News you can use - December 2024
Posted Dec 4, 2024
WSNA Nurses Volunteer at Lauren’s Lap
Your fellow WSNA nurses and several nurse techs volunteered a few hours of their morning on Saturday, September 28, 2024, to help staff two first aid stations at the Lauren’s Lap race. We supported over 700 racers running in memory of Lauren McCluskey and to bring awareness to domestic violence and campus safety.
Fact or myth? Supplemental/ On-Call nurses pay full dues every month
Myth! Supplemental nurses have their own prorated dues amount, category C. These nurses pay member dues once in the months they pickup shifts. Other unions may require members to turn dues on and off depending on if they work a particular month. If you don’t work in November, no member dues can be deducted. Join today.
Membership matters
Membership in your union is crucial because it provides workers with a collective voice. By banding together, we gain strength and leverage to address your important workplace issues and advocate for your rights effectively. Your longtime CNO Jeannie Eylar has now retired, and Pullman Regional has a new CEO, which means new administration for the next contract bargaining. WSNA remains a constant partner to weather these potential storms with you.
Why should you join WSNA now if you haven’t before?
What do you love about working at Pullman Regional Hospital? Maybe it’s the wages or the stackable certification premiums. Maybe it’s lower nurse to patient ratios or your ability to request low census. These are all conditions of your work that WSNA nurses in your hospital have helped secure. These achievements are possible largely in part due to nurses being WSNA members.
The number of nurses involved in their local unit and engaging in committees and events shows Pullman Regional that nurses know their rights. Management knows every nurse who joins the union is another nurse who won’t back down. Management also knows how many nurses participate since they manage your payroll deductions.
Recent issues our Officer teams and Committees are working through on your behalf
- Unilateral changes the Employer tried to initiate for low census
- Unilateral changes to insurance benefits
- Offering short term language to offer a SANE stipend (Employer declined)
- Raising concerns about the process for violent patients
- Charge nurse roles related to staffing
- Maintaining separate units and workflows for MSU and ICU
All nurses should know- if the Employer is changing anything that relates to your wages, hours, or working conditions, those are mandatory subjects of bargaining. Nurses at Pullman Regional are joining their union and advocating for their colleagues and their patients. Check out what your hospital staffing committee (HSC) is doing below. Want to get more involved? Join WSNA today and contact your nurse representative, Alle Machorro at amachorro@wsna.org .
Hospital Staffing Committee (HSC) Update
Meet your HSC Co-chair- Acacia Prather from Birthplace!
The HSC met on November 12, 2024, and this was our last meeting with former CNO Jeannie Eylar. We were told there would be interviews happening for her replacement and that person or Matt Forge will attend our December meeting to fill that role. We want to take a moment to say thank you to ALL the nurses who attended our October meeting. Management heard your voices loud and clear and we saw changes made to the ER staffing plan because of your participation. The 2025 staffing plans were approved at our November meeting, and you can find a copy of them here. These plans will be in effect beginning January 1, 2025, and are public records on the Department of Health’s website.
We had one unsafe staffing form or assignment despite objection (ADO) form filed from Birthplace. This ADO sparked a long conversation about how leadership recruit staff on short notice. We learned that they often use a mass or group text approach, but they admitted that there are incompatibilities sometimes with Android or iPhone about who receives them. Nurses asked if they could support staffing in their own department and management expressed reservations about having nurses call people in. This ADO is currently NOT resolved, and we intend to have further discussions about staff recruitment at our next HSC meeting.
Committee members need to hear from you about your experiences as a charge nurse and with short staffing. We will also be reviewing how and why a nurse may file these forms. We are hosting virtual drop-in meetings for nurses to share their experiences to further facilitate our discussion in the hospital staffing committee. Dates and times below.
Friday December 6, 2024, at 9 am, 2 pm, and 6 pm (link below)
Monday December 9, 2024, at 9 am, 2 pm, and 6 pm (link below)
Conference Committee Update
Our next meeting will be December 19 at 8am. The topics we will be addressing are changes to your insurance, removal of a 20% discount, processes for violent patients to be removed from the hospital, education for psychiatric patients, low census follow up, floating, and the SANE program. Reach out to one of your officers or your nurse representative if you have something you’d like addressed to the leadership team.
Where is my WSNA board?
All the WSNA boards have received a makeover! We have updated them with officer information, copies of your contract, swag, and information on filling out unsafe staffing forms. See the before and after for MSU below.
Check out your local WSNA website here for more information.
Questions? Contact your local officers or your WSNA Nurse Representative Alle Machorro at amachorro@wsna.org.