NNU Ebola Press Conference

allnurses Guide · Nov 4, 2014

The Little Union That Could

RoseAnn DeMoro and National Nurses United are gaining strength as other organizations around the country lose clout.

Alana Semuels Nov 3 2014

If the term “labor union” conjures up the image of older white guys stepping off the assembly line and into the bar, you might be confused by the scene in RoseAnn DeMoro’s office.

Four women, all dressed in red, sit in a semi-circle, moving in hyperdrive as they prepare for a strike they’ve just announced. Then there’s the radio ad that needs to be released on California’s Prop. 45, and banners to be chosen for the afternoon’s press conference.

“You can do it, you’re a Jill-of-all-trades,” DeMoro tells one woman, who is dispatched to prepare for a rally.

“I used Mom organizing,” another jokes, about her strategies of getting people to arrive on time...

... When the autoworkers were agreeing to have some members' pay cut in half, the nurses fought Arnold Schwarzenegger on patient-to-staff ratios—and won...

... the nurses have organized 20,000 new nurses in 50 new hospitals since 2009. Some of those new nurses are in right-to-work states such as Texas, where just 4.8 percent of workers are represented by unions..

... NNU members have appeared on cable news outlets and in numerous news stories, protesting about the subpar gear nurses are being given to protect themselves from Ebola. It’s not that NNU wants nurses to walk around hospitals wearing hazmat suits from now on, DeMoro explained, it’s that they need to have such suits—and training to use them—available should a person with Ebola symptoms come in to the hospital.

“I literally—I was was tearing up about it the other night, and my husband said, ‘strong leaders don't cry,’” DeMoro told me. “I just don’t get it: How can we send these people out to take care of one of the most highly-contagious pandemics in history and not give them appropriate protection?”

On November 12th, Amy Glass, a nurse from Modesto, will go on strike for the first time in her life, alongside thousands of other first-time strikers. She doesn’t want to, but her employer won’t give her the safety equipment she needs, she said, and so she’s ready...

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/11/the-little-union-that-could/382206/?single_page=true

MissyWrite · Nov 5, 2014

Specifically, that means for nurses and other caregivers who interact with Ebola patients are provided the optimal personal protective equipment including full-body hazmat suits that meet the American Society for Testing and Materials F1670 standard for blood penetration, F1671 standard for viral penetration, and that leave no skin exposed or unprotected, and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health-approved powered air purifying respirators with an assigned protection factor of at least 50.

EXCELLENT! I hope they're successful.

HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD · Nov 5, 2014

My organization has already stepped up. We initiated changes in our emergency preparedness (pandemic) plan on 10-2 to include specific requirements for "Class C" (Highly Contagious/Infectious) PPE.... all skin covered, PAPRS, etc. We instituted training/drills on all shifts for the core teams on 10-15. Each acute care facility has also outfitted designated isolation/containment areas for suspected patients. My organization has also approved HR/Payroll policies that will ensure no loss of income if an employee has to be quarantined due to workplace exposure. We also revised out 'opt out' policy to include special consideration of the effects of quarantine on nurses who have no one to care for dependents.

I really don't think we're unique. Most facilities have already made the required changes now mandated by OSHA & CDC. The biggest challenge? Obtaining all the necessary supplies and ensuring that we have an ongoing process to maintain them. Everybody is doing the same thing, so there are tons of back-orders and shortages.

allnurses Guide · Nov 8, 2014

US Nurses Plan Widespread Strike Over Lack of Ebola Prep

Nurses in at least 14 states and the District of Columbia plan strikes and a national day of action to protest for better patient care and Ebola preparedness on November 11 and 12, according to a statement from National Nurses United (NNU), a nursing union with 155,000 members.

At least 18,000 nurses from at least 66 Kaiser Permanente hospitals and clinics in California will strike on both days to protest what they see as a lack of resources to properly care for their patients, as well as to demand better training and protective equipment when caring for patients with Ebola virus infection.

They will picket at their hospitals on November 11 and participate in the national day of action on November 12, Katy Roemer, RN, from Kaiser Oakland and a member of the California Nurses Association (CNA) bargaining team, told Medscape Medical News.

Both Kaiser Permanente and the American Hospital Association disagree with the nursing union's position...

... American Hospital Association: "Working Hard to Improve Readiness"

"Hospitals are working hard to improve readiness and reassure their communities. Hospitals are using the care of these first few Ebola patients in America as a chance to learn and update the strategies they had put in place. We are taking the real-life experience in a couple of hospitals and using it to strengthen the readiness of all. CDC guidance has evolved as we have learned more about this disease. Hospitals have readily adopted new protocols to better protect patients and healthcare professionals," Jennifer C. Schleman, senior associate director of media relations with the American Hospital Association, told Medscape Medical News...

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/834188