NURSES WEEK ACTIVITIES

New York RNs Demand Safe Staffing

During Nurses Week, Thousands to Sign Petitions Calling for Legislation

5/3/01

Albany, NY - May 2, 2001 - Nurses will observe Nurses Week 2001 (May 6-12) at a time when there is little to celebrate about the condition of nursing care. To draw public attention to a growing public health crisis, the 33,000 members of the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) will participate in a nationwide "RNs Demand Safe Staffing" petition campaign.

Nurses will sign petitions calling for legislation to promote safe staffing, an end to mandatory overtime, whistleblower protection, and other measures designed to improve working conditions for nurses and improve the quality of patient care. They say that while individual nurses continue to perform heroically to provide adequate care to their patients, they are being pushed to the limit.

"Nurses are telling us, 'I love nursing, but I hate my job,'" said Lorraine Seidel, RN, director of NYSNA's collective bargaining program. "During the course of history, nurses have often been called upon to care for others despite personal sacrifice. But when that sacrifice is due to gross mismanagement, or when they are asked to perform miracles for months and years at a time, nurses begin to look for a way out..."

To read complete press release go to http://www.NYSNA.org

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This sounds like a great opportunity to look this CEO in the eye, while you firmly hold on to his hand and tell him what your concerns are and what changes you expect from him. If every nurse thought of one clear statement to give to him during this handshaking, just imagine how powerful that would be!! I think this CEO has the right idea. Hospital CEOs should be more visible and meet the people that are working on the front lines.

I'm not much into the touchy/feely of Nurse Week but the hospital that I work has some fun things...People brought up graduation pictures, we get various meals free throughout the week, ect. But best of all, we were told we were fully staffed now and would be getting our salaries adjusted to compensate for the lower salaries we have been recieving in the past...Now that's how you celebrate Nurses Week. As for me, I'm going to try to find a good book about Florence Nightengale and read it during the summeer.

A Nurses Week Public Awareness Rally at the US Capitol with similar rallies at the State Capitols around the country.... sound familiar? :

SEIU Nurses Stand Up for Patients

Two hundred nurses, flanked by more than 1,000 PAIRS OF EMPTY NURSE'S SHOES, filled the steps of the U.S. Capitol May 9th urging Congress to ensure quality patient care by ending short staffing of nurses in the nation's hospitals.

The SEIU's Stand for Patients rally brought together nurses from across the United States and is one of 10 such protests at state capitols and local Congressional offices coast to coast.

Participants at the rally asked lawmakers to help replenish the ranks of nurses--fill the empty shoes--by stopping practices such as mandatory overtime and understaffing that are endangering care for the sick and causing nurses to quit their careers.

Four U.S. senators and two former nurses now in the House joined SEIU nurse leaders in addressing the rally.

"We are facing a crisis in our nation's hospitals," Diane Sosne, a Seattle nurse and president of SEIU District 1199NW, told the crowd. "Chronic understaffing and mandatory overtime are threatening quality care for patients and driving talented nurses out of our profession."

The rally comes as the SEIU Nurse Alliance released a report, "The Shortage of Care," which documents the scope of the problem and the needed solutions to systemic short staffing at hospitals.

In a survey reported in the study, 58 percent of nurses say that at least once a week in their units, nurses have no time to provide needed instructions or education to patients about handling their illnesses. Many nurses, 54 percent, also say that at least half of the errors they report are the direct result of short staffing. View the executive summary or full report.

Participants at the U.S. Capitol rally heard members of Congress take up their calls for federal legislation to end stopgap measures adopted by hospital managers such as mandatory overtime and denial of days off.

Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.), a former nurse, told the rally about her sister's agonizing decision to abandon the nursing career she had taken up years earlier at McCarthy's invitation. "She told me she couldn't pick up the phone on her day off because it was her boss calling her back into work." McCarthy added, "When you look at these shoes, lots of them have so many miles on them. We pledge to fight to make it a better job." Rep. Lois Capps (D-Calif.), another former nurse, also addressed the rally.

"The moral test of our society is how we treat the caregivers," Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.) told participants. "I have met too many nurses who say, 'Senator, I'm working 70 to 80 hours a week for 40 days straight. The choice I face is between my livelihood and my life.'"

"Soon we're going to see who really stands for nurses," said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), referring to bills he expects his Congressional colleagues to take on to end mandatory overtime and to apply safe staffing standards to the nation's hospitals. Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Harry Reid (D-Nev.) spoke to the gathering, as well.

"I heard a lot of promises today," said SEIU nurse activist Kathy Stoddert, who lives in eastern Ohio and works in western Pennsylvania. "I am going to do everything I can to hold them accountable and make sure that nurses never let up."

http://www.nursealliance.org/staffing/nurses_stand_up.cfm