A recent press release announced that registered nurses of the Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) Mountain View Hospital in Las Vegas have filed a petition to join the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC). The RNs hope to improve patient safety and employee working conditions by uniting with HCA colleagues under America's pre-eminent professional association and union for RNs.
The petition was filed on June 12, 2009 with the National Labor Relations Board, after RNs were again prevented from meeting with Mountain View CEO Will Wagnon to discuss their grievances. The nurses experience a systematic understaffing at the facility which threatens patient care. By filing the petition, the nurses hope to improve nurse-to-patient staffing ratios, win an equitable contract, and ensure high patient safety standards. The NLRB, the federal agency charged with overseeing the running of union elections, is expected to issue a date for the election soon.
The nurses want to unite with their thousands of colleagues in the HCA system and 1,700 additional Nevada colleagues. CNA/NNOC has made a name for itself as a group that approaches improving patient care and patient safety procedures by advocating for nurse-to-patient ratios and an independent, RN-elected professional practice committee. Its contracts set out equitable on-call policies, eliminate mandatory overtime, and allow nurses to retire with dignity.
?RNs at MountainView want to join CNA/NNOC so that we can truly have a voice in patient care issues. Our patients at this facility deserve nothing less than to be cared for in the safest possible manner. We?ve seen CNA/NNOC help bring these advances to other facilities in Nevada and beyond, and now it?s our time,? said Orsburn Stone, RN, and employee of Mountain View Hospital.
The nurses would be able to unite with thousands of other colleagues in the HCA (Hospital Corporation of America) system, as well as more than 1,700 Nevada colleagues, including those working at the St. Rose system in Las Vegas. CNA/NNOC's groundbreaking contracts appeal to many RNs in Nevada. ?Nurses around the Las Vegas valley are excited about the MountainView RNs organizing,? said Heather DeMaris, RN, of the critical care unit at St. Rose Dominican Hospital. ?The only way for RNs to have a real voice in patient advocacy and the profession of nursing is to stand together.?
Malinda Markowitz, RN, co-President of CNA/NNOC, commented that, ?HCA is the largest hospital chain in American history and they have a well-established reputation for putting profits before patients. The HCA hospital I work at demonstrates that when nurses are unified, we can force the hospital to take patient needs into account.?