CHICAGO ? Union nurses plan to end their
contract with University of Chicago Medical Center prior to a strike vote next
month, according to the lead union negotiator representing the nurses.
Since August, contract negotiations have already been in progress between
the powerhouse national Nurses United and the city?s leading South Side
hospital. Jan Rodolfo of National Nurses United said nurses are happy with
salary increases in the present contract; however they are not happy regarding
staffing levels and scheduling.
The almost 1,300 registered nurses of the University of Chicago
have been represented by National Nurses United, the country?s largest nurses
union having 155,000 members, since last June. It was the Illinois Nurses
Association that formerly represented them.
April 12 and 13 is the scheduled date for the National Nurses United strike
vote. Carolyn Wilson, UCMC?s Chief Operating Officer, aired that that is
?deeply disappointing.?
Wilson
said
the NNU is not aware, yet, regarding the hospital?s position on these
significant concerns (such as staffing) and neither do their nurses. "Our
nurses are a really professional group. They're going to want to understand our
position on important issues before they strike," she clarified.
Present staffing levels are not safe, according to Rodolfo of the union, and
nurses at times rotate from daytime to nighttime shifts throughout the same
two-week period. Shifts are generally 12 hours. She warned that sleep-deprived
nurses are less likely to make medical mistakes than well-rested nurses.
NNU assisted in passing a state law, in California, demanding hospitals to satisfy
certain nurse-to-patient staffing ratios.
According to Wilson, the University of Chicago?s
nurse staffing levels are normally ranked high against other hospitals and that
hospital management would resist fixed ratios.
"We believe fixed ratios limit the ability to adapt to changing patient
needs," she said.
Wilson
declared the hospital acknowledges that limits to the practice of rotating day
and night shifts are required. She added the hospital is of the same mind as
the nurses with regard to safe, high-quality patient care.
A registered nurse in UCMC's emergency department, Reasheal Lehmann, 24,
explained that a congested situation in the emergency room is partly
responsible to staffing problems. The ER
every so often is not well staffed with nurses to give one-on-one attention to
the most seriously ailing patients who are standing by to be taken in to the
hospital?s intensive care unit (ICU).
Lehman explained they don?t always have those float nurses who can
substitute to nurses attending to four ER patients, all at once, so they can
focus on a severely ailing patient. "It doesn't happen
unfortunately," she stressed.
Nurses today are working under a temporary contract with 3 to 4 percent
annual salary increases negotiated by the Illinois Nurses Association. Before
the strike could happen, the contract must be canceled with 30 days notice.
With the merger of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses
Organizing Committee, Massachusetts Nurses Association, and United American
Nurses National Nurses -- United was brought into existence in 2009.