MEDIA ADVISORY
Nurses to Hold Safe Staffing, Safe Patient Care Rally
Tuesday, July 14th at 11:00am
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The registered nurses of the Youngstown General Duty Nurses Association (YGDNA), a constituent of the Ohio Nurses Association, are holding a rally Tuesday, July 14th to bring attention to the unsafe staffing practices at Community Health System’s Northside Medical Center. The nurses, who work at CHS-Northside, are concerned for the community because of CHS-Northside’s unwillingness to address the facility’s staffing problems that have the potential to compromise patient care.
Staffing problems at CHS-Northside are related to nurse retention issues plaguing the facility. Many nurses have left CHS-Northside citing a bad work environment. This leaving open positions that CHS-Northside is unwilling to fill which compounds the deteriorating work environment. Instead of addressing and working on these issues, CHS-Northside would rather put patients at risk by increasing nurse to patient ratios and forcing nurses to work overtime – a potentially dangerous practice that contributes heavily to nurse fatigue and nursing practice errors, jeopardizing patient care. Mandatory overtime is banned within the CHS-Northside and YGDNA collective bargaining agreement – yet CHS-Northside continues this unsafe practice.
An arbitration hearing was held in June, where 52 nurses were involved in a set of mass grievances filed against CHS-Northside because they were being forced by the facility to work mandatory overtime despite the CHS-Northside/YGDNA contract. The arbitration hearing concluded June 3, 2015 and a decision has not been reached.
WHO: The Youngstown General Duty Nurses Association
WHAT: Safe Staffing, Patient Care Rally
WHERE: Saxon Club Pavilion, 710 South Meridian Road, Youngstown, Ohio 44509
WHEN: Tuesday, July 14th. Doors open at 10:30am, event to begin at 11:00am.
WHY: YGDNA nurses are concerned for the community and their patients because of the unsafe staffing practices that CHS-Northside refuses to address.
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About ONA: Founded in 1904 to secure Ohio’s Nurse Practice Act, the Ohio Nurses Association has over 9,500 members and represents the voice of professional nurses in Ohio. ONA is affiliated with the American Nurses Association and American Federation of Teachers: Nurses and Health Professionals.
CONTACT: Molly Ackley
Director of Marketing and Communications
Ohio Nurses Association
614-668-9927 | mackley@ohnurses.org