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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing
Session: Nurse Supervisory Status: Prescription for Instability?
4143.0: Tuesday, November 07, 2006: 12:30 PM-2:00 PM
Oral
Nurse Supervisory Status: Prescription for Instability?
A National Labor Relations Board decision to redefine charge nurses as supervisors will affect both nurses and patients. The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) finds that 843,000 registered nurses—more than one-third of all the private sector RNs in the country—may be stripped of union rights coverage. Unlike “employees,” “supervisors” have no federal labor law protections; they not only lose the right to have a union contract, but can be fired or disciplined for any union activity. The stakes are high for the public, too. Solid scholarly research has documented that heart attack survival rates are higher for patients in hospitals where nurses have a union than in hospitals where nurses do not have a union. The decision has implications for other workers, including news reporters, factory workers, skilled trades and many others. Workers in every industry may be affected -- 8 million according to a July 2006 report by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). This session will provide an overview of the implications of the National Labor Relations Board decision as regards supervisory status for nurses providing acute and long-term care, including collective bargaining language in a recent contract that addresses the issue and a discussion of the messages that resonate with nurses and the public.
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, participants will be able to: 1) Identify and discuss the implications of National Labor Relations Board decisions affecting changes in supervisory status for nurses and other skilled workers 2) Discuss the implications of these changes for patients in both acute and long-term care facilities. 3) Identify the real problems facing nurses today.
Panelist(s):Kathleen A. Casavant
Ann Twomey, RN
Katherine Cox, MEd , MPH
Ann Converso, RN
Moderator(s):Pamela Wilson
12:30 PMChanges in Supervisory Status:Implications for Nurses & Others
Kathleen A. Casavant
12:50 PMCollective Bargaining as a Solution
Ann Twomey, RN
1:10 PMMessages that Resonate: Nurses, the Public & the Implications of Changes in Nurse Supervisory Status
Ann Converso, RN
1:30 PMLicensed Practical Nurses Providing Long Term Care: Effects of Changes in Supervisory Status
Katherine Cox, MEd , MPH
See individual abstracts for presenting author's disclosure statement and author's information.
Organized by:Labor Caucus
Endorsed by:Occupational Health and Safety; Socialist Caucus
CE Credits:CME, Health Education (CHES), Nursing

The 134th Annual Meeting & Exposition (November 4-8, 2006) of APHA