Nursing Their Dreams

Everybody's talking about the nursing shortage. But AFSCME nurses are finding new ways to recruit, retain, recoup and organize more nurses and improve patient care.

By Susan Ellen Holleran

Starting from Scratch

BALDWIN PARK, CALIFORNIA

Susan Aguilera, RN, has been a nurse for 20 years. "I've seen it all, but I survived," she says. Since she came to Kaiser Perm-anente's new hospital here, however, she has regained her excitement about nursing. "Look at our workplace. This is a great working environment," says the member of United Nurses Associations of California (UNAC)/United Health Care Professionals, an AFSCME affiliate.

The environment, the benefits, the high nurse-to-patient ratios were all brought about as part of a plan developed by nurses and painstakingly negotiated between UNAC and Kaiser to create a health care center that would attract nurses. And it's working. Nurses throughout the Los Angeles area are coming here and becoming part of UNAC.

For Sandra Jones, RN, the job at Baldwin Park — and helping to start a new hospital — has been a "wonderful" adventure. She serves on a team investigating medication safety. "We don't play the blame game," says the operating room nurse. "We explore best practices and implement them." For instance: They found that trace elements of medications stayed in the bowl of the pill crusher and mixed with succeeding medicines — a potential danger. So the hospital bought a different crusher.

BREAKING THE MOLD. Moises Alarcon, RN, was once a security guard. Now he's a nurse whose story demonstrates changes in the profession.

Alarcon learned about nursing as he cared for his great-grandmother during her last years. "I spoke to the home nurse. She told me about the field. I saw the attention she gave my great-grandmother and her passion for her work."

This was the kind of career Alarcon had been looking for. He went back to school, doing a security job at night. His first nursing position was in a small, non-union community hospital. Then he came to Baldwin Park where nurses work for change with management through their union. "There's a tremendous difference," he says. "Here they actually help you out. The nurse/patient ratios here are 1-to-3, plus a charge nurse who helps out wherever needed."

He and co-worker Ivan Cruz, RN, are spreading the word to young men that there is a demand for nurses and that the stereotypes shouldn't keep them from exploring the field. "We always need someone new and fresh to bring enthusiasm to the job," says Cruz.

New on the job, he has especially appreciated Baldwin Park's "preceptor" program, which pairs new hires with experienced staff. "For the first three months, you have someone to speak to one on one. In any new environment, you can be uncomfortable. With the preceptor, you can ask questions at any time. It lets you try new things because you can ask for guidance. You're not out there alone."

GOOD ADVICE. Shirley Blanchard, RN, is one of more than 40 preceptors here. With 31 years of nursing experience, she knows the importance of seeing the patient as a total person — not an illness — and passes that vision to new staff.

"Most new nurses have limited hands-on experience," says Blanchard. "I try to connect theory with practice. I want to help them understand why they're doing things. That way they can solve almost any problem — or know that they have a problem. We older nurses have to embrace the new colleagues on our unit and merge old ideas with new ones. On this unit, we are cohesive. We work together well."

Blanchard is happy she transferred to the new hospital. The Observation-Treatment Center, where she works, constantly offers challenges. And she loves her schedule: three 12-hour days one week and four the next with "more days off and more time for fun."

FLEXIBLE HOURS. Those days off can mean more than fun; they can also mean healing. "The hardest part of this job is the emotional component — talking to families when a patient is seriously injured or has passed away," says Alexander Scipio, RN, who works in the emergency room. "Sometimes you get three bad days." That's why he thinks most of the ER staff choose 12-hour shifts. Staff get time away to deal with the loss.

Scipio saw the impact of high-quality nursing care through the eyes of his parents, who were both admitted to the hospital during the 2002 year-end holidays. They both appreciated the care they received, and Scipio, himself, valued the quality of the patient teaching — a major component of nursing — and aftercare. It increased his pride in working at a facility where nurses get the time needed to do their job carefully and completely — to focus on the patients.