every ceo of every hospital in the us to meet with him and a national rn union president and elected regional vice presidents to put universal healthcare for all hospital employees.

many nurses don't agree with universal healthcare. i agree there are many jobs out there that are just not in place. some hospitals do have these positions, but are eliminating them because of the cost of labor as well as this idea that ratios mean we can place more work on the nurses. sucks, but at least in unionized workplaces we can file workload grievances. others are not so lucky.

lets make california the first state to have every rn and every healthcare provider and everyone else who makes a living taking care of others have a union based retirement,low cost healthcare coverage.it is embarassing when patients learn a working nurse doesn't have the healthcare that they are providing others..,or after a life time of care for others we don't have a union sponsored health plan when we retire until medicare kicks in at age 65.

agreed!if every nurse was unionized we would see higher community wages and other benefits.

so what do you think? do you think young bright people might see nursing and other healthcare careers as a option.we are going to be" hurtin for certin" if we don't get more students in the pipeline.we need financial aid to pay the 10k it take to go from rn to bsn so nurses can move into teaching and make our career theirs!

there is money in healthcare reform for nurses who want to go back to school. i always thought another motivator would be for the states to offer nurses the "nurse next door" program for nurses like they do teachers & police officers. we do need more investment in outreach to students, but more important we need to work on ways to get specialty training programs for experienced nurses and new grads who want to get into areas like ambulatory care, labor & delivery, and or.

:yeah: awesome post! if you are not already, you would make a good steward! we need passionate smart people like you to lead nurses to unity.

[Not justa male nurse]

This is what I am saying...Regaurdless of where a nurse works , We should insist our CNA union ,set up a portable retierment plan and retierment healthcare program that ALL california hospitals must also pay into the amoount of which would be determined by the number of RN's they employ.Large empolyers would pay more then smaller ones. RN's would join CNA and pay union dues if that meant no matter where they worked they would have what other labor unions have in terms of benefits.This would allow RN's the flexability,in that one could have portable inportant benifits, the hospitals would be off the hook with administering this union benifit. CNA membership would rise and thus have even more influance on both the state and national level! I am sorry, things need to change. When a buddy of mine says his union gets jobs for its members,vacation,health insurance,retirement income,low cost retirement healthcare and then asks,what are you paying due for?The only thing I can say is if you want to work in a "unionized hospital you have to pay into CNA or pay the same amount in a fee in order to work there.CNA neigoiates higher wages at unionized facilities and as an indirect result other hospitals raise what the pay nurses, CNA pushes for patient and RN reform so we pay the saleries to full time lobists. Then he says: "but what about you guys?" That's when I tell him if unions like AFL-CIO don't step up and show CNA how to better protect the group of people it was made to protect then little splinter groups will form and who knows who might be pulling the strings on such groups? The way I see it, CNA needs to step and anounce draumatic and sweeping changes that would make nurses nationwide would want to become part of whereever they lived until one day a national registery would be administering one hell of a retierment fund and insuring at least the nurses who take care of the patients will have a retirement income and healthcare after putting in 20 to 40 years of caring for others.PS someday will come and someday everyone is a patient!