Yesterday, June 10, the HSC members stood strong to keep professional staffing standards listed on the units staffing plans. Staffing plans are published by the DOH and to be voted on each year by the HSC. Current hospital policies including staffing plans can be found here.  These staffing plans are ideally designed to be interpreted by the public when viewed. Seattle Children’s hospital recently posted a solid IG video explaining how this works. At the bottom of each plan are boxed identifying needs for specialized equipment that you need available on your unit or if you work in a unit that has a variety of acuities addressed by professional standards such as AORN, AWHONN, ASPAN, AACN etc. These professional organizations establish staffing minimums based on complex situations, that would be near impossible to explain in a plan. Each of us knows the standards in our specialty area. Including those standards in the staffing plans transparently tells the public that we will follow professional staffing standards, while also giving nurses an easy-to-access document to reference when advocating for safe staffing. 

While there were some minor improvements in management’s proposed staffing plans for some units, HSC members felt that removing the guarantee of professional staffing standards from the plans was not acceptable.

For those worried about losing protections or gains. The plans establish the minimum, if management wants additional staff and to show that they are serious about these improvements there is nothing to prevent them from staffing up every single day, every single shift from the current plans. 

Most impressively management heard our concerns and agreed that if it was important to the nurses to have professional staffing standards in the plan they should be there. After an impassioned discussion the updated staffing plans were voted down unanimously. What does this mean for you? Skagit will keep the current staffing plans until we vote again and update them. There is no rule that plans can’t change throughout the year as long as the plans go through the approval process. 

For now, we can sigh relief knowing that the bedside caregivers for the hospital stood strong protecting the status quo. While we always strive for improvements, some times protecting what you have is a win in and of itself.

On a closing note, we would like to give a huge thanks to the OR nurses that showed up to HSC and spoke up advocating for their patients and their colleagues. While initially it did not appear that they would receive an opportunity to be heard, we made sure that they were. While it sounds like the situation is improving, we will continue to closely monitor the situation. There were specific asks made, and we look forward to continued follow-through and communication to fully . Management heard the concerns across specialties, even senior leadership present acknowledged ADOs being used an important tool to bring light to these situations. 

Thank you to everyone has spoken up and continues to defend staffing standards for our community, our patients and our colleagues. 

In Solidarity, 
Liz Rainaud, MSN, RNC-OB, C-OBE, C-EFM
Kyla Malean, RN, CNOR
Kim McCann, RNC-OB, C-EFM
Rachel Yates, RN
Mackenzie Anderson, RN
Crissi Franulovich, MSN, RN, CNOR

Robin Cully BSN, RN, CEN