Registered nurses at Enloe Medical Center in Chico have unanimously approved a new three-year contract, which RNs say will improve patient care conditions, ensure the community has access to highly educated, experienced nurses, and better protect nurses against workplace violence, the California Nurses Association announced today. 

The contract will cover 960 Enloe nurses.

“We’ve been bargaining since November, and we are so proud that our nurses stood together to win this agreement,” said Pamela Stowe, RN. “We know that when nurses have safe work conditions, our patients are better protected, and this contract will help us deliver the kind of quality care the community deserves.”

Contract highlights include:

• Safe staffing protections, to better enable nurses to give focused care to their patients. The contract contains language holding management accountable for responding to nurse reports of unsafe staffing conditions and also language to help ensure safe, responsible “floating” (when nurses are assigned to units outside of their typical area of expertise). 
• Workplace violence protections. Nurses and other healthcare workers experience extremely high rates of workplace violence, and the new contract will protect RNs from being disciplined for taking a day off to recover from a violent incident.  
• A full educational package for nurse professional development, ensuring that patients in the community have access to well-trained RNs.
• More paid time for Professional Practice Committee (PPC) to address patient care issues. This committee of nurses from units throughout the hospital meets with management to advocate for patients.
• Improved wages. An across the board wage increase of 8.5% over three years brings wages in parity with other hospitals in the area and will help Enloe retain experienced nurses for Chico-area residents.
• New successor protections. In the event of an ownership change, contract provisions will stay intact, ensuring RN retention and continuity of care to the community.

“It’s empowering to know that nurses can use our collective voice to advocate for and win strong patient and nurse protections,” said Lindsey Mendon, RN. “We’re proud of this contract and look forward to it upholding high quality care in our community for years to come.”

The California Nurses Association represents nearly 100,000 nurses in the state, as part of National Nurses United, the largest union of RNs in the U.S.