MSNA wins three year contract at Maine Coast Memorial Hospital
Nurses and healthcare professionals ratified a three year contract at Maine Coast Memorial Hospital late last week. Nurses won staffing language improvements in the OB and Surgical departments, improvements in paid time off, a 8.5% rate increase over the term of the contract. Nurses were also able to maintain the employer contribution to their retirement plan.
“Nurses around the state are very proud of the work done by nurses at MCMH to protect safe staffing and to make gains in wages and benefits. This is an uncertain time to be a patient in an economy that does not prioritize a single standard of safe patient care. But the commitment of these nurses is clear – patients and those who care for our patients should be valued and that is the work that MSNA will continue around the State and the nation.” --Cokie Giles, RN, President of MSNA/NNU.
Over 30 Nurses from across the state represented Maine at the national Staff Nurse Assembly in Washington DC and spoke with legislators. Two weeks later, nurse leaders were back advocating for their patients and communities at a Wall Street protest in New York City. Nurses from Maine joined with thousands of their co-workers from around the nation to advocate for a Main Street Contract for the American People. All Americans deserve jobs at living wages, quality education, guaranteed health care, good housing, a health environment and a just taxation system.
"It was exciting to get so many workers together behind something that we stand for, caring for America. This isn't just nurses. People from all walks of life are supporting this. Working people shouldn't have to pay for Wall Street's mistakes. Wall Street got bailed out, and they should repair the damage. People are suffering in this country, losing their jobs, homes, retirement. With the wealth in this country, people shouldn’t have to worry about meeting their basic needs." Jess Mellott, RN, Bangor
As a response to the increasing instances of violence in hospitals, MSNA nurses sponsored and won legislation to address and prevent this growing problem. An Act to Enhance Security of Hospital Patients, Visitors and Employees was signed into law this summer. The bill requires hospitals to adopt a safety and security plan that includes a process for hospitals to receive and record incidents and threats of violent behavior as well as protections for employees who report them.
“This is a step in the right direction,” said Terrylyn Bradbury, an Emergency Room nurse at Millinocket Regional Hospital. “Hospitals need to take every measure possible to protect nurses and employees from violence at work. In our Professional Practice Committee (PPC), we are now working on implementing a workplace violence prevention training program.”
Between eight percent and 13 percent of emergency room nurses are victims of physical violence every week, according to a survey released last September by the Emergency Nurses Association.
According to research commissioned by the National Institute of Occupational and Environmental Health, health care workers, especially those providing emergency and psychiatric care, have long been recognized as being at high risk for work-related assault, with nurses having the highest rate among occupations in the healthcare industry. The rate of assault injures to psychiatric nurses has been estimated at 16 per 100 employees per year, which exceeds the annual rate of all injuries found in many high risk occupations.
MSNA/NNU has been advocating for nurses on this very important issue for many years. In April, more than one hundred nurses in attended a continuing education class in Northport, Maine, on workplace violence prevention.
At Calais Regional Hospital, nurses have been concerned about their safety and the safety of other employees. This is especially true in the special care unit, which is behind closed doors. There is potential for a dangerous situation to occur if a nurse is unable to get out of the room, or to ring the staff assist bell. The PPC has won approval to order personal alarms nurses can carry in their pockets, assuring that help is never be out of reach.
"I supported this legislation, and campaigned to get it passed, so all Maine nurses would be safer at work,” said Anne Sluzenski, an RN at Calais Regional Hospital.”Passing this bill was a good first step, but we must remember there is always room for improvement when it comes to making ourselves, and our patients safe."
Read the RN editorial in the Bangor Daily News "Patient Safety Should Be a Priority Everywhere".
Nurses today are caring for more acutely ill patients, yet resources at EMMC and other hospitals throughout the state are being devoted to high CEO and administration salaries, rather than to staffing improvements to ensure quality care. There has been a deliberate attempt on the part of EMMC to misguide the public about patient safety. They have promoted staffing research that uses data from the 1990s and continue to ignore the concerns of bedside nurses.
A study by the University of Pennsylvania published in 2010 reveals that safe staffing, such as what is proposed by the nurses, would reduce patient mortality rates and assure nurses more time with patients. Yet EMMC has cut direct-care staff while continuing to receive increased tax-payer and patient dollars. This is a real healthcare crisis. The kind that happens at 3:00 a.m. when you reach for the buzzer and no one comes.
We are the nurses of the Maine State Nurses Association. At MSNA, we are concerned for the safety of our patients throughout our communities in Maine. Become a part of our “Patient Watch” program. Tell us if your care or the care of your loved ones has suffered because of short staffing or inadequate care.
PLEASE TELL US YOUR STORY HERE
In one of closest votes in its history, Nurses represented by the Maine State Nurses Association/National Nurses United ratified a one-year agreement with EMMC late Tuesday evening. Nurses at EMMC have been in bargaining since August 2010, and had to strike EMMC in November to demonstrate their commitment to safe patient care. The three major points of contention were staffing, job security and health benefits. —Press Release, 05/04/11 More »
The disrespect Eastern Maine Medical Center Board Chairman Mike McInnis shows in his March 19 commentary toward nurses who have devoted years of service to our patients and our community, and his dismissive tone about our serious concerns about patient safety, demonstrates why we continue to have a dispute at EMMC. —Bangor Daily News, 04/15/11 More »
In every city and town across America today there is a "Mr. Cellophane," as the musical Chicago put it, and other men, women, and children who seem to have become invisible to those who set policy in Washington and to the financiers on Wall Street who put them in the shadows. More »
Maine State Nurses Association
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Augusta ME 04330
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F. 207-623-4072
Email | www.MaineNurse.org
