Registered nurses at 15 hospitals owned by the national chain, Hospital Corporation of America, have voted by an "overwhelming majority" to strike if contract negotiations are not resolved, a nurses union announced this week. The hospitals include some in Florida and the Tampa Bay area, with the rest in Missouri, Kansas, Texas and Nevada.
Two months before voters will face a ballot question that would mandate minimum nurse staffing limits in every hospital department, hospital researchers published a study Tuesday that finds such laws don't help patients.
A local organization is giving back to the community by donating 100 percent of all the money it raises to those who can use the help. Fayetteville City Hospital Auxiliary, which operates entirley on a volunteer basis, has quite the history in Northwest Arkansas. "They worked to build a hospital," Fayetteville City Hospital Auxiliary President Lorita Simmons explained. "That's what their purpose was."
Nurses and service employees at Allegheny Valley Hospital in Harrison ratified a new three-year contract with the hospital Wednesday. According to a joint statement from the Service Employees International Union and Allegheny Health Network, the hospital’s parent company, the agreement focuses on the recruitment and retention of new staff by making significant improvements in pay, as well as increased staffing across the hospital.
The demand for registered nurses is expected to grow by at least a quarter over the next decade or so — and the state is looking at 3,000 vacancies. "I sit on the Vermont Business Roundtable," said Thomas Dee, president and CEO of Southwestern Vermont Health Care, on Tuesday. "They see the crisis that's brewing: 3,000 vacancies in nursing positions in Vermont. It's a big number ... it's a huge number.
When the University of Vermont Medical Center sends its nurses back to school for continuing education, they don't have to go far. UVM's College of Nursing and Health Sciences is right next door.