Silencing nurses endangers patients' care
Louisville Courier-Journal
Readers’ forum
Monday, December 3, 2007
The results of the studies have been released and they prove what every hospital nurse knows from experience. Understaffing endangers patients.
For each additional patient assigned to an RN, the likelihood of death within 30 days increases by 7 percent. Four additional patients increase the risk by 31 percent (JAMA, 10/22/02).
In 1989 Louisville nurses formed the Nurses Professional Organization with the goal of organizing their union so that they could win better staffing and conditions for their patients and themselves.
The nurses took on the giants of corporate health care. Staff nurses stood their ground before high salaried CEOs, anti-union consultants, and supervisors who, under threat themselves, threatened the jobs and licenses of nurses who continued to speak up. Nurses threw themselves into the struggle with hope. The hospitals hired consultants to spread fear.
By committing mountains of unlawful actions, Norton Healthcare as well as Columbia/HCA blocked the nurses’ efforts. But these powerful corporations did not violate the law unchallenged. In almost every case in which the NPO filed charges against the hospitals, the nurses won.
NPO nurses have exposed the understaffing, testified on patient care issues in Frankfort, won back the jobs of nurses unjustly dismissed, called in the state inspectors, testified before the JCAHO, spoken to the press, and kept alive the hope that staff nurses can organize and make things better. Bruised but never broken, the NPO has now won another victory.
The turtle’s pace of labor law enforcement in our nation allows employers to delay interminably. First Columbia/HCA, and then Norton Healthcare, stalled the progress for the 13 years since the 1994 election at Audubon. In August, the NLRB turned down Norton Audubon’s appeal of one of NPO’s cases.
In November, Norton Audubon paid over $171,000 to three nurses who were unlawfully denied positions. Nurses at Audubon and in Louisville now have a new opportunity to organize and to win the right to practice under truly professional conditions.
The Nurses Professional Organization has affiliated with the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee. This 75,000 strong organization has empowered nurses to win the best contracts and the best patient protections in the nation. CNA staff nurses used their power to advocate for patients. Now they have minimum staffing ratios in hospitals that are enforceable — written into both California law and into union contracts. No more than five patients per nurse on a medical/surgical floor. No more than two patients per nurse in Intensive or Critical Care. No more than four patients on a step down unit — advancing to no more than three in 2008. No more than four patients per nurse in ER; no more than 2 ICU patients per nurse in the ER — no more than one ER Trauma patient. No more than five patients per nurse in telemetry moving to no more than four in 2008. In addition, nurses must be increased above these ratios whenever acuity levels require. Plus the ratios apply on all shifts at all times including during lunch and breaks. (www.calnurses.org) Nurse power makes a difference.
Bringing good conditions to patients and nurses ends the nursing shortage. Actively licensed RNs in California increased by more than 60,000 following enactment of the staffing ratio law. Since the ratio law was signed, actively licensed RNs have grown by nearly 10,000 a year, compared to just 3,200 a year prior to the law. (Board of Registered Nursing data).
We cannot solve the nursing “shortage” in Louisville without solving the conditions that force good nurses from the bedside and from their chosen profession. Many can’t sleep after their 12-hour shifts for thinking about what almost happened and what could happen. The lack of organized nurse power to change these conditions and win truly professional standards of care and benefits has stifled health care progress in Louisville.
When Norton Healthcare, called Alliant at the time, purchased Audubon Hospital, there was an NLRB bargaining order in place. Norton Audubon didn’t sit down and bargain with the nurses. Instead Norton Healthcare spent our community’s health care dollars on a nine year oppositional path of challenges to NLRB orders and to nurses’ rights.
Among Norton Healthcare’s numerous unfair labor practices are: unlawful discipline for protected activity, unlawful termination, unlawful denial of a position, unlawful restriction of the right to distribute literature in the cafeteria and non-work areas, unlawful restriction of the right of a nurse to speak about the union in the break room, unlawful institution of a more restrictive distribution policy in response to a union campaign, unlawful attack on a nurse’s license, and unlawful interrogation.
The NLRB overturned the unfair election at Audubon Hospital and has ordered a new election. Audubon nurses are talking and organizing and will move forward to advocate for their patients and to build their union. Nurses across Louisville are once again hopeful. When nurses organize, the patients and the community are the beneficiaries. Silencing nurses endangers patients.
KAY TILLOW
Director of Organization
Nurses Professional Organization/CNA/NNOC
Louisville 40202