Sutter Solano RNs Vote To Authorize Second Strike - Sutter Continues To Cut Units, Refuses To Address Patient Care Procedures

Main Category: Nursing / Midwifery
Article Date: 22 Nov 2007 - 4:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   opinions  

Registered nurses at Sutter Solano Hospital overwhelmingly voted throughout last tuesday to authorize their RN negotiating teams to call a strike if an agreement with the giant Sutter Health chain is not reached, the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee announced.

Some 5,000 RNs walked out of Sutter Solano and 13 other Sutter facilities in October, protesting systemic patient care and staffing problems throughout the chain.

Most pressingly, Sutter continues their refusal to address the chronic under-staffing that hobbles patient care throughout the facilities. RNs are looking for assurance that their patients will be covered during meal and rest breaks, for other staffing protections, as well as for guarantees that patient care is enhanced in emergency rooms with dedicated Admit RNs and dedicated Rapid Response teams are available before a patient's condition deteriorates.

"Sutter Solano RNs showed today that they want management to hear our voices and start bargaining with us over the real issues-patient care protections and affordable healthcare now and when we retire," said Sherry Ramsey, a cardiac intensive care unit RN and member of the CNA/NNOC nurse negotiating team.

"The nurses at Sutter Solano Medical Center care passionately about the members of our community-that is why we are fighting for an agreement that ensures quality patient care. We have a continuing problem of break relief. We have substandard equipment, like broken beds, all over that facility. We want a zero-lift policy with trained lift teams and equipment so our nurses won't get hurt anymore."

An unacceptable retirement plan and inadequate health insurance also top the nurses' agenda, Ramsey said. "A nurse can retire after 30 years with no paid healthcare plan, and that's just not right," she said.

Patient care protections key to contract talks

One key area of dispute is patient care protections. The RNs have proposed that the hospital agree to include specific 2008 RN-to-patient staffing ratios in their contract to assure compliance with the state law and to cap the number of hours that charge RNs are used for break relief, steps that would significantly improve staffing. Another equally important concern is a proposal that all patients are assigned directly to a registered nurse.

Sutter has also rejected the nurses' proposal for a dedicated meal and break relief RN which is especially of concern for RNs working 12 hour shifts as well as trained lift teams available 24 hours to protect patients from falls and nurses from back injuries.

Sutter's substandard healthcare proposal unacceptable

Solano RNs are particularly incensed with a proposal that would sharply reduce their choices of hospitals, doctors, and other providers while substantially increasing out-of-pocket healthcare costs for RNs and their families. Many RNs could lose access to doctors and other caregivers they have counted on for years. While curbing freedom of choice, Sutter wants the nurses to pay far more - demanding a huge increase in premium co-pays of up to $2,749 per year. Additionally, management's retiree healthcare proposal, a healthcare spending account, is inferior to surrounding hospitals.

Representing some 75,000 RNs in 50 states, the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee is the largest and fastest-growing association of direct-care RNs in the nation.

California Nurses Association

• Additional
• References
• Citations