Workplace Advocacy

WORKPLACE ADVOCACY TAKES OFF!

KNA’s Workplace Advocacy Program is in full gear with the development of an array of programs and services to address workplace and professional development issues.

The Workplace staff offered its first CE Program at this year’s convention called A Conversation About the Nursing Workplace. The program was an overview of the workplace issues most frequently identified by KNA, as well as basic information about tools and methods to address these issues. The program only lasted two hours, but could have easily been longer. The participants were active and engaged and made an insightful dialogue possible. The Conversation program is a great first step to lead us into more in depth and comprehensive programs that KNA will be offering in the year 2000. Thanks to everyone who attended.

The Conversation CE program is a preview to a diverse set of CE modules being developed by KNA for the Workplace Program. In order to address the breadth of issues important to nurses, we are creating CE modules that will deal with the following subjects individually and can then be offered separately or with other modules. Individual topics and modules include:

1. What is Workplace Advocacy?
2. Identifying individual and local workplace concerns
3. Identifying issues facing the nursing profession
4. Resolving workplace conflict
5. Professional Development: assessing the landscape of nursing, growth areas and areas of decline, choosing your future and how to get there, marketing yourself and creating a strong CV, and choosing the employer best for you.

In addition to CE programs, KNA is nearing its final draft of the new KNA’s Workplace Issues and Professional Development Handbook for Registered Nurses. This handbook is a comprehensive tool for addressing workplace issues properly, including information on topics such as competency, mandatory overtime, delegation, staffing, the Patient Safety Act and “Whistleblower Protection” and much more. The guide will also contain some frequently requested advisory opinions from the Kentucky Board of Nursing concerning practice issues, as well as information to consider when job hunting and key terms to know in today’s healthcare environment. The Guide should be available by early December so watch for it.

KNA’s Workplace Program is also focused on personal service to RNs in the field who contact us for support or guidance in handling a workplace issue. Sometimes a nurse only requires a telephone consultation to discuss her/his options and identify the best method to address a problem. Other times the nurse is seeking assistance with letter writing or other means of articulating a concern, or with research to identify legal and regulatory authority on her situation. While KNA cannot play the role of personal advocate or attorney for non-collective bargaining nurses, we can help nurses become better prepared to advocate for patients and themselves by supplying appropriate tools and techniques for the nurses to use themselves. KNA’s workplace staff is available for telephone consultations and to provide sample letters, general regulatory and legal information and phone numbers for regulatory bodies. If a nurse requires specific legal advice, we will refer her/him to attorneys as appropriate.

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REFERENCES ON WORKPLACE ADVOCACY 

Staffing 

Kentucky Board of Nursing Home page http://www.kbn.state.ky.us/index.htm 

Safe Practice Document http://www.kbn.state.ky.us/Documents/safenursing.pdf   

Delegation to unlicensed Personnel http://www.kbn.state.ky.us/delegation_to_unlicensed_persons.htm           

Good practice decision tree.  Advisory for 2002-2003.  Includes delegation to EMT’s in ER  http://www.kbn.state.ky.us/practice.htm 

List of regulatory laws regarding nursing practice
http://www.kbn.state.ky.us/laws_&_regs.htm

ANA’s web sit for overtime issue http://vocusgr.vocus.com/grconvert1/webpub/ana/ProfileIssue.asp?IssueID=3726|House&XSL=ProfileIssue&hidLegislatorIDs 

ANA’s website for Staffing
http://vocusgr.vocus.com/grconvert1/webpub/ana/ProfileIssue.asp?IssueID=3117|JOINT&XSL=ProfileIssue&hidLegislatorIDs

ANA’s position on workplace advocacy issues http://nursingworld.org/readroom/position/index.htm#workplace           

KNA’s Website  http://www.kentucky-nurses.org/

Fair Labor Standards Act

Fact Sheet #17N:  Nurses and the Part 541 Exemptions Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)  http://www.dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/whd/fairpay/fs17n_nurses.htm

Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division
http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/ 

Department of Labor, FairPay Fact Sheet for Nurses
http://www.dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/whd/fairpay/main.htm 

*Contact ANA if you have been denied overtime pay due to the new regulations by e-mailing:   overtime@ana.org

REFERENCES ON PATIENT SAFETY AND NURSE FATIGUE 

·        Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (2004).  Understanding the Impact of Working Conditions on Patient Safety.  Retrieved January 17, 2005 from:  http://www.ahcpr.gov/qual/newgrants/working.htm

·        Falleti, M. G., Maruff, P., Collie, A., Darby, D. G. & McStephen, M. (2003).  Qualitative Similarities in Cognitive Impairment Associated With 24 hour of Sustained Wakefulness and a Blood Alcohol Concentration of 0.05%.  Journal of Sleep.  12(4) 265.  Retrieved January 8, 2005 from:  www.blackwell-synergy.com/links/doi/10.111/j.1365-2869.00363.x

·        Institute of Medicine (2004).  Keeping Patients Safe:  Transforming the Work
Environment of Nurses.  Retrieved October 4, 2004 from www.nap.edu/openbok/030909090670/l.html

·        Institute of Medicine (2004).  Appendix C:  Work Hour Regulation in Safety-Sensitive Industries.  Retrieved January 11, 2005 from:  http://books.nap.edu/books/0309090679

·        Nevada RNformation (2004) Policy highlights:  Data Suggests Nurse Fatigue Threatens Patient Safety, 13(4), 22.  Retrieved December 26, 2004 from ProQuest.

·        Rogers, A., Hwang, W., Scott, L., Dinges, D., (2004) The working hours of hospital staff nurses and patient safety.  Health Affairs, 24(4), 202-208.  Retrieved December 26, 2004 from ProQuest.

·        Steinbrook, R. (2002) Health Policy Report:  Nursing in the Crossfire.  The New England Journal of Medicine, 346, 1757-1764.  Retrieved January 6, 2005 from:  www.nejm.org through Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences.

·        U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2004).  Tomorrow’s Jobs.  Retrieved Janaury 14, 2005 from:  http://www.bls.gov/oco/oco2003.htm