Hundreds of nurses from all 50 states have applied to work in Minnesota as part of Allina Health’s plan to keep its Twin Cities hospitals open if its regular nurses carry out a threat to go on strike this Sunday. As many as 4,800 unionized nurses plan to strike for seven days, starting Sunday at 7 a.m., but Allina officials said they need to recruit just 1,400 replacements to get through the week.
Nurses at five Allina Health hospitals plan to conduct a one-week strike, starting June 19 at 7 a.m., amid a contract dispute over health benefits, the Minnesota Nurses Association announced Wednesday evening. The affected facilities are Abbott Northwestern Hospital and Phillips Eye Institute in Minneapolis, United Hospital in St. Paul, Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids and Unity Hospital in Fridley.
A woman posing as a nurse has pleaded guilty to making false statements regarding healthcare and could face several years behind bars. Ashley Johnson was working for less than a month this past April at Clearvista Lake Health Campus in Indianapolis. According to court documents, Johnson was using the nurse license number of another woman who was also named Ashley Johnson and was a registered nurse.
A proposal by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to allow advanced practice nurses to practice independently within the VA system has several physician groups seeing red.
Nurses for five Allina Health hospitals “overwhelmingly” voted to reject a three-year contract offer from their company that would have eliminated union-backed health insurance and moved nurses to the plans covering other employees. The Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) reported the voting results late Monday night, and noted that results at each voting site exceeded the two-thirds majority needed to authorize strike plans at all five hospitals.
Nearly 5,000 union nurses vote Monday on a contract offer from Allina Health. Union leaders predict it will be rejected and both sides are preparing for the possibility of strikes at four major Twin Cities hospitals. The contract vote involves nurses at Abbott Northwestern, Mercy, Unity and United hospitals. The key issue: the nurses' health coverage.