ATH Unit Meeting

Agenda items: Staffing, Attendence and Sick leave, AASC closure, LC, floating, Charge Nurse, Leadership Conference.
 
                                DATE:  February 28, 2024
                                TIME: 6-8am and 6-8pm
                                PLACE: ATH Conference Room and Teams

Contact your officers or Nurse Rep for the meeting link.  If you receive local unit emails, please check to find it there.

Champions of Change – 2024 Union Leadership Conference

Don’t miss WSNA’s labor training event at Campbell’s Resort in Chelan April 28-30

Join nurses from around the state as we convene to build stronger local units, become more effective leaders, learn more about the national and state labor scenes, celebrate our successes, and strategize for what’s coming next.

Nominate a champion of change by Feb. 16 – both individuals and teams – who stepped up as a union member. Awardees announced at the WSNA Union Leadership Conference in Chelan April 28-30. 

If you are interested in attending, there are scholarships available. Please contact an Officer!

Investigatory Meetings

If you are notified by you manager that you must attend an investigatory meeting, please invoke your Weingarten Rights (On the other side of your badge buddy) You have the right to have your Grievance Officer (Lisa Bullek) or your Nurse Representative (Laurie Robinson) to attend. If there is an outcome meeting with any disciplinary action, a grievance may be filed, it MUST be done so within 18 days.

Accrual and LC Grievances

We have two grievances related. The first is that we have noticed that the accrual of PTO may be incorrect that began after Kronos was updated in December of 2021. Unfortunately, due to a multitude of changes in leadership this has been abeyance. Next, we have learned that some nurses are not receiving accrual based on Low Census.

What Is an ADO? Assignment Despite Objection

This is a nurse's tool to identify a workplace Issue regarding adherence to staffing/breaks/overtime protection laws

ADO Form/Online Staffing Complaint form – Use it!

This online staffing complaint/ADO form was developed by a coalition that included WSNA, other unions and WSHA representatives. Completing the form serves many purposes, including data tracking, bring issues to light, supportive documentation, and discussion tool to make things better. It is not punitive.

ALL STAFFING PLANS MUST BE POSTED ON UNIT

This form is to be completed for issues including but not limited to:

• The unit is not staffed according to its staffing plan or if mid-shift staffing adjust­ments are inadequate.
• Missed breaks or earned time denied.
• Equipment issues
• Workplace safety concerns
• Concerns with working conditions
• System Failures
• Holding patients
• Patient safety concerns
• Work Place Violence

If you have reason to complete this form, you first should speak with your manager or charge nurse for that shift in order to try to resolve the concern as quickly as possible. They should escalate in real time if they cannot fully address your concerns. When you complete the online form, you are encouraged to include your manager’s name and email.

After you complete the form a copy of the submitted form immedi­ately goes to you, the WSNA chair and co-chair, WSNA Rep, staffing committee co-chairs, and your manager, provided you have entered his or her email. The Nurse Staffing Committee will review the complaint at their next meeting if it is a staffing concern.

Find the staffing complaint form at wsna.org/ado.

COVID related illness

If you are filing an L&I claim for COVID, ensure that you have a confirming test from your physician or ARNP as well as a letter documenting the likelihood of the illness being related to the workplace.

Can COVID-19 ever be allowed as a work-related condition?

Presumptive coverage for COVID-19 health care and frontline workers ended when both the state and federal emergencies ended.

Claims for COVID-19 falling outside the presumptive coverage will be considered under standard occupational disease criteria.

Once a claim is allowed, workers are eligible for medical and disability benefits.

The insurer (L&I or a self-insured business) will pay for treatment of COVID-19.

Appropriate, medically required testing would also be covered. This is a time-limited benefit, and no benefits would be paid after the worker tests negative for COVID-19 or the quarantine period has ended, unless the worker develops the disease.

Compensation for allowed claims

For health care and frontline workers who contract the disease, temporary wage replacement, or time-loss benefits, begins the day after the earliest of the following:

• The first missed work day due to symptoms.
• The day the worker was quarantined by a medical provider or public health official.
• The day the worker received a positive test result confirming contraction of the infectious or contagious disease.

For other allowed claims, time-loss payments for lost wages during a quarantine period may be available for up to 14 days; however, the first 3 days are not paid unless the worker is medically required to remain off work on the 14th day following exposure. The CDC indicates that COVID-19 symptoms may appear anywhere from 2 to 14 days after exposure.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please reach out to:
         
Julia Barcott- Chair
Clara Bucio-Martinez- Co-Chair
Evette Kendall- Secretary/Treasurer
Lisa Bullek-Grievance Officer

Laurie Robinson, Nurse Representative
Cell: 206-620-4136
lrobinson@wsna.org
 
WSNA Membership: If you are not a WSNA member please consider completing a membership application today! Just click on the link.

YOU ARE WSNA!