Workplace Advocacy and Workplace Issues
Words are powerful tools for advocates of personal rights. Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr., are examples of people who used them well-by making their words clear to everyone; their messages became effective tools for change.”If words are not carefully chosen or well understood, their message holds little meaning to very few. As the noise regarding workplace issues rises to a mind-numbing din, nurses need clear, meaningful messages,” says Anna Atteberry, MSN-S, BSN, RN, a member of the South Dakota Nurses Association and a staff nurse at the
Atteberry, who sits on the ANA’s Commission on Workplace Advocacy, says workplace advocacy empowers nurses to solve issues in their own practice settings. In addition to addressing issues such as practice and occupational health and safety, advocacy can be applied to education, professional development, and legal concerns. “I can’t stress enough the importance of using workplace advocacy strategies in professional nursing practice,” says Atteberry. “Often these activities include the resources and strength of a national professional association like the ANA and its 54 constituent member associations.”
Violence, ethical dilemmas, mandatory overtime, and environmental and ergonomic risks also concern other professions. By forming new alliances and partnerships, a larger pool of strategies can be created to address these issues.
A NEW NEGOTIATING TOOL
A strong economy, technological advances, and workplace restructuring have changed how employers and employees negotiate. For example, many rights that were previously only available to unionized employees are now found ionunion zed work settings.
In July 2000, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decided to expand such a right. In its decision, entitled Epilepsy Foundation of Northeast Ohio (331 NLRB 92 [2000]), the NLRB reversed a longstanding precedent by determining that employees not represented by a union have the right to have a coworker present at an investigatory interview that the employee reasonably believes could result in disciplinary action.
The decision came as a result of a charge of unlawful dismissal brought in front of the NLRB by Arnis Borgs and Ashrafel Hasan against their former employer, the Epilepsy Foundation of Northeast Ohio. Borgs and Hasan, who worked together on a school-to-work transition program for teens with epilepsy, had ongoing problems with their supervisor. Together, they penned a letter to him, sending a copy to the executive director of the agency, stating they no longer required his supervision. Days later, in a memo addressed directly to the executive director, the two criticized the supervisor’s involvement in the program and cited examples in which he had acted inappropriately. Soon after the memos were written, the supervisor and executive director requested a meeting with Borgs. He asked that Hasan attend this meeting, but the request was denied. When he continued to express his opposition to meeting alone with the supervisor and executive director, Borgs was sent home and fired the next day for gross insubordination. (Hasan was terminated nearly two months later.)
Borgs appealed to the NLRB. The judge who heard the case found that Borgs had been discharged for “his persistent refusal to comply with [the executive director’s] directive to meet alone with her and [the supervisor].” The judge noted that under the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1975 case NLRB v. J. Weingarten (420 U.S. 251), employees in unionized work settings are entitled to representation in an investigatory interview that the employee reasonably believes could result in disciplinary action, but under NLRB precedent, employees in nonunionized workplaces didn’t have the same right.
Accordingly, the judge found that Borgs had no statutory right to condition his attendance at the meeting on the presence of Hasan.
After considering the case, however, the NLRB reversed the judge and overruled its precedent, finding that the employer’s termination of Borgs for his attempts to have a coworker present at the meeting was unlawful. The NLRB’s decision recognized that “the right to the presence of a representative is grounded in the rationale that the [National Labor Relations] Act generally affords employees the opportunity to act together to address the issue of an employer’s practice of imposing unjust punishment on employees.”
The NLRB held that “the ability to avail oneself of this protection doesn’t depend on whether the employees are represented by a union.” This decision is consistent with the growing trend of recognizing and acknowledging individual rights in the work setting.
USING THE LAW
Workplace protections for nurses also exist at the state level. For example,
Sometimes, legislation doesn’t need to become law to be used as an effective workplace advocacy strategy. For example, in New Jersey, mandatory overtime legislation “brought agreement among a number of health care groups that are often opposing or competing with each other,” according to Andrea Aughenbaugh, RN, CS, CAE, chief executive officer of the New Jersey State Nurses Association (NJSNA). “The NJSNA, the Patient First coalition (consisting of health care worker unions), the Organization of Nurse Executives of
PARTNERSHIP POWER
The examples in
“Membership in your state nurses association supports the creation of meaningful advocacy strategies, for you, the nurse, and ultimately the consumers, our patients,” notes Clair Jordan, MSN, RN, executive director of the TNA and chair of the ANA’s Commission on Workplace Advocacy.
“To make workplace advocacy work for you and to secure a better workplace, learn more about the growing treasure trove of resources in your state and enjoy a ready-made source of professional partners.”
The following are rules that govern employees’ right to bring a representative with them into investigatory meetings:
The right arises only when the employee requests the presence of a coworker.
If the employee requests representation, the employer can’t insist on questioning the employee without a coworker present. Moreover, the employer can’t discipline the employee for making the request or for refusing to participate in the interview without the presence of the coworker. If an employee is discharged or otherwise disciplined for asserting his or her rights, the employer can be ordered to reinstate the employee and provide back pay.
Employees can request representation only in situations they reasonably believe will result in disciplinary action.
The employer has no obligation to justify its refusal to allow representation at the interview. Employers are free to carry on their inquiry without meeting with the employee.
Employees can’t insist on coworker representatives who are absent at the time of the meeting and can’t bring in attorneys or nonemployees. As long as there is another coworker available to accompany the employee, the meeting need not be postponed.
Representatives can’t engage in a debate with investigators or tell the employee not to answer a question.
Workplace Advocacy and Workplace Issues
• Workplace advocacy to improve the quality of health care
• Issues affecting professional nursing practice
• Resources to assist in improving the workplace
• Advocating for safe and effective workplace environments
• Internal and external workplace strategies for quality patient care
• Nurses are struggling to deliver patient care against many barriers
• Commitment to quality care and advocacy may place nurse in direct conflict with administrators
Professional Practice Advocacy
• Umbrella of activities to promote a professional practice environment:
– Workplace advocacy
– Collective bargaining
• Activities supportive of:
– Patient advocacy
– Professional practice self-determination
– Employment rights and responsibilities
Professional Practice Advocacy Examples
• Promoting occupational safety and health
• Using political processes to influence and protect nurses and patients’ rights
• Developing public reactions and conflict resolution skills
• Building coalitions and support groups
Workplace Advocacy
• Activities initiated to address workplace challenges
• Safe and effective workplaces are promoted by knowing where to seek information
• American Nurses Association’s (ANA’s) Commission on Workplace Advocacy supports workplace advocacy
Workplace Advocacy Examples
• Develop conflict resolution models to address patient care concerns
• Identify mechanisms for RNs to affect institutional policies
• Seek legislative solutions for workplace problems
• Develop legal centers for legal support and decision-making advice
Workplace Issues
• Nursing shortage
• Appropriate staffing
• Patient safety
• Workplace safety
Nursing Shortage Overview
• Managed care influenced cyclic shortages in the late 1990s and in early 2000
• Current shortage is more complex and long lasting
• Nursing employment opportunities will grow more rapidly than all other
• Planning for an adequate nursing workforce will be a critical challenge
Nursing Shortage Issues
• Health care is no longer a favored employer
• Decline iursing school enrollments
• Increasing demands for nurses with specific education and skills
• Faculty shortage
Nursing Shortage Issues—cont’d
• Nurse retention
• Aging workforce
• Foreigurse recruitment
• Compensation
• Work environment
Appropriate Staffing
• Factors contributing to inadequate nurse staffing:
– Nursing shortage
– Cost-cutting initiatives related to managed care
• Absence of data to quantify effect of staffing on safety and quality
Mandatory Overtime
• Mandatory overtime/mandatory on-call requirements have increased
• Mandatory overtime studies:
– Increased time lost to absenteeism
– Increased injuries
– Required 3 hours of work to produce an additional 2 hours of productivity
Mandatory Overtime Issues
• May alleviate the employer’s sense of urgency to proactively find more appropriate staffing
• Nurses may feel resentment to bear the personal, professional, and legal burden for the staffing problem
Floating
• Nurses increasingly required to float to other patient care units
• Floating issues include:
– Questions regarding knowledge, expertise, and experience needed to work in the area
– Time for orientation and training
– Availability of support from experienced nurses
Shared Governance
• Gives nurses an active role in decision making
• Attributes include independence, accountability, and autonomy over nursing practice
• Results in increased job satisfaction and efficiency and better patient outcomes
• Goes beyond participatory management through creation of structures to goverursing practice
Patient Advocacy and Safety
• Patient advocacy is the cornerstone of nursing
• Complex systems and complicated technology lead to errors and adverse events
• Nursing must assert its powerful voice to promote safer health care systems
Errors in Health Care
• Two major studies indicate that errors in health care delivery kill 44,000 to 98,000 people in
• Nursing organizations are attempting to demonstrate the link betweeurse staffing and patient adverse events
Whistleblower Protection
• Protects nurses who speak out about unsafe situations through appropriate channels
• Advocated for at the federal level and has passed in some states
• Major changes in care and staffing are occurring with few data to justify the effects on safety and quality
• Professional organizations are working to collect and publicize data to link nurse staffing mix with patient outcomes
ANA’s Nursing-Sensitive Indicators
• Mix of RNs, licensed practical nurses (LPNs), and unlicensed staff caring for patients
• Total nursing care hours provided per patient day
• Pressure ulcers
• Patient falls
• Patient satisfaction with pain management
ANA’s Nursing-Sensitive Indicators—cont’d
• Patient satisfaction with educational information
• Patient satisfaction with overall care
• Patient satisfaction with nursing care
• Nosocomial infection rate
• Nurse staff satisfaction
Workplace Safety
• Needlesticks
–
– Legislation is being passed to protect workers
• Ergonomic injuries
– Back injuries affect 38% of all nurses
• Workplace violence
– Major societal issue
Advocating to Prevent Workplace Violence
• Organizational assessments to identify high-risk environments, psychological conditions, and populations that threaten safety
• Staff education to address the identification and response to high-risk behaviors that can lead to violence
ANA’s Workplace Advocacy Program
• Advocates for administrative controls:
– Adequate staffing
– Health and safety committees
– Engineering controls such as ventilation and safer needle-stick devices
– Personal protective equipment such as respirators and synthetic gloves
