Registered nurses will hold an informational picket and rally on Friday July 31 at Menorah Medical Center to urge the hospital to consistently comply with its staffing plan and take other steps to improve the hospital’s recruitment and retention of experienced RNs.

“Having enough nurses to provide safe quality care to our patients is always the nurses’ first priority. To remain alert and focused and give the best care to our patients it's vital that we take rest and meal breaks during our 12 hour shifts," said Summer Baker, RN in the Super Float Pool. "That's why it's so important for the hospital to consistently staff according to their staffing plan."  

What: Registered nurses hold informational picket and rally
When: Friday, July 31, 5:00-8:00 p.m.  Rally at 5:30 p.m.
Where: Menorah Medical Center, 5721 W. 119th Street, Overland Park, Kansas
(On the side walk on the South side of 119th St North of Menorah Medical Center and West of Nall Ave.)

The hospital is regularly out of compliance with its own staffing plan according to the most recent data provided by the hospital covering the month of December 2014. For example, in the ONOGS unit, a medical surgical unit, out of a total of 112 shifts, 66 of them were not staffed according to the staffing plan. That is, the staffing was out of compliance 59% of the time. 

When the hospital is out of compliance with it's staffing plan, nurses are more likely to miss rest and meal breaks.  Research shows that these breaks are vital to prevent fatigue that can contribute to medical errors and injury to patients and staff. According to the hospital's own data, in a recent 3 month period in the ONOGS unit, nurses missed meal breaks 29% of the time. That was 365 missed lunches in a 3-month period. MMC nurses, who regularly work 12-hour shifts, miss their rest and meal breaks because they don't want to leave their patients unattended, nurses say.

The MMC nurses are also asking the hospital to address the dismal wage conditions for RNs in Kansas, which contribute to high turnover rates and loss of experienced RNs. MMC can play a leadership role, nurses say, by aligning MMC RN wages with the national average. Currently Kansas RNs are paid $3.00 below the national average and compared to other states, Kansas ranks near the bottom at 45th in terms of RN wages.

The 306 registered nurses at MMC, affiliated with the National Nurses Organizing Committee, NNOC/MO-KS, are in ongoing contract negotiations with MMC and their contract expired May 31. NNOC/MO-KS is affiliated with National Nurses United, the largest organization of registered nurses in the United States with 186,000 members.