Nnoc

Right on Sister! (Am I dating myself?) I agree.

Union or not, I've been waiting 30 years for the profession to wake up and realize that there is power in numbers. Our "Professional Organizations" are obviously not capable/willing to advocate for us and our patients. We need to stand up for ourselves.

My daughter expressed an interest in Nursing. I talked her out of it.

I think nursing is a wonderful profession. We do so much good even when we didn't want to go to work.

My daughter is not a nurse but I'm always encouraging and helping a student financially. So far there are an LVN, 2 RNs and one student I am encouraging.

Here is an article:

Nurses union to advocate for patients

A delegation of registered nurses from the University Health System announced Tuesday they have formed a patient care advocacy committee as part of a new nurses union.

The nurses say they want mandatory minimum staffing ratios and whistleblower protections so they can better guard against unsafe patient care.

"Our first obligation as registered nurses is to advocate in the exclusive interests of our patients," said Judy Lerma, a nurse at University Hospital. "The most effective method of advocacy is collectively, as organized registered nurses." ...

...The NNOC wants legislation that would require Texas hospitals and other providers to increase nurse staffing levels and give nurses whistleblower protection.

But the Texas Nurses Association, the state's largest nursing organization, and the Texas Hospital Association say workplace standards, state laws and federal regulations already provide those things and let health care workers and organizations maintain a necessary level of flexibility.

NNOC leaders say they intend to meet with University Health System administrators "very soon" to present a case for mandatory ratios and improved standards. They cited research from the Journal of the American Health Association that said a staffing ratio of one nurse to every four patients can save as many as 72,000 lives annually. ...

http://www.mysanantonio.com/business/stories/MYSA082907.04D.Nurses.297eb44.html

Boztc - you sound like my kind of nurse!

I'm in...a card-carrying member. I love these guys (and I'm not in a union.)

The NNOC is the best place I've found for Patient Advocacy.

I'm in Texas (very anti-union state) and have also never heard of it... would be VERY interested in learning more about it, as, I believe, would some of my colleagues.

A Tenet Hospital in Houston just voted to join NNOC. Check out this thread:

https://allnurses.com/forums/f323/incredible-cna-nnoc-victory-houston-291972-new-post.html

I'm coming way late to this old thread, but I thought I'd throw my two cents worth in. Reading through this thread, I see some nurses with some wonderful passion for nursing, some good nurses grown tired, a few nurses who try to make themselves important by tearing down others.

So: (warning - long)

Introduction: I work at a hospital in rural Northern California, where I have worked for 27 years, mostly as a cardiac rehab nurse. For 13 of those years I was in management, stepping down from that in 1997. Not long before that our very long-time CEO retired and we got new management that took our hospital in a direction I was not happy with. Much more bottom line focused, much less concern for patient quality. Our COO famously said that we were used to too high a quality care and would need to get used to a lower quality, since that high a quality was too expensive. Management had one recurring mantra: Things are changing, if you don't like it go somewhere else. Despite all that, I was happy enough in my job, liked my manager but was sad to watch other nurses lives and the quality of care deteriorate. One day in early 2000, I walked into the ICU, where my friend Paula said "hey, there's a CNA organizer coming to talk to us tonight, why don't you come." so I went, and heard a RN/organizer give a presentation to about 25 or so nurses - at one of three meetings. Early in the meeting, she went around the room and asked nurses why they were interested in organizing. Nurses talked of going home in tears every night their workload was so heavy. They talked of the fear of a mistake that would kill a patient or end their career. Not one mentioned money.

Being a careful sort, I went home and did some research on CNA. The more I learned the more I liked. The campaign began. I would have likely remained a mid-level supporter in that campaign except that management's first letter to the nurses about the union was so full of lies and distortions that it ****** me off and radicalized me all in one fell swoop, as the saying goes. I became a leader in the campaign. Long story, but we won that election. I then became part of the bargaining team for our first contract, then was selected to be what's called Chief Nurse Rep (what most unions would call shop steward). In 2003 the board seat for our area became vacant and I decided to run. Was elected. Been on the board ever since. I was a participant in the decision to go national in 2004. I haven't read all of the thread, so not sure if this is repetitive, but a little about our governance:

The board is about 30 members, plus the 6 titled officers. Every one is a working nurse.

We have an unusual presidency in that we have a "council of presidents".

- 4 people who hold the title of president and share the duties. We decided to try this because the job had grown too big for any one person to do, and it had become impossible for the president to still work as a nurse and hold the office. So the presidents each work half time at their nursing job and the organization makes up the salary they miss for the other half.

Historically, the board were elected from 12 regions in California, with elections every two years and no term limits for the board. We have now added board seats for our Illinois nurses, our Maine Nurses and for PASNAP, the Pennsylvania nurses who recently joined us.

The Reno and Texas victories are still so new, we haven't figured out how the structure will change to fit them in, but that will get worked out soon enough.

We are committed to democracy within our union, to organizing nurses nationally and to making registered nurses into the powerful political force we should and can be. We hope and expect to change healthcare in America for the better and make it a system that serves the needs of patients and those who care for them, rather than serving the corporate bottom line.

I'm so jealous. I wish we could get that kind of representation going for us here. I'll keep trying.

We're going to Springfield next week to demonstrate for nurse-patient ratios. Last year our "professional organization" (INA) was intrumental in getting this measure defeated.

I'm so jealous. I wish we could get that kind of representation going for us here. I'll keep trying.

We're going to Springfield next week to demonstrate for nurse-patient ratios. Last year our "professional organization" (INA) was intrumental in getting this measure defeated.

You'll probably run into some Cook County nurses that are NNOC members. Pump them for information. And check out the NNOC website: http://www.calnurses.org/nnoc/. Scroll down and you'll see the link for NNOC Illinois.

I'm in...a card-carrying member. I love these guys (and I'm not in a union.)

The NNOC is the best place I've found for Patient Advocacy.

I'm a member too, and I couldn't agree more. Thanks for your solidarity and for demonstrating selfless concern for the well-being of others.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCPUCzjlMlU

The bosses aren't afraid of "an army of one." And, "you can be all you can be," but the politicians won't hear our individual voices. We've got to collectively hold their feet to the fire, for all the right reasons. Like, say, 47 million of 'em, real people without access to health care. And the right of people to receive care based on need, not based on the ability to pay for it.

"I think one's feelings waste themselves in words; they ought all to be distilled into actions which bring results." Florence Nightingale

"Solidarity is not a matter of sentiment but a fact, cold and impassive as the granite foundations of a skyscraper. If the basic elements, identity of interest, clarity of vision, honesty of intent, and oneness of purpose, or any of these is lacking, all sentimental pleas for solidarity, and all other efforts to achieve it will be barren of results."

Eugene Debs

"What does labor want? We want more schoolhouses and less jails; more books and less orificenals; more learning and less vice; more leisure and less greed; more justice and less revenge; in fact, more of the opportunities to cultivate our better natures, to make manhood more noble, womanhood more beautiful, and childhood more happy and bright." Samuel Gompers

Clarity of vision, oneness of purpose, justice, and actions that bring results. Starting here, starting now, starting with us..."A Voice for Nurses, A Vision for Healthcare."

http://www.guaranteedhealthcare.org/

I'm so jealous. I wish we could get that kind of representation going for us here. I'll keep trying.

We're going to Springfield next week to demonstrate for nurse-patient ratios. Last year our "professional organization" (INA) was intrumental in getting this measure defeated.

im so jealous, i wish the nnoc would also represent lpns, we need so much help.why are we forgotten?

inglein,

lpn's are not forgotten but rather have not had an organization that had the courage to fight for what is right as rn's did - the california nurses association. these nurses took a brave and bold step in the 1990's and it is because of their courageous fight that we have the nnoc. :redbeathe

nnoc is a new national union- maybe someday we will grow and have an organization that include s lpn's!

we are really building a social movement for change and that is something everyone can be a part of! demanding clean money elections, single payer guaranteed healthcare for all, educating the public about the insurance industry corruption, promoting safe standards of care in our workplaces, demanding hospital accountability empowering people to utilize their civil rights - freedom of speech and association & eliminating involuntary servitude!

there are many ways to be involved and the first is reading, reading, reading... the second is telling, telling, telling!

i am very proud to be an nnoc member. in fact, my involvement with this organization has been life altering. through this group i have met some of the finest people i have ever met. people who have the courage to demand social justice. principled people with the integrity and courage.

before nnoc i was a "troublemaker" and a sqeaky wheel- i felt that something must be wrong with me- because i couldn't manage my time- or had a problem caring for 13 med/surg patients. i felt i was out of place because i am a patient advocate. when i found so many others who were like myself i was astounded! for years i was made to believe that i was expecting to give too much care! i needed to lower my standards.

now, i can comfortably say- i am right, we are right and it is time for people to listen!

reform can be accomplished only when attitudes are changed.....we commit ourselves to any wrong or degradation or injury whenever we do not protest against it.

lilian wald, rn, activist, reformer 1867-1940

google search only shows nnoc website info posted above; no mention of leadership on site.

did find these organizations expressing concerns:

[color=#990000]ceo corner[color=#990000] -

[color=#990000]february[color=#990000],[color=#990000] 2005

[color=#3333cc][color=#990000]by: deborah hackman, georgia nurses association ceo

[color=#0000cc]webster's dictionary describes an "interloper" as one who intrudes or interferes; an encroachment. you might question why anyone who claims to be professional would want to engage in such behavior. so do i. unfortunately there is a broad scale national effort by the california nurses association (also known as nnoc - national nurses organizing committee) to do just that. georgia is their latest target for encroachment.

http://www.georgianurses.org/ceo%20corner.htm

labor relations board issues complaint against cook county cook/john h. stroger jr. hospital, reports illinois nurses association

http://www.uawdcx.com/resources/laborpr.cfm?acct=uaw_ntc.story&story=/www/story/02-18-2005/0003030627&edate=fri+feb+18+2005,+03:53+pm

south carolina human resources assoc:

california nurses association invites your nurses to join!

flush with success over recent organizing efforts in california and the passage and mandatory staff-nurse ratios in that state, the california nurses association has created a "national nurses organizing committee" (nnoc). in october, the nnoc mailed a letter and brochure that was an 'invitation to join with the california nurses association and rns throughout the nation to help build a new national movement for direct care rns" into many southeastern states.

one goal of the nnoc is to sponsor continuing education sessions on 'topics of the greatest urgency for direct care rns including safe staffing, the latest trends on hospital restructuring, and how to protect your practice." according to the brochure, mail-outs for the sessions will be sent in january to march, 2005.

another goal is to advance the "cause of direct care rns across the nation through effective professional representation, a stronger voice in the legislative and regulatory arena, collective patient advocacy, and building rn power through new organizing".

the cna is positioning itself as an "alternative to the american nurses association/union of american nurses and its affiliated state nurse associations." cna states that the ana has "promoted the interests of nursing management and the hospital industry at the expense of direct care nurses and patient care for far too long. decades of low pay and disrespect for nurses is a legacy of the ana's failure to effectively advocate for direct care rns". http://www.scha.org/documents/nov-dec_newsletter_1.doc

from labor lawyers:

california nurses association using nnoc to move organizing attempts eastward

t

rumpeting an agenda that purports to advance "the cause of direct care rns across the nation," the california nurses association (cna) is charging eastward with ambitious new organizing tactics that could affect healthcare providers around the nation. cna is seizing upon personnel shortages and the thorny issue of nurse-to-patient staffing ratios to spearhead its efforts. using its newly formed national nurses organizing committee (nnoc), the union has scheduled a series of so-called continuing education sessions, which are likely to amount to little more than thinly veiled organizing meetings. this is not the first time that the cna has used ostensible "education sessions" to drum up support. this time, however, the union has apparently refined its approach and planned it more carefully.

the upcoming "educational" programs are entitled, "collective patient advocacy: strategies to promote a single standard for safe patient care."

http://www.laborlawyers.com/cm/important%20new%20legal%20developments/healthcare%20labor%20alert%20%20cna%20jan.%202005.pdf

cna: creating disunity rather than building "one voice

hpae's 11,000 members have made significant gains in recent years, we continue to fight for improved staffing, quality patient care, and good wages and benefits. unfortunately, our efforts are hampered by the lack of coordination and unity among health care unions in new jersey and southeastern pennsylvania.

in new jersey, hpae is by far the largest union for health care professionals. however, six other unions represent nurses and ten unions represent hospital workers as a whole. there is virtually no coordination among those unions. because health care unions are not working together with "one voice," we are all failing to build the maximum strength to establish high standards of wages, benefits, and conditions.

given the need for coordination and unity, it is all the more unfortunate that another union - based in california - has expanded its operations to new jersey. the california nurses association (cna) is attempting to recruit registered nurses in new jersey to a new group they created, the national nurses organizing committee (nnoc)....

the cna/nnoc's efforts are counterproductive because they will cause more destructive competition among health care unions...

they appear to be targeting nurses who are already organized in other unions. the union lingo for this is "raiding". raiding another union to get their members is prohibited in the afl-cio, the national labor organization with whom hpae is affiliated. however, the california nurses association is not part of the afl-cio, so their actions, as detrimental as they might be, are outside of the scope of decent union principles and conduct.

http://www.hpae.org/clarion_0105.htm

and it's about time, too. let's face it, most state nursing groups are ineffective politically and represent only a small percentage of rn's.

in florida, the association represents less than 5% of the rn's.

the ana only represents 6% of rn's.

these groups have been our "political" leaders for too long, and the results have been dismal in most states.

nursing "executives" have their organization, the aone, but it is a chapter of the aha...hmmmmm, wonder whose interests they serve.

fighting union battles is costly, on many levels, and does nothing to address global issues such as legally mandated staffing ratios.

organizing a union is difficult work, rewarding as it may be. i certainly support any effort made by nurses to control their practice domain, but why fight 3,000 battles when we can fight 1 war (so to speak).

this group, the nnoc, has shown it can succeed, and no other group in nursing has shown that to date.

it costs $30 dollars a year to join the nnoc. in florida, it costs $279 to belong to the fna...for what????

as you read information on the nnoc, be careful who is giving it. members of state nursing organizations resent it because it is working. nurse administrators resent it because it is assuming the leadership position they should be filling. nurse educators, by and large, know little about it and tend to be rather conservative anyway.

talk to nurses around you. do we need to be more aggressive on this staffing issue?

is your state association doing anything?

i know mine isn't.

no more double talk! no more inuendos! no more euphemisms!

set ratios with legal consequences for continuing to put our patients, and us, at risk.

if enough of us join (what's $30), we can begin to send a very clear message that nurses are fed up:banghead: