Seattle Children's Hospital

I want to express my thanks to everyone for your congratulations, well wishes, cards, e-mails, texts, and gifts.  What a wonderful surprise!  It was an honor to have been selected to receive the 2011 “Outstanding Local Unit Chair Person” award at the WSNA Leadership Conference.

I am extremely blessed to work with all of you.  I will continue to be there for you all via e-mail, text or phone.  I will continue to do the best I can to be a “Nurse Advocate”.  WSNA advocates for nurses and we as Local Unit Officers, advocate especially for Seattle Children’s nurses.

I would like to share some of the speech I gave at the Awards Banquet--it expresses my professional and personal sentiments about all of you!

“Thank you very much. It is an extreme honor to stand here and receive this award for Outstanding Local Unit Chairperson.  I am excited, but I am truly humbled because I feel I still have a lot to learn.  In my job, and as I look around this room, there are many people I admire and want to grow up to be like…Do the best you can with what you have at the moment”
These are words that have been imbedded in my soul by my loving and supportive parents.

With the thought of “do the best you can with what you have at that moment,” I will continue to fall and get right back up again and continue the race.

I want to express my gratitude to Nancy Wilder, my membership coordinator.  For the past 6 years, you have been my right hand person - always there by my side as well as a personal cheerleader whenever I felt defeated with all my responsibilities.  And for this I thank you, my friend, from the bottom of my heart.

To Jeremy King, my Co-Chair - Thank you for being the yin to my yang, or is that yang to my yin?  We balance and complement each other.  I am grateful to you.

Jean Pfeifer. You have been my WSNA / Seattle Children’s guru, my mentor, my personal sounding board, my personal union therapist, my professional script writer for letters / notes and, lastly, my dear friend.  Thank you for keeping me sane.

We at Seattle Children’s have had a very rough year but we must look forward to better things in 2012!

It is Mother Theresa who said - “It is not how much you do but how much love you put in the doing.”

I admire and respect the nurses at Children’s hospital.  No matter which department you are in or what type of nursing you do, you go to work and give the best care that you can give.  It was a great honor to accept the “Outstanding Local Unit Chairperson award”, and I dedicate it to you, my fellow nurses at Seattle Children’s Hospital!

Please remember to call, text or email any of your Local Unit Officers if you feel you may have a grievance, have an up-coming investigatory meeting, need help interpreting the contract, or have any other job-related concern.  Judy Marken is our Nurse Representative and she is available to all of you, as well.

WSNA encourages all of you to take advantage of the many opportunities they offer and we, your Local Unit Officers, would like to support you in doing this, however we can.  Come talk to us over coffee. Check out the WSNA website.

Live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find eternity in each moment ... (Thoreau)

For many years, the Washington State Nurses Association has provided continuing education opportunities to members and non-members at live events held throughout the state.  WSNA is pleased to bring some of these same high-quality continuing education opportunities to an even wider audience of nurses through the WSNA website!  Initial course offerings are still a little limited, but WSNA plans to expand class offerings quickly.  Numerous courses are currently in development and many are nearly ready, so check out the WSNA website now!

Current course offerings include:

• Continuing Competency
• Grassroots Political and Legislative Action
• Nurse Practice Act and ARNPs
• Protecting Nurses as a Valuable Resource:   Washington State’s Safe Patient Handling Law
• Quality of Care, Nurses’ Work Schedules, and Fatigue
• Safe Staffing
• WSNA CNE On-Line training orientation

WSNA wants to remind you about your Weingarten Rights!

Weingarten Rights are triggered under the Supreme Court's Weingarten decision, when an investigatory interview occurs. The following rules apply:

Rule 1 - The employee must make a clear request for union representation before or during the interview. The employee cannot be punished for making this request. (Note: If you ask the employer, "Do I need union representation?" The answer may be no. It is up to you to make the statement that you want union representation.)

Rule 2 - After the employee makes the request, the employer must choose among three options. The employer must either:

1. Grant the request and delay questioning until the union representative arrives and has a chance to consult privately with the employee; or
2. Deny the request and end the interview immediately; or
   • Give the employee a choice of:
   • having the interview without representation, or
   • ending the interview.

Rule 3 - If the employer denies the request for union representation and continues to ask questions, it commits an unfair labor practice and the employee has a right to refuse to answer. The employer may not discipline the employee for such a refusal.

So ...if called into a meeting with management, read the following (or present the Weingarten card) to the management when the meeting begins. "IF THIS DISCUSSION COULD IN ANY WAY LEAD TO MY BEING DISCIPLINED OR TERMINATED, OR AFFECT MY PERSONAL WORKING CONDITIONS, I RESPECTFULLY REQUEST THAT MY UNION REPRESENTATIVE BE PRESENT AT THIS MEETING. WITHOUT REPRESENTATION PRESENT, I CHOOSE NOT TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS DISCUSSION."

What is an investigatory interview? An investigatory interview occurs when a supervisor/employer questions an employee to obtain information which could be used as a basis for discipline or asks an employee to defend his or her conduct. If an employee has a reasonable belief that discipline or other adverse consequences may result from what he or she says, the employee has a right to request union representation.

Please contact one of your Local Unit Officers or Nurse Rep immediately if a situation arises where you need to use your Weingarten rights.