Obama supports the Employee Free Choice Act

Lets hold him to his statements. Support the Employee Free Choice Act.

Employee Free Choice Act

This video says it all. It gives a good over view of why the employee free choice act is needed. I hope you will watch and comment. Please support the act by signing petitions at the SEIU, AFL-CIO or the CNA website.

Now that the election is over and we have a President who supports labor and the working men and women of this country we need to move forward and pass the Employee Free Choice Act.

For those not familiar with the act or its intentions, you may want to read an over view from Wikipedia that does a good job of explaining the act and opinions both for and against the act by our congress and our new President elect Barack Obama. This link will take you to the Wikipedia link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employee_Free_Choice_Act

I support the act and believe it is needed in order to give employees a chance to freely associate and organize without the intimidation from the employer. I feel that the current system of secret ballots at the place of employment allows for the employer to target the people they see as supporters of organizing and harass them and threaten their jobs if the pursue a campaign for unionization. Union check cards are the only way I see that allows for employees to freely look at the advantages and disadvantages of organizing without the threats and intimidation of the empoyer.

Please take some time and evaluate the issue closely. Ask a union friend about unionizing and what the advantages are. Ask that person what the relationship is between the employer and employee at their place of work. Take the propaganda that most employers use and check with the union employees you know or call a local union and ask them about the process. You will find that the anti union crowd have much to loose if their employees gain a voice. This is about justice and fairness in the work place. Don't act upon emotion but use the skills of rational observation and critical thinking to make your conclusions. Then show your support by contacting your congressperson and senator to let them know how you feel. You can use the link at the bottom of this blog to find you represenatives.

Also join the AFL-CIO in their campaign to pass the Employee Free Choice Act at the following website. http://www.aflcio.org/joinaunion/voiceatwork/efca/whatis.cfm

Naomi Wolf:

An opinion on the path that our country is on. I believe that this is at very least a video that will get you to think about the supression that we have faced in the last eight years. The destruction of lablr and the surrendering of our rights for the sake of a feelinf of false security. Please get the book get the video and make your vote this year count. Tell your legislator that we want more our democracy back.

Nursing shortage presentation on NOW from PBS

PBS and their program NOW recently aired a story about the nursing shortage that I thought was very well made and a must see for all nurses interested in the future of our profession and quality of patient care. I wish the presentation would have focused more on the impact that the shortage is having on patient safety and our ability or inability to meet the needs of our patients due to our decreasing numbers. However with that said the presentation is one of the best I have seen in a while and would like all interested to see.

You can view the video at http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/442/index.html

Employee free choice act and the Presidential election.

We have twelve days left until the Presidential election and possibly a new path for America. One issue that is sure to pass or fail depending on the results of the election is the Employee Free Choice act that just recently passed in the Congress but will be blocked in the Senate and get the veto by President Bush.

Barrack Obama will support our right to organize and has pledged to support the act if elected. view the video link below entitled "Obama support the employee free choice act".

The employee free choice act will give fairness and balance to the right of employees to join an union so that they may collectively bargain with their employer for the rights that they feel they are entitled. I would encourage all who read this to examine the issue of employee rights and remember that all the rights that we currently take for granted like the 40 hour work week, overtime, lunch breaks and vacation time are all a direct or indirect result of the labor movement.

The employee free choice act would level the playing field and allow for employees to get to the point where they can meet and bargain with their employer. Currently the environment is scewed to favor the employer and allows for them to intimidate and suppress our right to associate with a union.

Their are great discussions taking place on the subject at Allnurses.com and can be read at this link. http://allnurses.com/forums/f100/employee-free-choice-act-passes-house-210327.html

I would encourage you to get involved. You can get information on what the employee free choice act says on this site in the right hand margin of the blog and you can find your senator and congressman link at the bottom of this site to assist you in contacting them to show your support.

ANA position statement on staffing assignments.

The ANA is asking for opinions related to proposed changes to the current position on nurses rights to refuse an unsafe assignment. The language is in my opinion more vague than the existing statement. I support changing the position only if it is stronger and should contain language that condemns hospitals and administrators that intimidate nurses into accepting unsafe assignments or floats. I have written the ANA and stated this and am writing this post to ask you to do the same. the email to the ANA contact is listed below. I have also provided a link to the original position of the ANA related to the nurses right to refuse an unsafe assignment, so that you may compare.

Public Comment: Patient Safety: Rights of Registered Nurses When Considering
a Patient Assignment
10/01/08The ANA Congress on Nursing Practice and
Economics (CNPE) is seeking comments on the ANA position statement, Patient
Safety: Rights of Registered Nurses When Considering a Patient Assignment.
which states: "The American Nurses Association (ANA) upholds that registered
nurses – based on their professional and ethical responsibilities – have the
professional right to accept, reject or object in writing to any patient
assignment that puts patients or themselves at serious and immediate risk for
harm. Registered nurses have the professional obligation to raise concerns
regarding any patient assignment that puts patients or themselves at risk for
harm. The professional obligations of the registered nurse to safeguard patients
are grounded in the Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements (ANA,
2001b), Nursing: Scope and Standards of Practice (ANA, 2004), and state laws,
and rules and regulations governing nursing practice."
Download the position
statment below and send comments to Cheryl.Peterson@ANA.org.
If you are interested in participating in this review, please provide your
comments to the ANA staff member listed above by 5:00pm EST on November 30,
2008.
CNPE appreciates your assistance with reviewing this Position
Statement.

Original position of ANA on right of nurse to refuse unsafe assignment is available at this link: ANA right to reject assignment 1995.pdf

Please let the ANA know that they represent us and not the corporate interest of the hospital and that it is time to let the administrators know that we demand safe assignments and floating practices and demand the right to refuse unsafe assignments without retribution.

P.O.V. | Critical Condition | Joe's Story | PBS

This is an sample of the documentary critical condition that was presented on PBS on 9/30/08. I hope that you will take the time to watch the entire presentation and see that we are all one major illness or injury away from being at the mercy of a system that is failing us all. Please visit http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2008/criticalcondition/fullfilm.html to view the presentation. Vote Obama and lets fix the system.

NNOC testimony to TBON

Can I get a witness?

The text below is only one small part of the testimony that six RNs with the NNOC presented before the TN Board of Nursing on the morning of September 25, 2008. Issue topics were unsafe floating, short staffing, nurses fired for refusing to sign anti-organizing agreements, and institutional pressures on employees to not join pro-union associations. We received a cordial reception which later turned lukewarm. We were told that the proper way to do it was to file for an "Advisory Ruling". Perhaps we'll do that next...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TESTIMONY
BOARD OF NURSING OPEN FORUM
SEPTEMBER 25, 2008

Hello,


My name is Mark. I work as a staff RN at Tennessee hospital. I'm concerned that patient safety is being put at risk because of inadequate staffing levels. Nurses are being put in the position of either refusing a patient assignment and risk losing their jobs, or accepting more patients than they can safely handle. When a nurse has six, seven, or more patients on a medical-surgical floor, it's quite likely that some aspect of patient care will be missed. Charge nurses are frequently assigned a full patient load, rendering them unavailable to be a resource to the nurses under them. A patient has fallen on the floor after a bed alarm was not answered fast enough, another aspirated some food because no one was assisting with feeding, decubitus ulcers got worse when an incontinent patient was not cleaned up often enough, MRSA isolation procedures were incompletely followed in an attempt to save time, and a PCA continuous morphine dose was not turned off before the patient was stuporous. These are only few specific examples. While they may have turned out to be less than sentinel events, they are still very serious.


In addition to direct adverse events to patients, under-staffing has other consequences affecting delivery of safe care. Many experienced nurses have gotten fed up with the workload, and left hospital nursing. New nurses come in to fill vacancies, but many of these don't stay long because of the stressful conditions. We end up with a high percentage of relatively inexperienced nurses doing their best to care for too many patients. It's a recurring situation, one that management is aware of and has said they will address, but so far, nothing much has changed. It's not unique to my hospital; according to reports I've heard, under-staffing may be even worse at other facilities. As a possible solution to the problem, in the interest of patient safety, the retention of experienced professional nurses, and the recruitment of future nurses, would the Board of Nursing be willing support legislation as proposed by the CNA/NNOC for safe nurse to patient ratios?


Thank you for your time and consideration.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The following was not part of the testimony to TBON:

Below is an excerpt from a discussion board posting, written by the nursing instructor of an RN-BSN course I'm taking, Professional Role Development. It may reflect a typical managerial point of view.


"3) Unions-I am not a union fan in hospitals (note my husband is a union member outside of healthcare). As a CNO, I work every day to provide the best ratios, pay, benefits and work environment for my staff that our facility can afford. I don't see how a union would do any thing in our organization other than complicate things. I have to agree with Jennifer [last name withheld] posting that ultimately if you are not happy with your environment and feel that it is not safe than perhaps it is time to look elsewhere."



So, if conditions aren't safe for patients where I work, I should get a job somewhere else, right? Where should the patients go?

Diagnosis: NOW!

Please take a few minute and watch this important video and support the cause of bringing equality and fairness to healthcare for all Americans. You can get involved by visiting http://healthcareforamericanow.org

Your Money or Your Life

Linked below are two must see videos that put a human story to the injustice of the American medical system. I hope that you will watch these videos and reflect on how all of us are at risk. I believe in personal accountability but I also believe in compassion of my fellow man and that without your health you are without options. I hope that these stories lead you to see that people are often without the needed resources to even provide for the basics of life and that we as a society should and can do better.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/video/flv/generic.html?s=amdo1fp3d8

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/video/flv/generic.html?s=amdo1fp3d9

Interesting article on education

Please take a few minutes and read this article from a fellow health care blogger related to education and nurse professionalism. The link to the full article is listed below. I will post only the first paragraph here, just to get you started.


Nurse Perspective

Life Needs Nurses

Published July 31, 2008 9:11 AM by Guest Blogger Roxana Gonzalez, RN, CCRN, is critical care educator at Saint Michael's Medical Center in Newark, NJ.
A nurse advocate's strength is dependent on their drive for knowledge development; very few nurses are taking time to learn. The increased demands on nurses has resulted in a practice that's focused on resolving crisis events at the workplace with minimal time spent on maintaining professional well-being. Nursing has faced many critical situations, but probably none more critical than the situation is now in which there are possibilities for serious loss and substantial advance.1 New knowledge not only allows a nurse to practice according to the latest evidence but it builds careers and innovates professionals to take part in shaping the discipline. Being a patient advocate goes far beyond bedside care, it goes deeper into the reasons behind why a patient is entrusted to the care of a nurse.2 Whether we speak up for patients at the bedside or in a public forum, knowledge is an advocacy empowerment tool that nurses need to impact life.

To read the rest of article click here: http://community.advanceweb.com/blogs/nurses7/archive/2008/07/31/life-needs-nurses.aspx

Hope you enjoy. Please take the time to leave a comment.

Broken Levees, Broken Lives: A Post-Katrina Focus on Health

Broken lives is another testimony to the fact that we need healthcare reform now. Please support single payer healthcare. We need toput compassion and empathy back into health care and put the honor and integrity back in our profession that we have lost due to the lust for profit that now controls our healthcare system.

Obama supports the Employee Free Choice Act

Vote Obama for President and support the employee free choice act.

Myths in Healthcare

Myth 1: The US Healthcare System Is the Best in the World
This idea has been called the alpha myth because it is fundamentally the root of all other myths.[1] It is the straightforward belief that Americans have access to the highest quality healthcare available in the world. A different way to present this myth is to state that citizens in other countries experience long waits for healthcare, that they must rely on generalists, and that they suffer worse outcomes as a result.
This belief is widespread and well-entrenched in the American mindset. So it is perhaps surprising that in a 10-nation 1990 survey on the level of satisfaction with the national healthcare system, the United States ranked 10th.[2] These results were then reproduced a decade later.[3] Although Americans believe the US system is the best, clearly they are not as satisfied with the healthcare they receive as are citizens of other countries.

For the full article visit the links below. There are also links to other sections of the article that are interestingand informative. You will be required to register at the site to view the entire story, it is free on the medscape site.

Abstract and Introduction
Myth 1: The US Healthcare System Is the Best in the World
Myth 2: There Will Always Be a Certain Segment of the Population That Remains Uninsured
Myth 3: The Uninsured Have Equal Access to Medical Care Through the Emergency Room
Myth 4: A Free Market Is the Best Way to Get the Highest Quality Health Insurance for the Lowest Cost
Myth 5: We Just Cannot Afford to Cover Everyone
Conclusion

Support the Employee Free Choice Act

The paragraph below is copied from the California Nurses Association campaign for the employee free choice act. I believe and support this campiagn and ask that all who visit this blog will review the issue and support bringing fairness and choice to the American worker. At the site linked below you will find testimonials of real nurses struggle to unionize and advocate for their patients and profession.


EFCA - Employee Free Choice Act
60 million American workers have expressed interest in belonging to a union. 79 percent of them agree they are likely to be fired for trying to form one. It’s time put the era of union-busting behind us.
Union membership has been declining over the past several decades.Employers are waging increasingly vicious campaigns against workers and union officials who attempt to organize for better working conditions. The lag between gathering enough cards to file for an election and the election itself creates weeks in which professional "union busters" can infiltrate a workplace, intimidating, misleading, and harassing workers into voting against unionization. If you think your employer wouldn’t do that to you, think again: 92 percent of employers force employees to attend compulsory anti-union meetings.
It’s time for a change.New legislation can end union-busting. The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) would make it possible to elect a union by collecting signed union cards from the majority of workers on a job. EFCA will provide a democratic process to workers seeking union representation, without giving management the lead time necessary to coordinate an attack on workers’ rights to freely associate and organize.
TAKE ACTION TODAY:
Sign the Online Card to Support Employee Free Choice here!
Download the complete EFCA brochure in PDF

Your RX for health care reform

I was recently sent this email from Healthcare united asking for my perscription for changing our health care system. I sent in my opinion, at least the short version anyway and would like to ask you to do the same.

These emails are to be delivered to our senators and congressman at the Democratic convention. I see it as another opportunity to get your voice heard.

In full disclosure united healthcare is a campaign run by the SEIU. I do not support all their efforts but we can and should work with each other on those campiagns that we do agree and we agree that health care is in need of real reform.

The link below will take you to the form for you to submit your ideas. http://www.healthcareunited.org/RxforChange

Single Payer Now

Fast Facts about Single Payer

by Suzanne Cowan — last modified 2008-06-17 10:24 PM
The June 19 rally is in support of Single Payer health insurance, as opposed to a system run for profit by private insurance companies. But what is Single Payer?
Did you know?
The US spends more that twice as much per person for healthcare as any other nation, yet
One sixth of Americans have no health insurance.
One half of all bankruptcies are caused by healthcare bills.
Three quarters of those people had health insurance.
Despite this spending, the World Health Organization ranks the US 37th in overall health, the worst among industrial countries.
The US is the only industrial country that does not have a plan that provides health care for everybody.
In the US, there are currently more than 1200 separate for-profit insurance plans. The result is that, instead of paying for health care, about 30 cents of every health care dollar pay for:
Administrative costs such as billing
Marketing and advertising
Lobbying
Risk evaluation (allows insurance companies to provide insurance to the healthy and refuse coverage to those with "pre-existing conditions")
Denial management (the search for excuses to delay, deny or renege on payment for health care)
The June 19th rally supports California Senate Bill 840 (SB 840) and federal House Resolution 676 (HR 676). Both bills would establish a single-payer system of universal health care that eliminates insurance companies as middlemen.
Under a single-payer system in California or nationally, we would spend less on healthcare than we do now, and with far better results. Specifically, a single-payer system would:
Eliminate all current premiums, deductibles and co-payments. Instead, employers, employees and individuals would pay an annual tax that would be combined in one fund with monies from existing government programs. This fund would be the sole payer of all medical claims.
Immediately save billions of dollars by eliminating the excessive costs that insurance companies now spend for administration, lobbying, marketing, risk management, denial management, CEO salaries and profits.
Use the bulk purchasing power to reduce the cost of pharmaceuticals and durable medical equipment.
Increase efficiency and stabilize the growth in health care spending by linking spending increases to state/national GDP and relevant demographic indicators.
Allow the vast majority of people to pay less than they do now for medical care, while receiving far more comprehensive coverage.
Both SB 840 and HR 676 specifically permit free choice of health care providers, both public and private. Current for-profit insurance plans restrict choice to "in-plan" providers,
Many federal and state studies since l990 have concluded that a single-payer system is the only model that is truly efficient, equitable and sustainable. It spreads risk, pools funds, and provides all residents access to medical care.

Support single payer bill HR 676 by writing your representative and letting them know that you want justice in health care and a single payer system. You will find links at the bottom of this blog to find your Representatives e-mail and physical address. To get more information on the model for this bill visit http://singlepayernow.net/.

National Single Payer Bill
HR 676, the United States National Health Insurance Act, was introduced by Representative John Conyers, Jr. The bill has 90 cosponsors. HR 676 closely mirrors California’s SB 840.

THIS FRIDAY re California's proposed SB840-SHOW UP!

In case you don't already know, in Oakland, California - this coming Friday evening, a couple of the co-authors of California's universal healthcare bill SB840 will be having a townhall. Included on the bill is Senator Sheila Kuehl's Healthcare Consultant (who I think did most of the detail on writing the bill), Sarah Rogers and likely more key people.

THIS NEEDS YOUR ATTENTION - it is CRITICAL that people show up and let the powers that be right now know that it is NOT ok to sweep this under the rug yet again and that we are not going to settle for another lame a excuse of a healthcare proposal (regardless of whether it comes from the Obama camp or the governator).

7pm

Humanist Hall

27th near Broadway

Oakland, California

For details: visit Singlepayernow.net

Here are highlights from the last hearing on the bill: YouTube - California Considers Healthcare for ALL-The $ issue

Americans Mad and Angry

I recently read a post on allnurses that led me to a site called Americans mad and angry. The site is a non profit that reports on medical errors and the real life stories of the patients affected by them. The organization does not present an opinion as to how nurse ratios or unions play into the rate of medical errors but wanted to take the opportunity to give my two cents on the subject.

I have posted many videos and written post on the issue of patient safety and medical errors as they relate to understaffing. I have also posted or previously discussed how studies have shown that unionized hospitals have been shown to have better outcomes than their non union counter parts.

I would ask that you reflect on the errors that you are aware of and ask yourself if better ratios, better staff development and true whistleblower protections for safety issues may have helped prevent them. Also review the site that I will link below and ask your self if these were preventable and would better trained and prepared staff have done a better job. http://www.americansmadandangry.org

I am not suggesting that personal responsibility be removed but that the hospitals have a responsibility to ensure that their staff is educated and adequate in number to provide safe care. Rushing is often the reason that errors occur and that rushing is often caused by understaffing. They as the employer are responsible for staffing and they need to be mandated to set ratios as they have proven to be not up to the task.

Support mandatory staffing ratios and the unions to allow nurses to voice their concerns as they relate to safety. Support unions, support ratios, support whistleblower protection and reject the notion that your administration is doing all they can do. They have let us all down for to long and they need to be held accountable to someone.

Also review the links on the right of this blog to worthy petitions to support the issues discussed above.