Nurses (Page 6)

nurse protest

On:
In: Home, Member Blog, Nurse education, Nurses, overtime, Patient Safety, Patient Safety Standards

By Diane Scott

MNA Member

 

It was a beautiful fall day. The oak trees were breathtaking. That was outside… Inside the hospital, chaos ensued. We were short staffed. Yep, plain-old short-staffing, once again.

The charge nurse asked the nurses working their eight-hour day shifts to stay and also work the evening shift. All five of these nurses said no. They were too tired, and, in their professional judgment, it would be unsafe for their patients. Then, the nurse manager approached one of those nurses and said, “you have to stay or I am going to report you for abandoning your patients.” The nurse said, “but, but…,” put her head down, got teary-eyed, and called home to tell her kids she would be home about midnight.
… Read more about: BOOM! (Bunch of Outrageous Malarkey)  »

On:
In: Home, Hospitals, Nurses, Opiods

By Sara Wahto, RN

MNA Member

 

As if Nurses and other health professionals don’t have enough to worry about with long hours, no breaks, and assaults. Now we also have to worry about unintentional exposure and a possible overdose death. Carfentanil, an analog of synthetic opioids used for large animals, including elephants, is 10,000 times as strong as morphine, and it’s out on the streets and being mixed with multiple other drugs such as heroin. Normally, a nurse or any healthcare worker wouldn’t think that he or she would be in danger of something drug users use to get high, but, unfortunately Carfentanil in a powder form only takes 2 grains the size of a salt grain to cause death.
… Read more about: Lions and Tigers and Nurses and Elephants  »

On:
In: Home, Nurses, Politics

By Geri Katz

MNA Healthcare Reform Specialist

 

A few weeks ago I wrote a post about the parliamentary election in the U.K., and the Labour Party’s pledge to enact a nationwide safe staffing law if they won a majority of the votes. While the Labour Party shocked observers and the Conservative Party by taking many more seats than expected, they did not win a majority. But U.K. nurses have won another victory that’s worth noting.

Eleanor Smith, a theatre (surgical) nurse for the National Health Service (NHS) was elected as part of the wave of Labour victories on June 8.
… Read more about: Nurse Ascends to Political Seat  »

nurse protest

On:
In: Home, Legislative Policy, Nurses, Single Payer, Standards of Care

By Geri Katz

 MNA Healthcare Reform Specialist

In the lead-up to tomorrow’s June 8 election in the United Kingdom, the Labour Party has pledged to nurses of the National Health Service to:

Two things about this remarkable pledge are worth noting for MNA nurses:

  1. This is what political power looks like.
  2. In a single payer healthcare system, the government has the leverage to make reforms to standards of care and working conditions across the country.

    3. … Read more about: Nurses in UK on the Verge of National Staffing Legislation  »

On:
In: Home, Nurses, Nurses Week

By Barb Brady

MNA Communications Specialist

Celebrations throughout the state, a proclamation by the governor, standing ovations in the Minnesota Legislature, and events around the world: people everywhere took a moment to recognize the wonderful nursing profession.

“Registered nurses strive to meet the different and emerging needs of Minnesotans in a wide range of settings, including large medical centers, local hospitals, outpatient clinics, psychiatric centers, nursing homes, veterans homes, addiction treatment centers, correctional facilities, medical rehab facilities, homes for the developmentally disabled, adolescent residential and secure facilities, community facilities, schools, and private offices,” according to a proclamation from Governor Mark Dayton declaring May 6-12 Minnesota Nurses Week.
… Read more about: Nurses Celebrated Throughout the World During Nurses Week  »

On:
In: Activism, Bernie Sanders, Home, Legislative Policy, Minimum Wage, Nurses, Robin Hood Tax, Single Payer

By Katie Gjertson

MNA Political Coordinator

This June 9 – 11, several thousand progressive activists from across the country will gather in Chicago for the People’s Summit 2.0. It’s a multi-organizational, multi-racial, multi-issue conference, co-hosted by the National Nurses United. The event goals are to form a broad coalition committed to building a people’s movement united around social, racial, economic, and environmental justice.

MNA members are invited to attend, and those who haven’t been to an event like this before are the perfect candidate. These events feature high-powered speeches by progressive leaders that will leave participants fired up to get involved.
… Read more about: The People’s Summit 2.0  »

On:
In: Fairview, HealthEast, Home, Hospitals, Nurses

By Mathew Keller RN JD

Regulatory and Policy Nursing Specialist

This past January, Pocono Medical Center (“PMC”) in Pennsylvania announced plans of a merger with Lehigh Valley Health Network. As details became more apparent, it was obvious that staffing changes and layoffs connected to the merger would affect more than 100 PMC nurses.

It’s no surprise that the word “merger” has come to be associated with “restructuring,” and “restructuring” with “layoffs.” And if a merger between a single medical center and a larger health system can affect 100 nurses, how much larger of an impact could a merger of two giant systems, such as HealthEast and Fairview, have?
… Read more about: Will HealthEast-Fairview Merger Hurt Nurses?  »

On:
In: Allina, Home, Insurance, Nurses

By Mathew Keller RN JD

MNA Regulatory and Policy Specialist

“In Minnesota, like the rest of the country, our health care system is in crisis. Healthcare premiums have increased at double-digit levels year-after-year. Employers are being squeezed by these costs, and healthcare has become prohibitively expensive for many self-employed, retired, and uninsured citizens. In this climate, nonprofit healthcare organizations owe a heightened duty to show proper stewardship.”

This was testimony offered to the U.S. Senate Finance committee not this week, not this year, not even this decade—but on April 5, 2005, by then-Minnesota Attorney General Mike Hatch. It was spurred in part by a comprehensive audit performed by the Attorney General’s office on Allina Health and its subsidiary insurance company, Medica.
… Read more about: With Allina-Aetna Insurance Partnership, It’s Buyer Beware  »

On:
In: Allina, Home, Hospitals, Labor Unions, Nurses

By Mathew Keller

MNA Regulatory and Policy Nursing Specialist

Allina’s final estimate of how much money it wasted on labor strife is in, with the health system pegging its total strike costs at 149 million dollars. As Allina employees know, however, this number is an underestimate. While the estimate includes the cost of shipping replacement nurses into Minnesota and paying them hourly rates that would make a cardiologist blush, and subtracts the costs Allina would have paid its trusted nurses were they not on strike– it does not account for the fact that Allina has been and will continue to pay eye-popping sums for replacement nurses well into 2017 due to the extreme level of nurse-turnover post-strike.
… Read more about: What can $149 million get you?  »