Hello everyone,

We want to update everyone on the status of the 2026 staffing plan.

We have met with management a total of 4 times to discuss and collaborate on the staffing plan. Our last meeting was on June 13th. All of your officers were in attendance along with Brenda, our WSNA representative. Jodi Gragg, the associate CNE with Mary Bridge was in attendance as well.

By the end of this meeting your NICU officers and Katy came to an agreement for the staffing plan. The only item left to come to an agreement to was the maximum number of patients for which a nurse can assume care. If you recall our last email, we presented 4 as the maximum number. It was decided by us and Katy we would set a virtual meeting at a later date to discuss this item further.

Prior to receiving any communication to set a date for this meeting, we received an email on June 30th from Jodi Gragg about our staffing plan.

“After reviewing the last recommendations/changes to the NICU staffing plan submitted for 2026, the MB NICU nursing leadership team does not agree with all the changes. There are a few items that we are agreeable with and have added to the “Unit Information” tab. The changes to most of the patient definitions we were agreeable to.

For the recommendations/ changes the nurse leaders do not agree with will not be included in the “Unit Information” tab for the 2026 staffing plan.

Since we could not come to a consensus, the information for those areas will remain the same language we currently have in the 2025 staffing plan we submitted to the DOH.”

The updated staffing plan with Jodi’s changes was not what your NICU officers and management (Katy, who was the only NICU leadership in attendance at that meeting June 13th) collaborated and agreed upon.   Jodi’s staffing plan removed important changes including, but not limited to

• language about NICU support nurses. Description, the minimum required per shift
• Removed language supporting the need for an additional support nurse when the ICN is open
• Removed all language regarding the maximum number of patients a nurse is responsible for.  This is legally required by the state to be included in the staffing plan. We did provide copies of this ruling to both Katy and Jodi during the meeting on June 13th to ensure they were informed.
• Removed Tacoma General from a statement regarding charge and delivery nurses being required to draw labs or assess infants for need to transfer to the NICU from post partum/labor and delivery.

Per the staffing law, the correct procedure for creating and submitting staffing plans is as follows:

1. Unit nurses and their direct managers collaborate together to form or change their unit staffing plan.
2. This plan is submitted to the CNE for them to review and offer recommendations or changes, in writing. This person is to send the document with these recommendations back to the unit nurses.
3. The unit nurses can either accept or reject these suggestions.
4. The staffing plan is then submitted to staffing committee to be voted on.
5. Once the plan is voted on, the staffing plan then goes back to the CNE.
6. The final steps are submitted the document to the president to be signed off. Then it is sent to the state for the final approval.

The document we received from Jodi did not contain recommendations, it consisted of changes to our staffing plan we had already agreed upon with Katy. We were not allowed to meet with Katy or any of our NICU leadership to discuss these changes nor accept or reject any changes they were proposing.

The staffing committee met on July 10 to vote on the Mary Bridge staffing plan (which consists of each units individual plans). Jodi presented her NICU staffing plan in this document. We endorsed a no vote on the staffing plan as it is NOT the staffing plan we collaborated on with our NICU management. Jodi stated only minor adjustments were made on our units staffing plan and that it was the document we had agreed upon with Katy. Another NICU ANM was in attendance at this meeting and asserted it was the same plan. This person was not in attendance at our last meetings with Katy. Jodi stated the MB staffing plan was an all or nothing vote, as in all units must be approved or the plan does not pass. Unfortunately, the majority vote was yes.

The next step is for the plan to be submitted to the president for sign off, then the state.

As always, it is our goal to be transparent with all of you, keeping you informed with all the factual information. If you’d like to know more about next steps, please reach out to any of us at any time.

Crystal, Michele, Randi, and Rosie

If you have additional questions or input please feel free to contact your officers or Brenda Balogh, Nurse Rep  at bbalogh@wsna.org.