Registered nurses at Southern California Hospital at Culver City (SCHCC) will begin voting Sunday on a tentative contract agreement that they say will lead to improved patient care and strengthen working conditions in the hospital.

“After 9 months of hard bargaining, we are happy to have reached a contract settlement that beats back all the management takeaways, and establishes important protections for patients and nurses, including safe staffing, communicable disease and workplace violence protections, and safe patient handling and lifting,” said Valerie Selden, RN, who has worked at the hospital for 26 years. “Our patients and community will be better served due to the hard-fought gains we have just made.”

Voting will take place Sunday, August 7 and Tuesday, August 9. 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.

“This is a contract settlement that I can strongly recommend. It re-establishes a foundation for recruiting and retaining nurses, and it does much to protect our patients and our hardworking nurses,” said Fely Sanchez, RN, who has worked at the hospital for 35 years.

California Nurses Association represents more than 300 nurses at SCHCC and over 85,000 RN members in hospitals throughout California.