Registered nurses have approved new collective bargaining agreements covering 1,500 RNs who work at hospitals in California and Nevada operated by Prime Healthcare covering 1,500 RNs in Inglewood and San Diego, CA and Reno, NV.

The nurses, members of National Nurses United affiliates, the California Nurses Association and National Nurses Organizing Committee-Nevada, voted to approve the agreements this week. 

Centinela Hospital in Inglewood, CA, St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center in Reno, each with 600 RNs, and Alvarado Hospital in San Diego, with 300 RNs are covered by the contracts.  

“Having resource nurses to cover breaks or to help out units during short staffing is a major win for better patient care,” said Centinela RN Susan Sales. “Nurses will not have to forgo their lunch breaks to care for their patients and they have time to unwind and win they resume work, they are better prepared to take care of patients.”

“Every day Centinela nurses care for any patient who walks through our door, regardless of any mental conditions they may be living with,” Sales added. “This contract gives us new tools to address workplace violence and stay safe while continuing to serve our community with an open door and open arms,” said Susan Sales, RN.

Health and safety provisions to protect nurses and patients are a central part of the new agreements. 

Those include language to strengthen protocols for prevention of workplace violence incidents, procedures to reduce unsafe patient handling, primarily in the lifting of patients, that causes workplace injuries and patient falls and accidents, and measures to reduce patient and worker exposure to infectious diseases, such as Ebola or other epidemics.

The California hospitals are mandated to implement workplace violence prevention and safe patient handling measures as a result of new regulations stemming from CNA-sponsored laws signed by Gov. Jerry Brown. Adding them to contracts, nurses notes, gives the protections the additional force of contract law.

Nearly all the RNs will receive raises of 9 percent or more over the three years of the pacts, with some RNs receiving pay hikes of up to 20 percent at St. Mary’s, 25 percent at Alvarado, and 32 percent at Centinela, based on years of service, over the life of the agreement. The increases are significant in efforts to retain experienced RNs at the facilities and recruit new nurses.

In Reno, the RNs were also successful in protecting contract requirements for safe nurse staffing, through minimum nurse to patient staff ratios, which California hospitals are required to maintain as a result of a CNA-sponsored law.

“Our nurses held out for a better agreement, and got it,” said Reno RN Darrella McGuire. “Our new contract maintains safe staffing, improves safety for nurses, and helps with recruitment and retention."  

“In the ER we know the first step in a trauma is to stabilize the patient and stop the bleeding, and that’s an excellent metaphor for what we’ve accomplished here, said Jess Farnsworth, an ER nurse at Alvarado Hospital. “I’m inspired by the way nurses came together, both long-term nurses and brand new graduates, to advocate for a contract that rewards those who’ve stayed while laying the foundation for a new generation to serve this community.”