Nurses at Skagit have now been presented with Contingency and Crisis staffing models and have been told they will need to float to help out other departments. Especially affected areas of the hospital include departments where elective procedures are being cancelled and the staff floated and utilized elsewhere in the hospital. Many of you have valid concerns and questions.

Fact #1:

The facility may decide/activate alternate plans when they have insufficient health care personnel and need to implement contingency and/or crisis staffing plans.

Conferring with the staffing committee is not required.

https://www.doh.wa.gov/Portals/1/Documents/1600/coronavirus/820-217-InterimHCStaffShortage.pdf

“Contingency Capacity Staffing: When staffing shortages are anticipated, healthcare facilities and employers, in collaboration with human resources and occupational health services, should use contingency capacity strategies to plan and prepare for mitigating this problem.

Crisis Capacity Staffing: When staffing shortages occur, healthcare facilities and employers, in collaboration with human resources and occupational health services, may need to implement crisis capacity staffing strategies to continue to provide patient care when there threatens to be insufficient staff to provide safe patient care. Healthcare facilities and employers may choose to implement contingency capacity staffing and crisis capacity staffing independently.”

Fact #2:

The contract is still in effect and states that nurses will be provided orientation and the tools necessary to perform the job. This raises the question of accepting or refusing an assignment which is a difficult topic to discuss and consider for nurses. I have included a link to an article on our website that has some information on this:

Nurses facing abnormally dangerous patient care assignments

You may have to make a decision about accepting an assignment involving abnormally dangerous conditions that pose an imminent risk to your safety and health and could potentially cause serious injury or death.

https://www.wsna.org/news/2020/nurses-facing-abnormally-dangerous-patient-care-assignments

#3 ADO/ Staffing Concern Forms

We all understand it may feel futile to complete these extra documents especially when changes or improvements are not noticed immediately. However, the paper trail serves two purposes: it protects your license by proving you reported unsafe situation which you are required by law to do and it also provides the paper trail of evidence we need to push for safe staffing in the staffing committee, at the negotiation table, with the governing agencies (currently Dept. of Health) and with legislation. The wheels of change move slowly but they are moving. If it is helpful, one form can be completed and all the nurses names listed on the form who are affected – in other words it can be a group submission rather than just one person filing a form.

Finally:

A refusal to float very well could have discipline ramifications from the employer. As your nurse representative I would fight immediately and vigorously on behalf of any nurse who is affected this way. But that fight is long and arduous. As such, I recommend saying something like the following when asked to float:

(example…) “I am willing and happy to help out my nurse co-workers, but I am not < insert your language (oriented or trained) > to take care of this patient population. Is there some other work that I can do to help?”

By using this or similar verbiage, you have established you will help as a team player but are clearly stating this is not an area you have oriented to, and the employer is now aware of the ramifications of THEIR decision to utilize your expertise outside your home department.

Clarify your role and duties ahead of time. The assignment may very well mesh with your skills and ability and truly be a help and benefit to your co-workers. It’s a different feeling to hear… “You are floating to the ED” as opposed to... ”We have need of you in the ED taking care of a medical patient who is being boarded. You will not be assigned emergency patients”.

Lastly, continue to keep your officers and your nurse rep apprised of what you are facing. Continue to watch your emails and stay tuned for updates.

In solidarity,
Liz Rainaud, MSN, RN ~ Local Unit Chair
Jessica Googe, RN ~ Local Unit Co-Chair
Miranda Setty, BSN, RN, ENP‑C, CCTN~ Local Unit Secretary/​Communications Officer
Rachel Yates, RN ~ Local Unit Treasurer
Abubaker Cameron, RN ~ Local Unit Griev­ance Officer
Cheryl Pedersen, RN ~ Local Unit Griev­ance Officer
Hannah Guy, BSN, RN ~ Local Unit Co-Member­ship Officer

Questions? Contract WSNA Nurse Repre­sen­ta­tive Sue Dunlap at sdunlap@wsna.org.