Nurses at Washington Hospital Center will stage a one-day work stoppage later this month, their union announced Thursday. National Nurses United sent a letter to hospital management earlier in the day giving formal notice of the planned strike.
The nurses' walkout will begin at 7 a.m. on Nov. 24 -- Thanksgiving Eve -- and extend until 6:59 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day. Washington Hospital Center, part of Columbia, Md.-based MedStar Health, is the largest civilian hospital in the region.
Amber Knierim, 20, wanted to be a nurse when she grew up, her MySpace profile says.
Instead, she's in jail for beating one up - a Temple University Hospital emergency-room nurse who was attacked when she tried to keep Knierim from grabbing needles from an empty examination room on June 21.
"She picked the wrong person to mess with," said Joan Meissler, 53, of Northeast Philadelphia, now working on light duty until she heals from the beating that wrecked her finances and left her in permanent pain, angry, and disheartened.
Dissatisfied with stalemated contract negotiations, unionized nurses at Eastern Maine Medical Center have planned a one-day strike to take place on Monday, Nov. 22.
The date of the strike was decided at a meeting of the nurses on Monday night. Nurses will hand-deliver the required 10-day notification to strike to EMMC officials this morning, according to nurse Judy Brown, president of the Maine State Nurses Association at EMMC.
CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield is expanding the role of nurse practitioners in its network.
The state's largest insurer said this week it will allow nurses to participate in its healthcare provider network as primary care physicians. Until now, CareFirst has only permitted nurses to practice independently of physicians in underserved areas with limited access to doctors.
The insurer is making the change as health care reform is expected to add hundreds of thousands of people to the rolls and put tremendous pressure on primary physicians when it is fully implemented in 2014. Many believe nurses will take on many of the roles of these doctors.
Nurses, pharmacists, social workers and other union-represented health care workers at Sparrow Hospital have agreed to work under an expired contract through Nov. 19.
But union leaders are urging members to vote against a new proposed labor pact and authorize a strike.
The Michigan Nurses Association, representing 2,100 health professionals at Sparrow, will meet with its members Wednesday and Thursday to discuss the Lansing hospital's proposed contract. The union is recommending members reject the contract and to move toward a walkout, said Gail Jehl, a registered nurse and negotiations chairwoman for the union. At stake are proposed cuts to retirement and benefit packages, she said.
Last month, five patients filed a lawsuit against WellStar Health System, which operates Cobb Hospital, saying the health care system neglected to properly monitor them in the operating room. The husbands of three of the patients joined in the lawsuit.
According to the complaint, four of the women were giving birth by Cesarean section. Serdula is accused of over-sedating them, rendering them unconscious. He then allegedly exposed himself and molested them after their babies were born and whisked away.