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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (June 15, 2007)
Workers’ Rights Board Nurses tell public hearing of their problems at Legacy Nurses from Legacy Health Sys- tem shared emotional testimony of their struggle to attain safe hospital staffing levels and to unionize in speaking at a public hearing May 31 at Portland Community College’s Cascade Campus in North Portland. Time and time again, registered nurses — some with 30 years of ex- perience — told a Workers’ Rights Board panel of being overworked to the point where they were unable to take breaks over a 12-hour shift. Sev- eral nurses said they were fired for ex- pressing concerns about staffing levels and others said short-staffing has re- sulted in poor patient care. Nurses presented the Board with nearly 1,000 signatures from Legacy nurses who support House Bill 3416 in the Oregon Legislature. The bill to mandate safe patient staffing ratios was supported by the Oregon Federa- tion of Nurses and Health Profession- als Local 5017. HB 3416 has been stuck in a House committee since April. The Workers’ Rights Board is a project of the Portland chapter of Jobs with Justice. The six-person panel last month consisted of religious, political Top photos left to right: RNs Annie and community leaders. The event Berger and David Rohr testify before filled PCC’s Moriarty Arts and Hu- the Workers’ Rights Board. manities Auditorium. “I believe that hospitals will not unit (PACU) nurse for 25 years, said self-regulate themselves,” said Linda she was fired from Good Sam for Boly, a registered nurse at Good speaking up for safe patient assign- Samaritan Hospital. “I believe that staffing rations equal safe patient care ments and care.Peters told the Board she often was chastised or written up and that we need a union to enforce for advocating staffing ratios and pa- safe patient care.” Portland-headquartered Legacy has tient care. Teri Cummings, an RN for 29 five hospitals and various other facili- years, told the Board that she was let ties in Oregon and Southwest Wash- go from Meridian Park Hospital after ington, and employs 3,000 registered voicing concerns about unsafe nurses; none are represented by a staffing levels and working long union. hours without breaks. She contends Toren Brolutti worked at Emanuel management made a conscientious Hospital for nearly 18 years. Short- decision to keep staffing hours low staffed and consistently working 12- hour shifts without any breaks, she in- and compromising patient safety in jured her back. She said her request to order to save money. Emanual Hospi- return to an eight- tal Intensive Care hour shift was de- ‘It is first and foremost Unit nurse David nied. Rohr said he was “Realizing that about empowering forced to call the I could not return Oregon Occupa- to a working envi- nurses to provide the tional Safety and ronment of com- best patient care.” Health Administra- promised patient tion on two occa- care and long sions after his complaints about hours without breaks, I successfully worker safety fell on deaf ears. Rohr landed a job at Kaiser (a union facil- said nurses have been fired for ad- ity),” she said. dressing issues of unsafe staffing and Brolutti said having a union isn’t concerns about unsafe patient care. first and foremost about empowering They’re labeled as “troublemakers,” nurses. “It is first and foremost about he said. empowering nurses to provide the “Our staffing matrix seems to best patient care.” She said at a union change with the budget, not with pa- facility she has a voice in staffing ra- tient acuity,” added Annie Berger, a tios and patient care. “At Legacy, nurse for 13 years at Legacy Meridian nurses have no voice and are demor- Park Hospital. “It is neither uncom- alized by intimidating tactics if they mon nor unexpected that day-shift try to exercise a voice. That needs to nurses will care for five acutely ill pa- change,” she said. tients at one time. I’ve seen the night- Deb Peters, a postanesthesia care PAGE 12 shift nurses trying to care for eight acutely ill patients at one time.” Studies have found the optimal workload for a nurse was four pa- tients. “Nurse know in their hearts that when we care for more than four patients at a time, we are not able to give each patient the quality care they are paying for and deserve,” Berger said. According to the Joint Commis- sion for Accredidation of Health Care Organization, short-staffing is a factor in one out of every four unexpected hospital deaths or injuries. “This to me seems preventable and unacceptable,” Berger said. Hospital management oftentimes will counter that staffing problems are due to a shortage of nurses nation- wide and that the problem likely will worsen. “There is no shortage of nurses in the United States,” testified Gordon Lafer, a professor at the Labor Educa- tion and Research Center of the Uni- versity of Oregon. Lafer said there are enough li- censed registered nurses in the coun- try to fill every job, but they are choosing not to work in the hospital industry because of deteriorating working conditions and stagnant wages. “There is a shortage of those will- ing to work under current conditions,” Lafer said. “The shortage would be solved when administrators make hos- pitals a decent place to work.” After listening to testimony, the Workers’ Rights Board panel — which included Barbara Dudley, ad- junct professor at Portland State Uni- versity; Rev. Alcena Boozer of Saint Phillip the Deacon Episcopal Church; Dr. Karen Erde, a primary care physi- cian; State Rep. Tina Kotek, Joice Taylor, CEO of Global Management Strategies Inc., and Maribeth Healey, executive director of Oregonians for Health Security — said that they would try to set up a meeting with Legacy Health System’s CEO Lee Domanico to discuss what they had heard and ask Legacy to institute safe staffing levels and agree to fair ground rules for union organizing. The American Federation of Teachers-Oregon has formed a group, United Nurses of Legacy (UNL), in an effort to organize the nurses at Legacy Health System. Local 5017 is an affili- ate of AFT. The union represents nurses at Kaiser Sunnyside Medical Center and Providence Milwaukie Hospital. Certified nurse assistants, house- keepers, nutritionists and emergency room technicians at Legacy Emanuel Hospital and Good Samaritan Hospi- tal are members of Service Employees Local 49. A tearful Deb Peters (left) gets a supportive hug from Kathy Geroux, president of the Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals Local 5017. Peters said she was fired from Good Samaritan Hospital after speaking up for save patient assignments. Workers’ Rights Board members from left to right Joice Taylor, Maribeth Healey and Rev. Alcena Boozer listen to testimony from Kathy Sharp, an RN at Good Smaritan Hospital since 1979. NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS JUNE 15, 2007
