ANNOUNCING NEW WSNA TREASURER

Monique Newman, CRU, has been duly appointed to serve as your WSNA Treasurer. The position was vacated when Shari Holst, Hospice, retired. We welcome Monique to her new position. We offer thanks to Shari for her many years of service.

COMMITTEE WORK

Your WSNA Officers have been busy with many committees.

PPE committee: We continue to meet the first and third Wednesdays of the month. As PPE continues to be adequately stocked and maintained in the supply chain, our meetings are growing shorter. Please continue to send your PPE questions to hwelander@wsna.org so that these concerns can be brought forward.

COVID De-Escalation Committee: We are in the process of forming this committee and will be represented by nurses in ICU, MCU, medical and critical care float pools, and nurses that regularly floated into COVID units.

Nurse Staffing Committee: We continue our search for the WSNA Co-Chair position. We offer our thanks to Kim Finger who has served as the Co-Chair for many years.

CBC mandatory education requirements: We held a meeting to discuss concerns about being able to get off the floor to complete required education. The committee has submitted their recommendations to the Leadership Team.

Lactation Pods: We have continued to ask hospital administration why there is a delay in getting more breastfeeding pods. Their response was that they are checking with the Foundation. If you are one of the affected nurses, please contact hwelander@wsna.org.

Trackers: We are meeting to bargain the trackers that administration has or plans to implement: Real Time Location System (RTLS) and BioVigil. We have heard many concerns and hope to have more information once discussions begin.

WORKING ON THE COVID UNITS

Nurses in ICU, MCU and those floated to the units, were burning out and feeling frustrated because they felt that their concerns weren’t being heard. These concerns included prolonged periods in the unit without adequate support from ancillary services, stress dealing with families of patients, and the onerous workloads, having to do it all, and much more! We proposed that management implement a COVID bonus but they declined. This is disappointing because the nurses have worked their fingers to the bone under very difficult conditions.

Questions? Contact WSNA Nurse Representative Hanna Welander at hwelander@wsna.org or speak to one of the local unit officers.