Inland Valley Medical Center in California is UNION FREE

Nurses Union

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Specializes in Cardiac Critical Care, Trauma, Neuro..

The California Nurse Association has withdrawn representation of Inland Valley Medical Center in Wildomar, California under strong grassroots pressure to decertify the union. A decertification election was scheduled for August 26 and 27th 2008. Instead of waiting for the vote the union has walked away. INLAND VALLEY IS AGAIN UNION FREE!

The Nurses of Inland Valley have never had adequate representation from the union since voting them in several years ago. The union failed the nurses of inland Valley in so many ways that decertification was inevitable.

:yeah::yeah::yeah::yeah:

Sherwood Cox, RN, CCRN

I will be posting the NLRB documentation on my website when I receive them.

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Specializes in Cardiac Critical Care, Trauma, Neuro..

Pro-nurse, pro-employee grassroots efforts by a small but determined group of Inland Valley staff can be credited with forcing the hand of the California Nurses Association.

Their tenacity and determination should be a guiding light to all who oppose forced unionization and forced union dues. By sticking to your principals and remaining professional, the CNA can be shown the door.

http://www.pe.com/business/local/stories/PE_Biz_S_nurses23.3d1d50f.html

Sherwood

:typing:typing:typing :yeah::yeah::yeah: :yeah::yeah:

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Pro-nurse, pro-employee grassroots efforts by a small but determined group of Inland Valley staff can be credited with forcing the hand of the California Nurses Association.

Their tenacity and determination should be a guiding light to all who oppose forced unionization and forced union dues. By sticking to your principals and remaining professional, the CNA can be shown the door.

http://www.pe.com/business/local/stories/PE_Biz_S_nurses23.3d1d50f.html

Sherwood

:typing:typing:typing :yeah::yeah::yeah: :yeah::yeah:

Will the nurses now decline the staffing ratios that were won by CNA? After all, if it isn't professional to belong to a union, it must also be professional to take a load of 10- 15 patients for one nurse to care for. It WAS, after all, CNA who fought and won safe staffing ratios for California. I can only assume that nurses who reject CNA and their "union atmosphere", must also reject ALL the good that they have done for nurses in the state of California. And laws that affect them and have made California the place where nurses are coming to from all over the country to work in. JMHO and my NY $0.02.

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN

Spokane, Washington

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Specializes in Cardiac Critical Care, Trauma, Neuro..

Here is the document showing how the California Nurses Association chose the give up recognition of Inland Valley Medical Center instead of continuing the fight against being decertified.

http://k.b5z.net/i/u/6011029/i/CNAwalkspdf.pdf

Here is the document from the National Labor Relations Board revoking the California Nurses Association as the union for the INland Valley Medical Center Nurses.

http://k.b5z.net/i/u/6011029/i/CNAwithdrawsPDF.pdf

I was asked by a few to provide the documentation and here it is.

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Specializes in Cardiac Critical Care, Trauma, Neuro..
Will the nurses now decline the staffing ratios that were won by CNA? After all, if it isn't professional to belong to a union, it must also be professional to take a load of 10- 15 patients for one nurse to care for. It WAS, after all, CNA who fought and won safe staffing ratios for California. I can only assume that nurses who reject CNA and their "union atmosphere", must also reject ALL the good that they have done for nurses in the state of California. And laws that affect them and have made California the place where nurses are coming to from all over the country to work in. JMHO and my NY $0.02.

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN

Spokane, Washington

I believe that staffing ratios are good for patients and of course nurses. The California Nurses Association, other nursing groups as well as individuals all worked and are working to maintain and obtain safe staffing ratio's for the benefit of all, not just a chosen few. It would be both selfish and self righteous to limit that benefit to only nurses who support organized labor and the patients they care for.

I don't oppose patient to nurse ratio's. In fact I don't know a nurse who does. We just go about it in a different fashion. You do not need to belong to a union to achieve change. Participating on various committees in your hospital is one way. You do need to take the opportunity to educate nurses and non-nurses. You need to be motivated enough in the causes you believe in and take the time to speak out. Write to your local newspaper, a professional publication as well as let your politicians know what is on your mind.

Thats my two cents. :twocents:

Sherwood

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I believe that staffing ratios are good for patients and of course nurses. The California Nurses Association, other nursing groups as well as individuals all worked and are working to maintain and obtain safe staffing ratio's for the benefit of all, not just a chosen few. It would be both selfish and self righteous to limit that benefit to only nurses who support organized labor and the patients they care for.

I don't oppose patient to nurse ratio's. In fact I don't know a nurse who does. We just go about it in a different fashion. You do not need to belong to a union to achieve change. Participating on various committees in your hospital is one way. You do need to take the opportunity to educate nurses and non-nurses. You need to be motivated enough in the causes you believe in and take the time to speak out. Write to your local newspaper, a professional publication as well as let your politicians know what is on your mind.

Thats my two cents. :twocents:

Sherwood

Unfortunately, while that sounds good on paper, reality is that, in most hospitals, the behavior/actions that you recommend would get most nurses shown the door. Without a union contract you have no say in the hospital workings, staffing or otherwise, like it or not. Most nurses fear for their jobs because they have no protection, especially in "right to work, (for less), states at states that are "at will" states.

It is hard, if not impossible, to motivate nurses to affect change in the workplace environment, when that conduct, can, and most often will, almost guarantee that you will be fired. Motivation to make needed change does not pay bills, put money in you kids college funds, or put gas in you car. JMHO, (again!), and my NY $0.02.

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN

Spokane, Washington

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It would be both selfish and self righteous to limit that benefit to only nurses who support organized labor and the patients they care for. . .You do not need to belong to a union to achieve change. . . You need to be motivated enough in the causes you believe in and take the time to speak out.

Sherwood

Well said! I have been a nurse for over 20 years and have been a "squeaky wheel" for much of that time. I belong to a professional organization for my specialty and have used the strength of that organization to effect positive change for the nurses in my department and the patients we care for. All nurses in my department. . . Whether or not they belong to my specialty organization. . . If it benefits patients and nurses, why would I not want it for everyone?

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Specializes in Critical care, tele, Medical-Surgical.
Well said! I have been a nurse for over 20 years and have been a "squeaky wheel" for much of that time. I belong to a professional organization for my specialty and have used the strength of that organization to effect positive change for the nurses in my department and the patients we care for. All nurses in my department. . . Whether or not they belong to my specialty organization. . . If it benefits patients and nurses, why would I not want it for everyone?

That is why the California Nurses Association Safe Staffing law is for all acute care hospitals.

All patients deserve the same excellent standard of care.

And all nurses must be able to provide it.

If your California hospital is staffed unsafely then your hospital is in violation of the law. Good for you if you help keep your hospital safe.

http://ww2.cdph.ca.gov/services/DPOPP/regs/Documents/R-37-01_Regulation_Text.pdf

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herring_RN,

Thank you for that link. I work in an area where we recover patients after cardiac caths and angiograms/angioplasties/stents done in interventional radiology. Our ratio is 4:1 which I think is too high at times due to the acuity of the patients. Do you have any suggestions on where I could find more specific information on the difference between stepdown, telemetry, and specialty units? I'm not sure where my department falls according to those guidelines, but our staffing should be at least the same as telemetry. I want some pretty strong literature to back me up when I ask for better staffing.

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Specializes in Critical care, tele, Medical-Surgical.
herring_RN,

Thank you for that link. I work in an area where we recover patients after cardiac caths and angiograms/angioplasties/stents done in interventional radiology. Our ratio is 4:1 which I think is too high at times due to the acuity of the patients. Do you have any suggestions on where I could find more specific information on the difference between stepdown, telemetry, and specialty units? I'm not sure where my department falls according to those guidelines, but our staffing should be at least the same as telemetry. I want some pretty strong literature to back me up when I ask for better staffing.

Tawnee:

I assume you are in California. The regulations here were promulgated as required by the law, AB 395 by the California Nurses Association.

For those in other states there is a movement to bring safe staffing to the entire United States:

http://www.calnurses.org/assets/pdf/ratios/ratios_booklet.pdf

Post cardiac cath patients are certainly not med-surg. Neither are they telemetry. They are not stable. They are potentially very unstable. You know the ongoing assessment required to intervene to prevent bleeding or loss of limb. Often too the patient has secondary diagnoses. The plain language of the regulation is clear that any patient on a cardiac monitor must be staffed as a step-down patient unless that patient is in a stable condition. No patient recovering from a cardiac cath is stable.

I think your unit may be a recovery room.

This is from page four:

"The licensed nurse-to-patient ratio in a postanesthesia recovery unit of the anesthesia service shall be 1:2 or fewer at all times, regardless of the type of anesthesia the patient received. " This includes conscious sedation.

If not a PACU your unit is almost certainly step-down. You should never be assigned to more than three patients. For the first hours after the procedure when just bending the leg can be disastrous you should probably have only one or two.

Beginning on page 7 read the requirement to add staff above the minimum. A partial quote, "Additional staff in excess of these prescribed ratios, including non-licensed staff, shall be assigned in accordance with the hospital's documented patient classification system for determining nursing care "

From page 7, "Identifying a unit by a name or term other than those used in this subsection does not affect the requirement to staff at the ratios identified for the level or type of care described in this subsection. "

From Pages 5-7:

Commencing January 1, 2008, the licensed nurse-to-patient ratio in a step-down unit shall be 1:3 or fewer at all times.

A "step down unit" is defined as a unit which is organized, operated, and maintained to provide for the monitoring and care of patients with moderate or potentially severe physiologic instability requiring technical support but not necessarily artificial life support.

Commencing January 1, 2008, the licensed nurse-to-patient ratio in a telemetry unit shall be 1:4 or fewer at all times.

"Telemetry unit" is defined as a unit organized, operated, and maintained to provide care for and continuous cardiac monitoring of patients in a stable condition, having or suspected of having a cardiac condition or a disease requiring the electronic monitoring, recording, retrieval, and display of cardiac electrical signals. "Telemetry unit" as defined in these regulations does not include fetal monitoring nor fetal surveillance.

Commencing January 1, 2008, the licensed nurse-to-patient ratio in a specialty care unit shall be 1:4 or fewer at all times.

A specialty care unit is defined as a unit which is organized, operated, and maintained to provide care for a specific medical condition or a specific patient population

http://www.cdph.ca.gov/services/DPOPP/regs/Documents/R-37-01_Regulation_Text.pdf

Look at these FAQs. The questions were from managers at hospitals. The questions from the California Department of Health Services:

http://www.cdph.ca.gov/services/DPOPP/regs/Documents/R-37-01_FAQ2182004.pdf

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herring_RN,

Thank you so much for your response. I appreciate the time and effort you put into it. I would not consider my unit a PACU but agree with you that it could be considered a step-down unit. I browsed the faq's and have come up with even more questions. I can see that I am going to have to put hours of research into this. I think I'll start by checking with ASPAN to see if my type of unit comes under their wing. I'll also have to see if I can find some literature that spells out exactly what constitutes conscious sedation. I want to get all my ducks in a row before I even think about approaching my manager. Thanks again for your help.

Sherwood,

Sorry for hijaking your thread. I'm happy that the Inland Valley nurses were able to become union free since CNA didn't work out for them. That's not an easy thing to accomplish.

CNA is fairly new to our facility; I'm curious to see how much support I'll actually get from them on this daunting task I'm undertaking.

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