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Safe Staffing ClassesThe Nurse Alliance is conducting a series of continuing education credit classes to train nurses on how to use Title 22 regulations to fight unsafe staffing. The classes are conducted by Glenda Canfield, RN, and are offered to both union and non-union members. The classes explain protections under Title 22, including the right of a nurse to be a patient advocate and the responsibility of hospital management to provide adequate training and staffing. The classes train nurses on how to respond to unsafe staffing assignments, what to say to management so that the responsibility for problems will be on the hospital, and what forms to use to file complaints with the Department of Health Services. Karen McDaniel, a nurse at Encino-Tarzana Regional Medical Center, took Glenda Canfield's class. "The class was really empowering," she reports. "It talked about Title 22 and what bedside nurses could and couldn't do. Before, I might have felt something was wrong, but if I objected I felt alone. Now I have a way to feel my objections are validated." Hospitals often attempt to assign a nurse who normally works in one department to work in another department, a practice referred to as "floating." Nurses have complained that often management will "float" a nurse to a unit where the nurse lacks expertise, putting the patients at risk. Under Title 22, nurses can refuse these assignments unless management provides the nurses proper training for the unit. McDaniel offers the following example: "I work labor and delivery, but they [hospital management] will try to float me to postpartum. I haven't worked postpartum for 20 years. I can tell them that I can't accept the assignment unless they provide a proper orientation on the department's routines, such as patient education prior to discharge. I know how to get a patient ready for the labor and delivery process, but I don't know how to prepare them for taking care of the baby once they go home. I could tell them one thing and then another nurse could teach them something else, creating a lot of confusion for the new mother." The Nurse Alliance also has a help line especially for nurses facing unsafe conditions. Those interested in taking classes or receiving a Nurse Alliance Safe Staffing Kit can contact the Nurse Alliance at: SEIU Nurse Alliance
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