[mared]

HB 1707, " Texas Hospital Patient Protection Act Of 2007 ":luck: http://www.calnurse.org/media-center...temID=30352415

[Texasunionguy]

Nurses are getting a union in Texas. Yes Texas is right to work state and you have the right to join an union or organization or even an association or not to join one it is your right. There are upsides to both. As an union member and organizor I know the power of many vs. power of one. Nurse be ready if you really want a union we are going to be running all over the state working for yall and organizing to help yall improve working conditions and hospital care
Thank you

[NavyJim58]

Nothing for me as i'm Navy but having trouble understanding why a college educated professional registered nurse would want to join a union? Maybe it could be a good thing for a task oriented LPN/LVN? The only union workers I have here are housekeeping and since they joined the union the hospital is filthy. "Be careful what you wish for".

[Texasunionguy]

Navy,

I am sorry you are having a bad experience and since you are in the navy yall have no unions so have no real experience. Unions help people and make change. Unions bring change and stability to the work force. Unions end child labor practices, made healthcare better by fighting for employers to provide heath insurance for workers. unions are responsible for 40 hr. work week and many other changes. Unions are strong and good if their members are if their members are lazy well then that is what you get. Nurses are over worked and under staffed at all levels and that is part of the Problem at Walter Reid and at all our nations hospitals. Their are 2 problems in healthcare today and a union can help with both. One their are shortages of RN's, LVN's, CNA, and others in the health care field. NUrses are under paid for the their training and education just like teachers. Second proplem in health care is HMO's. Truely we need to get the insurance companies out of hospitals and bring in a single payer type system where you can see the Doctor of your choicing and hospital of your choice. With HMO's you have t ouse who is in your network or pay higher copay or the whole bill if out of network. Somtimes things happen and you maybe in a small county and that hospital is not in your network and it is life or death. Now you are stuck with an outrageous bill that you can not afford. So either hospital eats the bill it goes to collections and your credit is ruined. The hospital is short the money for the doctors, and staff pay plus anything they used to treat you. So for hospitals to make money they run short handed at times and that leads to malpractice suits and to poor care for you or your family. Unions fight to protect you and the workers in this industury so you have better care. I am sorry you have had a bad expeirence. If you have ever been to a VA or Military hospital most employees that are not military are mebers of a Union (AFGE, or NTEU). Most non military persons working for the goverment i.e. DHS, DOD, SS, Treasury are members of a union most are meber of AFGE.
Thank you for your comments and hope theese fact help you
Thanks

[Texasunionguy]

Email Alert to all NNOC members (“yes” join) in Dallas and Ft Worth metro area.
Send asap
Use Texas Bulletin wrapper


MESQUITE HOSPITAL REFUSES TO FOLLOW 1:2 RATIO IN ICU
FIRES WHISTLE-BLOWERS

Three ICU RNs pleaded with Health Management Associations to fully and safely staff critically ill patients in the ICU; The hospital refused and instead fired the RNs

Show Your Support for

 Safe Staffing Ratios
 All Nurses Who are Meeting their Professional Obligations as Patient Advocates
 Return to Work with lost wages and a clean record for the fired RNs


COME TO A PRESS CONFERENCE CALLED BY NNOC TEXAS AND COMMUNITY AND RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS

FRIDAY, JUNE 15
9:00 a.m.
At the Main Entrance of the Dallas Regional Medical Center
(Formerly the Mesquite Medical Center)
1011 North Galloway Avenue
Mesquite

If possible please show up at 8:30 for a pre-press conference briefing.


You Can Also Help Out by Volunteering Some Time to

Block Walk in Mesquite Neighborhoods near the Hospital
Block Walk crews will be going out on
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday
June 12, 13, and 14
5:30 p.m.

Meet in the back of the Hospital parking lot at
1011 North Galloway Avenue
Mesquite

[Texasunionguy]

THE NNOC TEXAS SUPPORTS FIRED NURSES

ICU RNs Pleaded with Health Management Associates to Fully Staff Intensive Care Unit; Instead They Were Fired



The firing on Monday, June 4th, of three nurses, employed by Health Management Associates at Dallas Regional Medical Center in Mesquite, brings forth the necessity to inform the public of a growing dangerous practice among health care systems. These Registered Nurses, Diana Sepeda, Nancy Friesen, and Sandra Taylor were fired for voicing their concerns for the safety of their patients due to the chronic understaffing of registered nurses in the ICU unit at the Mesquite facility where they were employed as critical care nurses. The nurses informed the charge nurse, the head nurse, and then the supervisor of nursing that they did not feel they could guarantee safe and quality care if they were forced to take on responsibility for the additional care of three high acuity patients each instead of the 1:2 nurse patient ratio mandated by the Standards of Nursing Practice. The nursing supervisor insisted that they either take three patients each or go home. They were also told that they were not professionals based on their concerns that they could not safely provide care for a case load consisting of more than a 1:2 nurse to patient ratio of patients with multiple high risk needs.
The NNOC’s position in support of its members at the Mesquite facility of Health Care Management Systems is this: Health Care Management Systems will agree to: (1.) Minimum RN-to-patient staff ratios in all ICU units will be 1:2 at all times on all shifts; (2.) The Hospital will not discipline any nurse who adheres to this staff-to-patient ratio to the obligations laid out in the Texas Nursing Practices Act; (3.) the Hospital will rescind its terminations of the RNs who protested the Hospitals violation of the 1:2 standard. NNOC would like to state publicly that this level of staffing is considered by these good nurses to be so vital to patient well being that they were willing to risk their jobs to protect their patients.
Concerns for their patient’s due to over loaded nurse-to-patient ratios has been studied at the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research, School of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania. The objective of this study was to discover the relationship between the patient-to-nurse ratios and patient mortality, deaths following complications among surgical patients, and factors related to nurse retention. The conclusion of this study supports the concerns by nurses Sepeda, Friesen, and Taylor. In hospitals with high patient-to-nurse ratios, surgical patients experience higher risk-adjusted 30-day mortality rates. Nurses were also more likely to suffer burnout and job dissatisfaction. For each additional patient a nurse has, patients face a 7% greater chance of dying within 30 days.
Because of their concern for their patients before themselves and because they chose to stand up for Professional Nursing Standards these dedicated ICU nurses were wrongfully terminated. This simply should not be tolerated and these dedicated Professionals immediately re-instated.