New Membership Benefit: Online CEs

Now you can earn CEs whenever and wherever you want. As of January 1, 2008, NYPNU is offering our nurses CEs on a wide range of topics, all available online at www.NursingCenter.com. Through NursingCenter.com, you can access more than 800 CE courses from 30 leading professional journals. Call Diane at (212) 988-5565 or e-mail her atGreenfeld@nypnu.org for the NYPNU access code. Then go towww.nursingcenter.com and take up to 1 test per month for free as a benefit of NYPNU. Register by clicking on My NursingCenter on the upper right hand side of the screen. Then click on Join for free.

Grievances

• In December NYPNU filed a class action grievance on behalf of OR nurses who circulate in open heart and major neuro. cases because they are not always provided with the contractually required 2 circulators. In their written response, management committed to alleviate the problem through the use of travelers and by training additional RNs to circulate in these cases. NYPNU is to receive an update as to the status of these actions by January 31st. On that date, we had another grievance hearing with OR management to discuss a settlement of the charge rotation grievance. The class action grievances concerning the failure to compensate "donning and doffing" time and end-of-shift mandatory overtime will be heard on February 25th.
• In settlement of a longstanding grievance over inadequatemonitor coverage, the Hospital is currently training 20 monitor techs who will work 7.5 hour shifts covering the monitors on CCU, 5 Lachman, ICU, 7 Lachman, 8 East/Lachman and 9 East/Lachman. The monitor techs are expected to start working on April 1st.
• A class action grievance on behalf of 4 East/Lachmannurses addresses ratio violations, the inability to take breaks and the performance of non-nursing functions. In addition to providing the Union with the supporting documentation for the grievance, the 4 East/Lachman RNs collectively wrote a letter to Phyllis Yezzo, the Vice-President for Nursing, requesting that various patient safety concerns be addressed. The grievance hearing is scheduled for February 6th.

Unit Representatives

Delegates are currently recruiting Unit Representatives whose main role will be 1) to convey information between their unit and the Union and 2) to maintain each unit's new NYPNU Resource Manual. This is a great way to strengthen the Union presence on your unit. There will be one orientation meeting; no regular meetings are required. If you are interested, please contact Naomi at the Union office.

Health Insurance

The decision to remain with Oxford has at last been finalized. Open enrollment is from January 31st to February 10th. Relevant materials are being sent to employees' homes.

Short Staffing Documentation

The Union would like to thank all members who have taken the time to fill out NYPNU document-tation forms so that we can collect the data necessary to file class action grievances. Please keep them coming. In order to save time, be aware that it is not necessary to fill out more than one form per unit per shift. Just be sure to include the total patient census and the total number of RNs.

In Appreciation of NYPNU

NYPNU received a "thank you" card from Denise McGill, a recovery room nurse who resigned after 27 years at LHH. She states: "Though I am confident in my decision, it was not one I made easily. One of the most difficult parts was leaving the security of the New York Professional Nurses Union. . . . Everything good about Lenox Hill Hospital has been Union obtained and maintained."