1. Seattle Children’s response to your survey comments disappoints.
2. We (finally) have a COVID vaccine mandate MOU.
3. Updates for those with approved vaccine exemptions.

Appreciation survey response

Your WSNA Co-Chairs, Edna Cortez and Kara Yates, and your WSNA Representative, Sydne James, met with Seattle Children’s on Oct. 13. Despite the fact that increased compensation was overwhelmingly the number one thing that nurses said would help keep them at Seattle Children’s, the hospital disappointingly did not come prepared to offer any financial incentives to the nurses.

WSNA heard you loud and clear that your wages are not enough to support settling in Seattle as the cost of living continues to skyrocket here. We also agree that while we are fortunate to live in a city with great nursing schools that graduate hundreds of new graduates every year, it is financially short sighted and clinically ill-advised for the hospital to depend on staffing largely with inexperienced nurses.

WSNA also understands that while incredibly important, compensation certainly isn’t the only thing that matters when it comes to making nurses feel appreciated and respected. WSNA will continue to push the hospital to transparently engage direct care nurses and to include you all in policy setting and decision making at every level, especially when it comes to the work you do every day caring for patients and families. WSNA will continue to push the hospital to recognize that while parents may be the expert on their individual child, our nurses are the experts at providing healthcare to those children, and you deserve to do so without facing physical, mental, and emotional abuse. WSNA recognizes that our nurses are the moral center of healthcare and the foundation of care at Seattle Children’s, and you all deserve to be treated professionally, to have your voice heard and your feedback acted upon, and to be compensated accordingly.

Seattle Children’s shared with us ideas to help with scheduling and staffing in the future, including more part-time positions, more Baylor shifts, CNA/sitter model, creative scheduling, and hiring additional new grad RNs. They said that the will bring back Nurses Week and will work to figure out how to make that meaningful. They have created a Recognition Budget for each unit that the nurses will decide how to spend: $20 per person per fiscal year. They also recently gave staff 2,500 WAVE points and a discount to the Seattle perks store.

Other WA hospitals are giving nurses greater retention bonuses, as much as $10,000 at Tacoma General. Bonnie and Dinarte have asked to meet with WSNA again soon to continue discussions of takeaways from your survey responses, including support for difficult patients and families, more rounding by leadership, and more forums/opportunities for feedback, just for the nurses. So stay tuned!

Thank you for taking the time to provide your feedback. The ideas and suggestions were numerous. In addition to the issues raised above, some of the other themes brought up repeatedly were related to parking and transportation, retirement, access to food and coffee, especially on night shift, and staffing and scheduling issues. Be assured that WSNA will continue to advocate for our nurses on all of these issues. If you would like to read the survey responses from your fellow nurses, you can do so here:

COVID vaccine mandate MOU

On Aug. 11, 2021, WSNA demanded to bargain the effects of the Governor’s proclamation for the vaccine mandate. Since that time, WSNA has been in coalition bargaining with UFCW 21 and IUOE Local 302 exchanging proposals with Seattle Children’s. Today we reached agreement on this. This Memorandum of Understanding impacts all of the nurses who will not yet be fully vaccinated by Oct. 18. We urge you to read this MOU in its entirety and reach out with any questions.

Religious and medical exemption updates

Children’s RNs have been approved for medical and religious exemptions to the vaccine mandate. To our knowledge, the majority of these RNs have not been granted any accommodation to be able to continue working. If that describes you, we urge you to file a complaint with the EEOC. https://www.eeoc.gov/field-office/seattle/charge. This is one way to assert your rights, and it is also required should you decide you want to file a lawsuit against the employer for discrimination.

What else can you do? If you have an approved exemption and Seattle Children’s is not accommodating you to continue working, you may qualify for unemployment. We understand that Maxim Health is hiring RNs with approved exemptions for RN positions in WA.

WSNA has filed an Association grievance on behalf of all of these RNs. Some of you might be asking why is your union supporting those who are not vaccinated. Seattle Children’s has made the sweeping decision to not allow for any accommodations to allow nurses to continue working. WSNA believes the employer’s decision circumnavigates their responsibility to consider each individual exemption accommodation request. This is a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. WSNA supports all of our members, regardless of their vaccination status, and fights for member’s legal rights in all instances.

Questions? Contact any officer https://www.wsna.org/union/seattle-childrens-hospital or WSNA Nurse Repre­sen­ta­tive Sydne James at sjames@wsna.org.