Standards of Care

Media Advisory

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:  Rick Fuentes
(o) 651-414-2863
(c) 612-741-0662
rick.fuentes@mnnurses.org
Lauren Nielsen
(o) 651-414-2862
(c) 651-376-9709
lauren.nielsen@mnnurses.org

Nurses Fearful Patients Unable to Receive Care

(St. Paul) – June 3, 2021 – Nurse members of the Minnesota Nurses Association have filed a ten-day notice to picket outside Children’s Hospitals Minneapolis and Saint Paul campuses to fight for enough staffing and enough beds for pediatric patients.

MNA nurses have been meeting with Children’s management over several months since the corporation launched a downsizing of its Saint Paul hospital and a redesign for the Minneapolis campus.
… Read more about: Pediatric Nurses Will Picket Children’s Hospitals  »

By Diane McLaughlin, RN

Commission of Active Retired Nurses & Government Affairs Commissioner

 

It is so inspiring to see about 100 MNA nurses from all over Minnesota come together and speak up for patients with our legislators at the Capitol during the annual Day on the Hill this year.

The Feb. 11-12 event was as rewarding and inspiring as ever.

After an evening of socializing and training, we met with our own representatives and senators to use our voices as citizen lobbyists to talk about the issues impacting our patients and our profession.

I met with Rep.
… Read more about: One Word for MNA’s Nurses Day on the Hill: Phenomenal  »

By Megan Gavin

MNA Education Specialist

 

Here in Minnesota we are rightly focused on the elections that will decide the direction of our state for decades to come. We are working hard to elect pro-union leaders who will protect the right to collectively bargain contracts. In Minnesota and across the country, healthcare has become the number one issue for voters.  Costs continue to skyrocket; high deductible insurance plans drain more and more of individual families’ hard-earned money; and politicians continue to threaten protections for pre-existing conditions. The state of healthcare is not sustainable, and we need to demand change that puts the patients at the center.
… Read more about: Call ALL your friends in Massachusetts and tell them to Vote Yes on Question 1!  »

By Juli Uzlik, RN

MNA Member

It’s amazing how just the smallest change can have the biggest effects on registered nurses and their patients.  At my hospital, Fairview Southdale in Edina, a temporary nursing consultant came in and decreased the staffing in the Heart Center by one nurse per shift. The hospital has taken away one charge nurse where there have been two since the inception of the unit.

Not a big deal, right?  Still have a charge nurse.  Not really.  The Heart Center is laid out in two separate sections with literally a wall and a hallway between the two sections. 
… Read more about: Brain Drain  »

nurse protest

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  »

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

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

(St. Paul) – March 15, 2016 – Nurse members of the Minnesota Nurses Association reported more than 2,700 incidents of unsafe staffing in Minnesota hospitals last year, according to a qualitative study released today at the Minnesota Nurses Association’s annual lobby day in St. Paul. These incidents are reported in Concern for Safe Staffing (CFSS) forms that nurses file in unsafe situations.

The report issued today showed nurses filed 32.93 percent more CFSS forms in calendar year 2015 than they did in 2014, which totaled 2,062 incidents.
… Read more about: Press Release: Minnesota Nurses Report Record Number of Staffing Incidents in Hospitals  »

Legislative Update May 1, 2015

House HHS Omnibus Bill
Tuesday night, the House passed its Health and Human Services omnibus bill (HF 1638). The bill includes many of MNA’s issues in various forms:

MinnesotaCare is dropped all together. This is the insurance program for about 90,000 Minnesotans who make too much money for Medicaid but not enough to buy insurance through an exchange (approximately 134-200% of the Federal Poverty Level or about $40,000 for a family of four). Another bill, HF 848, includes tax credits for those dropped from MinnesotaCare to get coverage through the private market or MNsure.  Unfortunately, the proposed credits aren’t nearly enough to provide an equal level of care. 
… Read more about: (Untitled)  »

 

 

Minnesota Nurses fighting for safe staffing levels for patients held an informational picket on Tuesday, June 24, 2014.  Legislative leaders from the area joined them to echo their concerns that patient safety is a concern.

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… Read more about: Video: Minnesota Nurses Hold Informational Picket at North Memorial Hospital  »

@mx_860
Sweeping changes underway in the nation’s health care delivery system that expose hundreds of thousands of patients to severe risk of harm are the focus of a major new national campaign by the nation’s largest organization of nurses announced today.

An unchecked proliferation of unproven medical technology and sharp erosion of care standards are rapidly spreading through the health care system, far outside the media spotlight but frighteningly apparent to nurses and patients, says National Nurses United.

In response, NNU has launched a major campaign featuring radio ads from coast to coast, video, social media, legislation, rallies, and a call to the public to act, with a simple theme – “when it matters most, insist on a registered nurse.”  The ads were created by North Woods Advertising and produced by Fortaleza Films/Los Angeles.
… Read more about: NNU launches "Insist on an RN" campaign with radio ads  »

Caucus-inviteAn Invitation from MNA President Linda Hamilton

2014 is an  important election year for nurses and the communities we care for and live in. The entire Minnesota House of Representatives is up for re-election, as well as the Governor, U.S. Senator Franken, all eight members of Congress and countless local races.

These elected officials make decisions about nursing and health care that affect our profession, our patients and our families. We must speak up for nursing values of caring, compassion and community. If we don’t advocate for our patients and our profession, no one will.

Start out by attending your party’s Caucus Night, Feb.
… Read more about: Nurse Power at Caucus Night Feb. 4  »