APRN OFFICERS. President: Glenda Peters, 8E. Secretary: Bobbi Rychlick, RRT. Treasurer: Jennifer Speer, L&D

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1 May 10, 2011 APRIL STEWARDS DINNERD FEATURES ONA PRESIDENTP RESIDENT, STEVE ROONEY,, RN We were excited to host ONA President Steve Rooney, as a guest at the quarterly Stewards Dinner. Steve has been an ONA member since 1985 and a Board Member for six years. At the ANA, he has been an ANA Institute for Collective Bargaining Officer and a part of the ANA Advocacy Institute. He has worked as an ICU nurse at St. Charles-Bend since Nurses enjoyed hearing updates on healthcare legislation, and discussed ways to bring new nurse leaders into the organization. "It was a pleasure to meet with the officers and stewards of the Providence St. Vincent Bargaining Unit. They have shown great dedication to the profession and to the people that they serve. As I toured the Medical Center, nurses repeatedly expressed gratitude for the work done by the volunteers and staff of ONA. As president of ONA, I am honored and proud to be serving with these nursing leaders." APRN OFFICERS President: Glenda Peters, 8E Secretary: Bobbi Rychlick, RRT Treasurer: Jennifer Speer, L&D Members at Large: Laura Fryburg, IV Therapy Pat Van Loo, Nursing Service Administration Labor Relations Representative Sally LaJoie (503) x 328 lajoie@oregonrn.org Nominations were received for the three (3) PNCC positions. If you are interested in holding a position on the PNCC, please submit your name to APRN @gmail.com. ONA Labor Relations Representative Sally LaJoie gave our first flash training on breaks, lunches, overtime and how our Contract works. The next topic will be Family and Medical Leave. Interested in becoming a Steward? Want to learn more? Contact us at APRN @gmail.com.

2 WELCOME NEW MEMBERS Allison Grubbs Shane Jones Erin Wheeler Laura Burrus Jackson Wild Dorothy Massey The following nurses have joined ONA in Welcome to the Organization! Dena Holstrom Bo Yun Choe-Mouat Larissa Glover Melinda Green Doug Hickman Kimberly Hunt Kari Braun Steven Moyer Chelsea Hobson Rebecca Baxter Heidi Linn Allison Chestler James Dugan Katherine Hopson Thuan Nguyen Emily Stewart Rita Owens ST.. VINCENTV NURSES REPRESENT ANNUAL ONA CONVENTION EPRESENT AT Six (6) nurses from PSVMC were able to attend the 2011 ONA Convention and House of Delegates as Delegates from District 24. Returning as delegates were Glenda Peters, ONA Board Member and Bargaining Unit Chair (8E); Bobbi Rychlick, Bargaining Unit Secretary (RRT); Jan Robinson (RRT, Steward); and Sorcha Tinch (8E, Steward). New delegates were Jennifer Speer, Bargaining Unit Treasurer and ONA Board Member (L & D), and Sharon Rose (L & D). In addition, non-delegate attendees included were Anne Marie Foreman (6E, Steward), Margaret Meech and John Schmelter. Nurses attending convention attended multiple educational events and networked with nurses from all over the State. NFN LAUNCHESL QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER National Federation of Nurses (NFN) launches its first e-newsletter, a quarterly update from your national union on nursing and labor news and issues that affect your workplace and patient care. Visit to sign up to receive future e-newsletters and be sure to tell other interested colleagues and friends. Also, join the conversation and movement on Facebook at Page 2

3 NEGOTIATION UPDATES HEALTH INSURANCE NEGOTIATIONS AT PSVMC Your primary Contract expires December 31, We will begin negotiating in the late summer/fall and will try and wrap things up before December. That means you should be thinking about things you would like to improve, and issues in your existing Contract that are not working in your unit. We will send a survey to you in July to identify top priorities, will have open meetings to review the survey results, and then will develop proposals. We will also request information from the Medical Center in order to prepare for negotiations. However, negotiations surrounding your health insurance plan for 2012 will be open in July, The timing of health insurance negotiations is in place because the Medical Center needed to know the terms of the 2012 plan before the expiration of your primary Contract at the end of the year. Included below are some of the more relevant parts of the health insurance language in your Contract. ARTICLE XI HEALTH AND WELFARE C. FlexSelect Program. 1. Each actively working full-time nurse and actively working parttime nurse regularly scheduled to work an average of at least 24 hours per week will participate in the Flex Select program offered to a majority of the Medical Center s other employees, in accordance with its terms. From the Flex Select program, the nurse will select a medical coverage and, at the nurse s option, coverage from among the following Flex Select benefits: (1) dental coverage, (2) supplemental life insurance, (3) voluntary accidental death and dismemberment insurance, (4) dependent life insurance, (5) health care reimbursement account, (6) day care reimbursement account, and (7) vision care insurance that includes a $10 copay ophthalmology examination once every 24 months and annual eyeglass/contacts reimbursement of up to $200. The Medical Center will offer all such benefits directly or through insurance carriers selected by the Medical Center. 2. All nurses who were classified as of December 31, 1993, as 0.5 FTEs, and who thereafter remain continuously in that classification, will be eligible to participate in the Flex Select program under the preceding paragraph. This paragraph will cease to be applicable to a nurse when the nurse ceases to be continuously classified as a 0.5 FTE nurse. Thereafter, the nurse s eligibility Page 3

4 ARTICLE XI HEALTH AND WELFARE (Continued from page 3 ) for participation in the Flex Select program will be determined in accordance with the preceding paragraph. D. Medical and Dental Insurance. The Medical Center will pay the premium cost of the medical and dental benefits selected by each participating nurse from the coverages offered under C.1 above, up to the amount of the applicable Benefit Dollars provided to a majority of the Medical Center s other employees, based on category of coverage and full-time or part-time status. For 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011, the applicable Benefit Dollars will be sufficient to cover 100% of the premium cost for the eligible nurse and the eligible dependents of a full-time nurse, and 90% of the premium cost for the eligible dependents of a part-time nurse, for the base medical and dental plans in each of those years. For 2008, the nurses will participate in the same Base EPO Plan that was offered to nurses in In 2009, the nurses will participate in the same Base EPO Plan that was offered to the majority of the Medical Center s non-represented employees in For 2010, and 2011, the Medical Center will maintain the same deductibles, copayments, and out of pocket maximums that are in place in For the 2012 plan year, the parties shall meet beginning in July 2011 to negotiate with regard to the terms and provisions of this paragraph for LACTATION CLINIC NURSES TO VOTE FOR ONA REPRESENTATION Last fall, your colleagues in the Lactation Clinic approached ONA about obtaining representation by ONA and their ability to be included in your Contract. Initially the Medical Center responded that the unit was too distinct from the primary Bargaining Unit to be included. However, we had further discussions and we have agreed the lactation unit will have a vote to decide if they want ONA representation. The vote will be on Thursday, May 19 from 12:00 p.m. 1:00 p.m. in CR 11. The nurses are Kathleen McShane, Jill Neyenhuis and Nancy Eastwood. We look forward to working with these nurses in the future and are excited to welcome them to ONA! Page 4

5 PROVIDENCE PORTLAND MEDICAL CENTER AND PROVIDENCE WILLAMETTE FALLS RATIFY CONTRACTS Providence Portland Medical Center (PPMC) nurses ratified their Contract May 4. Turn out was high for this second vote with 93 percent of the nurses casting ballots voting to approve the Agreement. Though the final deal was close to the Agreement PPMC nurses rejected on March 17, there were some improvements: The particulars around the bio-metric screen (what is tested, privacy of results) were clearly spelled out and written into the Contract. Dental and vision benefits were also spelled out and it was made clear that their design and the cost were not changing. The cost of the alternative care buy up which includes chiropractic, acupuncture, and naturopathy were also written into the Contract. The most important improvement was the reduction of the combined out-of-pocket maximums for prescriptions and medical costs. This brought the annual out of pocket maximums to $2150 for the individual and $4300 for the family. Providence s initial offer was $3000 (individual) and $5000 (family). The PPMC nurses were successful in negotiating the terms of their health insurance deductibles, co pays, out of pocket maximum and rates, which are detailed in a new Appendix to the Contract. To read that information, go to select Union, Bargaining Units and then click on Providence Portland Medical Center. All of PPMC s negotiation updates, and a draft marked up copy of the new Contract are available on this page if you would like more information. PPMC nurses achieved a 4.5 percent wage increase in 2011, and 2.5 percent in They will negotiate again in We are happy to have all this spelled out in the Contract, and we are happy about the improvements we have achieved, said Juanita Wolf an outpatient infusion nurse and the Chair of the Bargaining Team. It will be interesting to see what St Vincent nurses work out for the second year (2013) as these are some pretty big changes. Providence Willamette Falls Medical Center (PWF) nurses concluded their negotiations with an overwhelming vote in favor of ratification on April 19 (91 percent in favor). The PWF nurses were successful in winning contract language that will allow them to negotiate for their healthcare independent from the rest of the Medical Center employees. They believe the changes agreed upon will not result in higher out of pocket costs for most nurses, and some may pay less for medical costs. Both PPMC and PWF nurses won contractual language that creates a new Health Insurance Task Force. This Task Force will include nurse, ONA and management representatives. They will meet to review information about cost and utilization of the health insurance plan, and will make recommendations regarding plan design in order to keep costs low and improve employee wellness. Page 5

6 NATIONAL NURSES WEEK FACTS Did you know...? There are nearly 3.1 million registered nurses in the United States. And, 2.4 million of them are actively employed. The American Nurses Association (ANA) was founded in The ANA is the only fullservice professional organization representing the interests of the nation's 3.1 million registered nurses through its constituent member nurses associations, its organizational affiliates, and its workforce advocacy affiliate, the Center for American Nurses. The ANA advances the nursing profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice, promoting the rights of nurses in the workplace, projecting a positive and realistic view of nursing, and by lobbying the Congress and regulatory agencies on health care issues affecting nurses and the public. Isabel Adams Hampton Robb was the first president of the ANA. According to projections released in February 2004 from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, RNs top the list of the 10 occupations with the largest projected job growth in the years A study published in the January/February 2006 journal Health Affairs provides new evidence that if hospitals invest in appropriate Registered Nurse (RN) staffing, thousands of lives and millions of dollars could be saved each year. Specifically, the study shows that if hospitals increased RN staffing and hours of nursing care per patient, more than 6,700 patient deaths and four million days of care in hospitals could be avoided each year. A study on the nursing shortage by Linda Aiken of the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing found that an estimated 20,000 people die each year because they have checked into a hospital with overworked nurses. The study also found that Americans scheduled for routine surgeries run a 31 percent greater risk of dying if they are admitted to a hospital with a severe shortage of nurses. That's approximately one-fifth of the up to 98,000 deaths that occur each year as a result of medical errors. Nurses in the study cared for an average of four patients at a time, with the risk of death increasing by about 7 percent for each additional patient cared for over that baseline number. (Source: "Hospital Nurse Staffing and Patient Mortality, Nurse Burnout, and Job Dissatisfaction," study; Journal of the American Medical Association, Oct , 2002.) America's registered nurses report that health and safety concerns play a major role in their decisions to remain in the profession, according to findings from a Health and Safety Survey released in In the survey, over 70 percent (70.5 percent) of nurses cited the acute and chronic effects of stress and overwork as one of their top three health and safety concerns. Yet nurses continue to be pushed harder -- with more than two-thirds reporting that they work some type of unplanned overtime every month. There are over 240,400 advanced practice nurses in the United States. Of these, approximately 144,200 are nurse practitioners, 69,000 are clinical nurse specialists, 14,600 are both nurse practitioners and clinical nurse specialists, 13,700 are nurse midwives, and 32,500 are nurse anesthetists. The nation's nurses rank first for their honesty and integrity, with 82 percent of Americans rating them "high" or "very high," according to a 2005 Gallup Poll. Nurses have consistently rated first every year but one after being added to the list in *Facts provided by official ANA National Nurses Week History webpage Page 6

7 Page 7 Thanks for all you do, all you care, and all you contribute to our loved ones with your compassion, integrity and skill.