OROVILLE – After 10 months in negotiation, registered nurses at Oroville Hospital voted in favor of ratifying a new three-year contract, winning protections to improve staffing, patient safety and staff retention.
The announcement was made Friday in a press release issued by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United which, represents about 400 Oroville Hospital nurses.
During negotiations the previously existing contract was extended several times and then allowed to expire, said Jennifer North, RN and bargaining team member. While it was in “everyone’s best interest to have the contract not expire, we wanted to make sure the nurses were protected if they needed to strike,” said North.
“The strength of our nurse family at Oroville Hospital is big,” added North. “We wanted that strength of family, not only among the nurses but also with management. Everyone’s goal — the nurses and administration — is the same: to have a really, really well-functioning hospital where we all, nurses and administration, are working together to provide quality, safe and dignified care to our community.”
One important item included in the contract is improved workplace violence prevention. This contract provision includes annual paid training for nurses on how to manage and deescalate workplace violence.
“We are not police officers. We don’t go to work with weapons,” said North. “We go to work with caring hearts and caring hands. We’re not trained to manage potentially violent people with mental health issues who come into the hospital so getting this training is very, very important for everyone’s safety.”
The contract also includes improved staffing language to ensure that management will consider the acuity of patients in a unit, pending admissions, and other factors before calling off nursing staff.
“Making sure patients are safe has a lot to do with the patient to nurse ratio which is different for all departments,” said North. “Making sure we have enough nurses to treat and care for patients was a priority for us during negotiations.”
‘Good wins’
Economic gains and health benefit provisions to help retain experienced nurses as well as recruit both experienced and new nurses was also a priority for the negotiating team. The agreement includes an 11 percent wage increase over three years and no takeaways to health care benefits or retirement plan.
This contract provision is essential, said North, because veteran nurses “create an environment into which new nurses come and are taught, and taught well, by experienced nurses. That’s important to us, so we want experienced nurses, like those with 20 years’ experience, stay and bring up the new nurses alongside them. And, we want to build an environment in which new nurses come and stay, and not leave after a short time to go to another hospital.”
The contract also contains health and safety provisions to ensure nurses get the highest level of personal protective equipment, including when caring for patients suspected of having COVID.
Another safety net that came out of the negotiating process is a stronger relationship between Oroville Hospital nurses and the CNA union. North said the “first thing nurses think about is their patients’ rights. The last thing we think about is our own rights. Having a stronger relationship with the union is important for nurses, especially new nurses, in protecting us and our licenses.”
With the votes having just been counted, North said nurses “won’t know what it’s like working under the new contract until they live in it for a while” but everyone is “feeling great at this point. We got some good wins for us, the hospital, the patients and the community.”
