Registered nurses at Southern California Hospital at Culver City (SCHCC) voted overwhelmingly at membership meetings Sunday and Tuesday, to ratify a new contract agreement, California Nurses Association/National Nurses United announced today.

“The overwhelming support for this contract speaks to our hard-won fight to secure important protections for patients and nurses,” said Valerie Selden, RN. “From safe staffing language, to ensuring nurses are protected from communicable diseases and violence in the workplace, this contract is a big victory for quality patient care and for nurse health and safety.”

Contract highlights include:

• Supporting safe staffing for safe patient care. Studies have shown that that inadequate breaks and resulting fatigue compromise patient care—and can negatively affect nurses’ health and safety. A 2006 study in the American Journal of Critical Care, for example, showed that of 500-plus critical care nurses studied, longer work duration with inadequate breaks increased the risk of errors and near errors and decreased nurses’ vigilance. To better protect both patients and nurses, the tentative agreement includes language establishing meal and break coverage for safe patient care.
  
  
• Developing safe patient handling and lift policy language. According to the Centers for Disease Control, musculoskeletal injuries from overexertion in healthcare occupations are among the highest of all U.S. industries. To better protect nurses, and to reduce patient injuries, the contract would ensure that SCHCC begins implementing the California safe patient handling regulations adopted last year to enforce AB 1136, the Hospital Patient and Health Care Worker Injury Protection Act.
  
  
• Establishment of an Infectious Disease Taskforce. Healthcare workers cannot protect their patients without being protected themselves, say registered nurses, and to that end, the tentative agreement includes the establishment of an Infectious Disease Taskforce (IDTF). This task force will allow nurses to meet with management to better address policies and equipment necessary to control the spread of communicable diseases in the hospital.
  
  
• Better workplace violence protections. A large percentage of the general patient population of SCHCC requires acute care as well as treatment for psychiatric issues. The facility has a sizeable psychiatric unit and a significant section of the ER is devoted to psychiatric holds. Nurses are often subject to assault. The contract has adopted an expanded and emerging definition of workplace violence to better protect nurses—and would also establish a committee for identifying and recommending workplace violence prevention programs and other safety and prevention measures.
  
  
• Economic gains to help retain experienced nurses. The tentative pact includes pay increases ranging from 10 – 19.5% over the next 30 months and improved on-call rates, bringing wages in line with area hospitals, contributing to the recruitment and retention of quality, experienced nurses for the community.

“We are thrilled to have fought for, won and now ratified this contract,” said Fely Sanchez, RN. “The improvements to patient care conditions and working conditions in the hosptial will help us recruit an retain experienced nurses, and we really feel that this is a win for our entire community.”

The contract will run through March 31, 2019. California Nurses Association represents 300 nurses at SCHCC and nearly 100,000 RNs statewide.