Registered Nurses Overwhelmingly Approve “National Model” Settlement with Daughters of Charity Hospitals, Following Approval of Similar Catholic Healthcare West Contract

RNs: “Every Hospital Should Take Same Steps to Contain Swine Flu”

Registered Nurses represented by the nation's largest nurses union and professional association have now overwhelmingly voted in recent weeks to approve new agreements with two of the country's biggest hospital systems, setting a  national standard on containing the spread of pandemics such as H1N1 "swine flu, the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee announced today.  The settlement involves 15,000 registered nurses total in 36 Daughters of Charity Health Systems and Catholic Healthcare West facilities in California and Nevada who are represented by CNA/NNOC.

A centerpiece of the agreement with the larger CHW chain (covering 13,000 RNs at 32 facilities) is the creation of a new system-wide emergency task force, comprising CNA/NNOC RNs and hospital representatives following the declaration of pandemic emergencies, an advance matched by the creation of a statewide patient advocacy council for the DCHS chain. The task force will monitor system-wide preparedness and set uniform standards on full implementation of federal, state, and local guidelines, availability of proper safety protective equipment, communication, and training policies for all hospital personnel,  and other needed steps, such as consideration of off-site emergency triage and treatment.  At each facility, CNA/NNOC nurse committees, in cooperation with facility infection control teams, will implement the system-wide policies and procedures.

Throughout each chain, RNs and patients will be protected through assurances that RNs "shall be provided" appropriate equipment and attire to stem contagion, such as single-use, N95 respirator masks when available, and guarantees that the employer will provide information and training for nurses on communicable diseases to which they may have been exposed.

"Registered nurses from throughout California and Nevada have stood together to protect our communities and our patients. Our unity has been essential to achieving a novel agreement that we think will help patients, nurses and our communities now and in the future," said Allen Fitzpatrick, RN at St. Mary’s Medical Center in San Francisco.

In addition to the H1N1 standards, CNA/NNOC and the systems also settled other outstanding issues on assuring adherence to safe staffing standards, reducing the assignment of RNs to areas outside their clinical expertise or orientation, and proposals to reduce nurses' healthcare coverage.

The settlement covers RNs in major hospitals in Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Bernardino, the Central Coast, Bakersfield, Daly City, Gilroy, Redding, Grass Valley, Mount Shasta, Reno, and Las Vegas, and averts a strike that had been authorized for October 30. RNs remain in bargaining at four St. Joseph of Health Systems hospitals that had also been part of the possible strike.