Below is a letter from the nurses serving on MNA’s Economic and General Welfare Commission:
Greetings to you all. We are writing to bring you up-to-date information about the safety of patients and the on-line Concern for Safe Staffing (CFSS) process. It has been a year since we went live with our streamlined process, and we want to apprise you of the success nurses have had documenting their advocacy for patients in unsafe staffing situations.
The CFSS process is an organizational initiative to standardize our reporting across the entire organization. The most important aspect of the process has evolved from filling out a form to mobilizing and encouraging action at the first hint of an unsafe situation. The online form documents the advocacy each nurse or multiple nurses took to notify managers of their concern. Nurses have been successful with repeated calls and initiating calls for subsequent shifts coming in, knowing the dilemma other nurses will be facing. Reliance on retrospective data is not fixing the problem. The employers need to listen and respond at the time a concern is raised. We need to document the positive responses and changes as well as the empty promises. “If it’s not documented, it’s not done.”
The online form helps us track the action nurses are taking “in the moment” of the staffing crisis, as well as the response from the manager. The E and GW Commission will, therefore, be requiring all bargaining units to utilize this process and we need your help to educate and advise other members. Please discard your old forms and make sure to print a copy of your CFSS form for your manager to formalize the fact that you took action.
Streamlining our process to focus on documenting the moment of advocacy permits us to do what we need and want to do with the information. This puts the nurses in control and ensures the employers cannot manipulate the information and disregard its importance. Don’t get caught up in the management arguments about not getting a form or MNA changing the process without their consent. We are frontline staff nurses and we know when we are working short, we communicate safety issues and do not need to justify our belief to management over and over again.
During the past six months, our trending shows that in 91% of the reported incidents, nurses have had no assistance from management with staffing concerns. The data does reveal nurses get the adequate resources 9% of the time. We believe there is more to report regarding the actions taken to resolve the unsafe staffing condition.
When nurses say it’s unsafe, the resources should be provided. We don’t want only negative management responses to be documented; we want to know more about the positive responses from management when they occur so we can discover what works and replicate it.
E and GW Commissioners will be calling the Chairperson(s) and Stewards of every facility to evaluate how the use of the CFSS process is functioning and how we can facilitate reaching all members on this crucial issue. Please help us help you and the patients we care for by using the on-line CFSS process.