Senior News November, 2004 Vol. 25. No. 11

 

Published by the Humboldt Senior Resource Center in Eureka, California. HSRC is a non-profit community-based organization offering services for senior citizens, multi-generational families and caregivers.

Memories in the making taps into always-present creativity

Last chance to get $600 credit for Rx costs

Think About It - Not driving

CSL decides priorities

CNA cites judicial decision about covering patients

Media Q&A regarding the Informational Picketing

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St. Joseph nurses picket
CNA cites judicial decision about covering patients
by Kathryn Donahue

The nurses at St. Joseph Hospital held an Informational Picket on Harrison Avenue Oct. 14. I am one of the nurses you might have seen if you drove by the entrance to the hospital between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.

Why did we choose to bring issues concerning our jobs outside the hospital walls? It is because patient safety and health and RN health and working conditions go hand in hand. It is because, as Registered Nurses, we are mandated by law and our license to function in the capacity of "patient advocate." This responsibility we very seriously take to heart.

Every nurse who held a picket sign Oct. 14 represented colleagues who could not be there. Our issues are long standing. Regarding these issues, collegial problem solving between administration and RN staff is the exception and not the rule.

Our issues are of extreme importance. The top three are patient safety, patient safety, and patient safety. The working conditions that impact the top three issues are administrative non-compliance with the California nurse-to-patient ratio law, inadequate and inappropriate staffing, exodus of experienced, long-term RN employees, increasing use of traveling nurses, large amounts of mandatory overtime, ineffective recruitment and retention. These issues affect a nurses' ability to safely care for our community members when they are patients in St. Joseph Hospital. We have asked that our community members support us in our goals. Our commitment to provide our community with safe care has never wavered.

Kathryn Donahue, RN, is co-chair of the Professional Practice Council and chief RN representative of the California Nurses Association at St. Joseph Hospital. Her e-mail is katmus2@cox.net.


CNA speaks out

The California Nurses Associaton (CNA) sent a press release that St. Joseph Hospital has been violating several key components of the CNA-sponsored RN staffing ratio law since its implementation on

Jan. 1. Staffing and its effect on patient care and nurse retention are central issues of concern. State-mandated staffing ratios identify the minimum number of patients each RN can safely care for. The RNs, represented by the CNA, held a picket and rally at the hospital Oct. 14 to protest the deteriorating conditions.

The practice of covering other RNs' patients during their breaks, putting the relieving RN over the maximum ratio, was ruled a violation of the law in a strongly-worded May 26 decision in Sacramento Superior Court. Judge Gail Ohanesian issued a sweeping ruling against a lawsuit filed by the California hospital industry that the landmark RN-to-patient ratio law should not apply "at all times," an interpretation that, the judge wrote, "would make the nurse-to-patient ratios meaningless."

Another issue of concern is the dramatic decrease in ancillary staff. The number of certified nursing assistants working has decreased since the beginning of the year throughout many of the nursing units.

"The hospital is seriously understaffed, and it does not appear that they are making a great effort to recruit RNs from the community who want to make a long-term commitment to their hometown hospital," said Lavon Divine-Leal, an RN from the medical surgical unit who has worked at St. Joseph for more than 30 years. "Nurses in surgical service are working up to 140 hours of overtime each month. They are frustrated and exhausted, and many have transferred to other units."

CNA is the largest professional RN union in the nation, currently representing 58,000 Registered Nurses in 168 facilities throughout California. CNA also represents St. Joseph Health System RNs at Petaluma Valley and St. Mary's in Apple Valley.