Contra Costa County nurses to vote on tentative contract

Submitted by oldAdministrator on
The tentative agreement reached after nearly a year and a half of bargaining would cover more than 900 California Nurses Association registered nurses, public health nurses, "per diem" nurses who don't receive benefits but get a higher base wage than other nurses, and nurse practitioners.
Sam Richards, Contra Costa Times

Debate Over Nurse-to-Patient Ratio Hits Legislature

Submitted by oldAdministrator on
The bill, on which the Public Health Committee held a hearing last week, would mandate statewide the maximum number of patients any one nurse can care for at once. The limit would be different for different units, but in hospital units for which the bills do not specifically set a limit, the maximum patient assignment would be four patients per nurse.
Anna Burgess, The Sentinel and Enterprise

Nurses Reach Tentative Agreement with Contra Costa County

Submitted by oldAdministrator on
In a critical breakthrough, after 15 months of bargaining and a recent two-day strike, Contra Costa County nurses have reached a tentative agreement with the County, the California Nurses Association announced today. “We are pleased that the County has listened to nurses, and we feel that this agreement will help us retain the experienced nurses that our patients deserve,” said Kathy Avila, RN. “We’re grateful to all the supporters in the community who stood by us and helped us advocate for better patient care and working conditions.”
Nov 2, 2015

Populist Poposals Remind Why Nurses Trust Bernie Sanders to Heal America

Submitted by oldAdministrator on
In recent days, the Democratic Party establishment has stepped up efforts to freeze the momentum for Sen. Bernie Sanders, pressing Democratic Party office holders, who are also convention super delegates, to get in line and trying to create an impression that the contest is over.
RoseAnn DeMoro, via The Huffington Post

College for All – Vote Bernie Sanders

Submitted by oldAdministrator on
I don’t know whether to celebrate or cry. Within a few months, I will have finally paid off the very last of my $20,000 worth of student loans for the private nursing school I graduated from in 1995. Yes, you read that right. I’ve been paying off these loans for 20 years and am now 52 years old. But instead of finally focusing on building up my family’s savings and working toward my and my husband’s retirement, we are now facing taking on many thousands of dollars in student loans over the next eight years to put our two sons through college.
Katy Roemer RN / National Nurses United

Ebola And Beyond: How Prepared Is Boston For The Next Outbreak?

Submitted by oldAdministrator on
A year ago, the unthinkable happened. For the first time, a person was diagnosed with Ebola in the United States. A Liberian man, Thomas Eric Duncan, infected two nurses in a Dallas hospital before he died. Nurses across the country were shocked, including Boston Medical Center's Karen Higgins, a nurse for 40 years and co-president of the largest nurses’ union in the country, National Nurses United.
Elizabeth Ross / WGBH News

How Hospitals Coddle the Rich

Submitted by oldAdministrator on
WHEN I saw my first red blanket as a young medical student, I thought little of it. One morning, as I rushed around a hospital in California on my daily rounds, I spotted an old man who lay in bed beneath a scarlet cover, a sharp contrast to the white linens wrapped around the other patients. He looked unremarkable, and I assumed he brought the blanket from home. So I moved on. He wasn’t my patient, anyway.
Shoa L. Clarke / New York Times

NLRB issues complaint against nationwide chain of hospitals

Submitted by oldAdministrator on
The National Labor Relations Board’s Office of the General Counsel has issued a consolidated complaint against Community Health Systems Inc. (CHS), the parent company of a nationwide chain of hospitals that includes Greenbrier Valley Medical Center and Bluefield Regional Medical Center.
Tina Alvey / Bluefield Daily Telegraph