Nurses (Page 5)

On:
In: Home, Nurses, Right to Work

By Barbara Brady

MNA Communications Specialist

 

Union membership empowers MNA nurses to be strong advocates for patients. Nurses know they have rights and a collective voice to speak up for quality patient care. MNA contracts ensure that nurses have a voice in the workplace. Nurses negotiate a fair return for their hard work. Nurses and many other workers have the freedom to join together in unions and work for common causes. However, a case before the U.S. Supreme Court could take away many of those rights, starting with public-sector union members.

Janus v AFSCME Council 31 challenges the right of public sector unions to require all employees who receive the benefits of union representation to pay the cost of that representation or “fair share fees.” Corporations and extremists want to weaken unions by bringing this case forward.
… Read more about: Patient Safety Starts with Nurses’ Collective Advocacy  »

On:
In: Erin Murphy, Home, Nurses, Politics

By Kate Drusch, RN-ICU

MNA Member

 

The things we hope will become real can only become reality through actual experience. St. Paul State Representative Erin Murphy can be our next Governor because of her experience as a leader in Minnesota. Murphy is a tireless, incredible organizer.  She has brought people together to help elect her to her House seat again and again since 2006. She went on to work hard to win the House Majority Leadership in 2012, one of the most powerful positions in Minnesota.  Working like the “charge nurse” of her side of the state’s House of Representatives, she was able to push through improvements in MinnesotaCare and more of our biggest and best legislative accomplishments in those two years.
… Read more about: Why I’m supporting Erin Murphy for Governor  »

On:
In: Home, Nurses, Volunteer

By Doreen McIntyre

MNA Member, Board of Directors

 

My name is Doreen McIntyre. I work at Minneapolis Children’s Hospital in Pre-op / PACU. I’m a tri chair of my bargaining unit, and I’m proud to be serving my second term as a director on the MNA Board of Directors. I also serve on National Nurses United’s Joint Nursing Practice Commission and also the Environmental and Climate Justice Working Group.

 

I recently returned from a medical mission with Smile Network International as one of 26 volunteers to travel to India.  We worked some long days at Santhiram General Hospital in Nandyal (about two days’ drive south of New Delhi).
… Read more about: An Opportunity to Smile!  »

On:
In: Home, Legislative Policy, Nurses, Nursing, Politics

By Jon Tollefson

MNA Government Relations Specialist

 

Today is the first day of the 2018 legislative session in Minnesota, and it promises to be a whirlwind. It’s a bonding, rather than a budgeting year, which is typically shorter. However, remember last year’s budget ended with Governor Dayton vetoing the operating budget of the legislature, and that needs to be passed too. Between now and May 21st, legislators will debate tax policy, infrastructure investments, and other policy changes.

One of the many issues the Minnesota Nurses Association is working on is properly funding home health nursing. Right now, about 1,000 patients need home healthcare nursing each year in Minnesota.
… Read more about: New Legislative Session, Old Nursing Issue  »

new challenges

On:
In: Home, Nurses, Unions

By Jean Forman

MNA Member

This new year will be a pivotal year in many ways for union membership. There are two crucial events intersecting in the months ahead with the potential to vastly alter our union safety net as we know it.

First, the US Supreme Court will be hearing Janus v. AFSCME. This case threatens public sector union membership. A ruling in favor of the plaintiff, Janus, would eliminate the ability of these unions to collect representational fees from employees who choose not to join the union but still receive its protection and services.
… Read more about: A New Year and New Challenges  »

On:
In: Home, Nurses, Press Releases

For Immediate Release 

Contact:
Barbara Brady
(o) 651-414-2849
(c) 651-202-0845
barbara.brady@mnnurses.org

Contact:  Rick Fuentes
(o) 651-414-2863
(c) 612-741-0662
rick.fuentes@mnnurses.org

(St. Paul) – December 27, 2017 – Once again, nurses are the most honest and ethical profession in the nation, according to an annual Gallup poll.

More than 82 percent of Americans describe nurses’ ethics as ‘very high’ or ‘high,’ according to the survey released Dec. 26.

“Nurses are very honored to see the public appreciates the care we provide to patients,” said MNA President Mary C.
… Read more about: Nurses are most ethical and honest profession for 16th year in a row  »

On:
In: Activism, Home, Human Trafficking, Minnesota Nurses Association, Nurses

Unique Education Opportunity: Thursday, January 25, 2018

By Megan Gavin

MNA Education Specialist

 

In our modern world, one wherein we access information in seconds and tech entrepreneurs plan tourism to Mars, we still face one of our oldest and ugliest problems: human bondage. Today we refer to this phenomenon as human trafficking, a human rights abuse that involves the exploitation of a person for labor or sex.

In a 2002 Congressional report, the authors identified the reasons human trafficking persists as “criminal businesses that feed on poverty, despair, war, crisis and ignorance.” Regrettably, we provide a seemingly limitless supply of fuel for such enterprises.
… Read more about: Human Trafficking: The Nursing Implications of Trauma and Survival  »

On:
In: Guns, Home, Nurses

by Mary Kirsling

GAC Commissioner

 

During the 2016 MNA Convention, a resolution regarding gun violence prevention was updated and passed by the House of Delegates. In response to that resolution, GAC members joined Protect Minnesota to lobby at the legislature to defeat four really terrible bills and we were successful. This fall Protect Minnesota together with the School of Public Health at the U of M, Minnesota Public Health Association and the Nobel Peace Prize Forum put on a conference on gun violence. The Board voted to help sponsor the conference and three of us GAC members attended.
… Read more about: From the Gun Violence Prevention Conference-part 2  »

On:
In: Activism, Healthcare, Home, Hospitals, Labor Unions, Nurses, Sanford

By Diane Scott, RN

MNA Member

We all know the stories. A mom couldn’t get her son to the right specialist because it was out of the hospital’s “network.” Another mom couldn’t get occupational or physical therapy for her daughter without having to fight like hell to get it. How many times have MNA nurses cried at work and heard the stories of their long fights with their employer because their children could not get the healthcare they deserve? What about the non-contract employees and patients who can’t fight?

On October 24, 2017, MNA decided to fight back. We filed a second step class action grievance on behalf of all Registered Nurses working at Sanford Health of Northern Minnesota Bemidji.
… Read more about: The Union Difference  »

On:
In: Action, Activism, Home, Nurses, RNRN

By Charlotte “Kava” Zabawa, RN

MNA Member, GAC Commissioner, CARN Member

 

A week ago, when the bombing occurred in Somalia’s capital of Mogadishu, I was at MNA’s convention in Rochester, unaware.  My friend and fellow nurse left the convention early to return to Minneapolis in order to, as she said, “pick up a friend at the airport.”  I was still clueless.

 

It wasn’t until I returned home and read the paper, Tuesday, that I learned what happened and guessed the real reason my dear nurse friend had left the convention.
… Read more about: Offering Help: Nurse to Nurse  »