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