Nurses at PVHMC have been struggling with the Clinical Ladder Program. Clinical Ladder is spelled out in our contract, but not all managers and directors follow our bargained agreement. This has been taken to our Labor Management Committee and much discussion has taken place. We are hoping that our concerns will be taken seriously and that Clinical Ladder will be followed as per contract. We have been told by administration that they plan to re-bargain this matter in negotiations.

One of our biggest concerns at PVHMC is self-scheduling. Per our contract, nurses have or can establish self-scheduling in their units. The hospital has gone to commuter scheduling over the past year at various times with different units. This is negatively impacting many nurses as the individual units are not able to use their guidelines with the new system. Some units do not have self-scheduling and are trying to deal with their manager’s computer scheduling. Other units are not able to do self-scheduling as per their rules and regulations. The computer system is falling short of even following the nurses’ contractual provisions. This is the next huge issue to take to our Labor Management Committee.

Working out of ratio continues to be a problem in every unit. Relief is not provided in most units on a regular basis. The ward secretaries and CNAs are being taken from most units, as well. We suffered layoffs of those supportive team members last summer as they are not union. Nurses have more work and less team members to care for patients. This is another serious issue we have, especially when we are being written up for overtime. We don’t have enough computers, we are charting by computer without classes available to us all, we don’t have support people on most shifts, no supplies are handy, everything has to be done on work time including our schedules, we lack available machines to monitor our patients, we have medication issues with the pharmacy delaying medication that need to be given, we don’t have ward secretaries to take our orders or help us learn the system, charge nurses have assignments, we have less time to spend with patients and families, as well as several other issues.

We hope all of you will donate to the Assemblymember Norma Torres’ annual Holiday Toy Drive. Please donate money to help us buy toys or donate an unwrapped toy. We gave to military families last year and we are proud of our support of those who serve us.

Sincerely,

Debbie Pendergraft SEIU 121RN Union Representative

Debbie says: “Patient safety first and RN respect second. I wish hospital administration would realize how important this really is.”