Queen of the Valley Medical Center (QVMC) RNs—who voted to join the California Nurses Association (CNA) in 2013 and who have carried out a long campaign to secure a contract with improvements for patients and their colleagues at the Napa hospital—have voted overwhelmingly, by 97 percent, to ratify their historic first contract, CNA announced today.

QVMC joins fellow Providence St. Joseph Health (PSJH) hospitals Redwood Memorial Hospital in Fortuna, St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka and St. Mary Medical Center in Apple Valley, which are also voting on tentative agreements this week.

“This has been a hard battle,” said RN Karen McNair. “We’ve hung in there and waited for our sister hospitals to come join us, and because of our patience and our hard work, we’ve ended up with a very, very good first contract.”

“Today is a huge victory, three years in the making, and it’s because Queen nurses stuck together and stood strong,” said Marylou Bahn, RN. “We won important protections for our patients, for safe staffing, and for recruiting and retaining experienced nurses for our community. Our RNs can be very proud of what we accomplished.”

Key features in the tentative pacts for all Providence St. Joseph Hospitals voting this week include staffing improvements to promote patient safety, economic improvements to promote retention of experienced RNs and recruit new nurses, and critical healthcare protections, including a new RN supplement package for nurses injured in workplace violence or by needle stick accidents.

Highlights of the QVMC contract include:

• Safe staffing provisions—including staffing according to patients’ severity of illness or injury, rather than to an arbitrary grid.
• Establishment of a Professional Practice Committee (PPC) of elected bedside nurses to track staffing and better advocate for patients.
• Guaranteed meal and rest breaks to fight nurse fatigue which, according to many studies (including a 2006 study in the American Journal of Critical Care) can compromise patient care—and can negatively affect nurses’ health and safety.
• Economic gains to help with nurse recruitment and retention, that include across-the board wage increases and a new wage scale that will result in an overall average increase of 25 percent over the three years of the agreement.

“It’s an amazing contract,” said Leigh Glasgow, RN. “I’m very pleased with the work our nurses did, and I think it’s to going to help us ensure patients are proud to come here.”

CNA represents nearly 4000 PSJH nurses and nearly 100,000 RNs throughout the state.