Arbitrator: Safety concerns justified Westerly RNs objections to ICU admission

The UNAP has won a very significant arbitration award which reversed the disciplinary suspension of four ICU nurses at Westerly Hospital. The arbitrator ruled that the nurses had a "reasonable belief that accepting the patient into the ICU could pose an unacceptable risk to their health and safety, and possibly that of the other patients in the ICU."

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No time for grieving

"It’s hard to have a job where people die, to show up on Monday after a weekend off and find out that three patients, all well known and dear, are dead."

Oncology RN Theresa Brown writes about the importance of maintaining hope amid the grief and finding ways to leave work at work in The New York Times/Well Blog. Read more...

Honoring Nurses? -- Let's get real!

"Many people still believe that nurses are subordinate, scut-work saints, rather than professionals with critical-thinking skills honed by years of college-level education.... Yet today, 3 million registered nurses play a central role in U.S. health care, saving lives and improving outcomes countless times every day. They assess patients' conditions and autonomously intervene, coordinate work by the health care team, use cutting-edge technology to protect patients, and teach patients how to manage their conditions....Now is the time to change attitudes about nursing. For nursing to attain the resources it needs to get and keep nurses at the bedside, the public must learn what nurses really do." Read more...

Sandy Summers
Baltimore Sun
May 12, 2009

RI Hospital UNAP members overwhelmingly reject givebacks

On March 28, RI Hospital UNAP members overwhelmingly voted by 876 to 14 to reject a Lifespan proposal to reduce wages and benefits. At the five membership meetings held throughout the day, RNs, respiratory therapists, diagnostic imaging techs and others expressed skepticism about the need for permanent cuts in wages and benefits, noting the fact that Lifespan hospitals are the wealthiest and most profitable in Rhode Island. Union members also expressed anger about CEO salary increases and recent bonuses paid to Lifespan executives.

The proposed givebacks have already been imposed on non-union employees throughout the Lifespan system.

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Nurses have conflicting feelings about reporting errors

Nurses have conflicted feelings about reporting medical errors, partly because they may believe the error was not serious enough to report and they may not know if anything meaningful happens to a report after it is made, a study found. Nurses in focus groups said time pressures also were a factor in reporting errors, as well as whether the patient was harmed and whether they received feedback when disclosing an error. Read more at NurseZone.com

New book examines nurse-to-patient ratios

Nursing educator and author Suzanne Gordon explores the evolution and impact of nurse-to-patient ratios in her new book, "Safety in Numbers: Nurse-to-Patient Ratios and the Future of Health Care." Gordon says nurses all over the world tell her about problems with too many patients and the inability to perform the work they were educated to do. "While ratios aren't the solution to every issue nurses have, if that issue isn't addressed, you cannot solve any of the other problems," she says. Read more at NurseZone.com

Do hospital CEO's make too much money?

Recently, the Providence Phoenix published a detailed report on hospital CEO compensation in Rhode Island. At the top of the list was Lifespan CEO George Vecchione, whose total compensation in 2007 was nearly $3 million, making him the highest paid hospital executive in New England. Furthermore, the 10 hospital CEOs in Rhode Island who have stayed in their jobs since 2000 saw their pay increase by an average of 87 percent, while the consumer price index climbed only 20% during the same time period. Click here to read the full report.

In response to concerns about excessive hospital CEO salaries, State Senator Michael McCaffrey (D-Warwick) has introduced legislation that would cap administrative salaries at state-licensed hospitals, nursing homes, and other health-care facilities at 2-1/2 times the governor's salary, or approximately $300,000 a year. Only two hospital CEOs earned less than $300,000 in 2007. Click here to read more.

And, click here to read the Providence Journal's strongly-worded editorial criticizing excessive hospital CEO salaries.

Study: Job dissatisfaction causes RNs to leave the profession

Workplace dissatisfaction is a key reason why many nurses are leaving the profession for retirement or other careers, according to a study that used data from a survey of more than 35,000 nurses nationwide. More than 27% of non-working RNs cited stressful work environments, 23.4% cited physical demands, 20% inadequate staffing and 20% inconvenient work schedules. The study found 4.2% of the 2.9 million RNs in the U.S. were working at non-nursing jobs and 12.1% weren't working at all. Click here to read more.