After a long and difficult 4 months of negotiations, Virtua members ratified their contract yesterday.

Bacharach Members: We have reached a tentative agreement with management. The membership will vote May 18th in the Pomona Room. Times will be announced.

Virtua Members: The ratification meeting will be held May 9th at the ML Hotel. The times are: 7:30am, 12:00p.m., 3:30p.m., 7:30p.m. You will be given all the details regarding the tentative agreement at this meeting. Please make EVERY effort to attend one meeting so that you have all the correct information and have the opportunity to vote

Virtua Members: The parties have reached a tentative agreement subject to a vote by the membership May 9^th, time and place to be announced. No details regarding this tentative agreement will be released prior to the meeting May 9^th. It is imperative that ALL members attend this meeting and vote on the proposed agreement.

No agreement was reached in the all day bargaining session between JNESO and the Virtua management on Friday 4-13-12.  However with the assistance of the Federal Mediator both sides worked diligently to try and reach agreement on the outstanding issues.

There will be another bargaining session on April 25^th .  We will update you again after that session, in the meantime the contract remains in effect. 

Visiting Nurse Association celebrates its centennial

10:45 AM, Apr. 16, 2012 |

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An early photo of a nurse at a patient’s home. / COURTESY OF VNAHG

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Written by

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ">Laura Martin

Staff Writer

VNA nurses in the early 1920s. / COURTESY OF VNAHG

In the spring of 1912, a frail 6-year-old called out for help outside his Middletown home, where his entire family was suffering from tuberculosis. Moved by the boy’s desperation, and with no medical background, neighbor Geraldine L. Thompson attended to the family.

The experience prompted her to create an organization to provide at-home care for the many families suffering from infectious diseases and other ailments in the broader community. At the time, it is estimated, no more than 10 percent of the ill were able to get care in hospitals, so the need for at-home health care was dire.

One hundred years later, Thompson’s idea has grown to become what is now the Visiting Nurse Association Health Group (VNAHG), an organization that provides home-health care, hospice and community services to more than 100,000 individuals each year. Formerly known as the VNA of Central Jersey, the organization includes the Essex Valley VNA, the Robert Wood Johnson Visiting Nurses, the Cape May VNA and the VNA of Englewood, and provides care in 13 counties in New Jersey, including Monmouth, Middlesex, Mercer, Ocean, Somerset and Union.

The organization wasn’t always so far reaching. In 1912, Thompson only had six other women working with her to help those in need. The small organization launched a campaign for a tuberculosis hospital, which resulted in the Allenwood Sanatorium opening in 1921. Thompson’s group was then appointed agent for the New Jersey Tuberculosis League.

The group continued to expand both in number and in the services it provided in the coming years. In the 1930s, the group, known then as the Monmouth County Organization for Social Services, assisted in the establishment of a county welfare house and a shelter for abandoned children. During World Wars I and II, the organization provided medical and dental programs for veterans and childcare services for mothers employed in defense factory work.

The organization continued to maintain its original mission of preventing and treating widespread disease, participating in national field trials to test the Salk polio vaccine in the 1950s and as the lead agency for the Ryan White HIV/AIDS programs through the Monmouth-Ocean Consortium in the 1990s.

The organization, which changed its name to the Visiting Nurse Association of Central Jersey during the 1990s, also assisted during several statewide and nationwide disasters.

During the Nor’easter of 1992, the group staffed shelters throughout the service area for thousands of coastal residents who had been evacuated. Members of the organization also served as first responders during the Edison explosion of 1994 and the Manville flooding in 1999. On Sept. 11, 2001, members were waiting to comfort New Jersey residents affected by the terrorist attacks as they returned on ferries to New Jersey from New York City.

During Hurricane Katrina, members of the organization were dispatched to the Gulf Coast to care for those in need in affected areas. During Hurricane Irene, after the group became the VNAHG, the organization’s nurses manned shelters, assisting the elderly and disabled. Some nurses even braved the storm to deliver important medications to their patients in area shelters.

Cathy Kulaszewski was one of those nurses. During Hurricane Irene and in all of her patient interactions, Kulaszewski strives to make her patients feel safe and comfortable, a goal that she says has been the same for members since the organization began.

“A lot has changed over the years, but the actual care is the same,” says Kulaszewski, who works as a VNAHG nurse primarily in Asbury Park. “You still hold hands, be present, talk to and care for the patient.”

The group today

Advances in medical technology have allowed the group to further its level of care. The organization now provides IV antibiotic therapy, IV steroid therapy and IV chemotherapy administration in patients’ homes.

A state-of-the-art telehealth system allows patients diagnosed with heart failure to check blood pressure, oxygen saturation and weight and answer health questions from their homes without a nurse present. That information is sent via the telephone to the agency and is monitored by a registered nurse. If there is any cause for concern, the nurse will call the patient, alert the doctor and/or send a nurse directly to the patient’s residence.

Patients pay for any type of care they receive from the group through either commercial insurance companies, Medicare, Medicaid, HMOs, worker’s compensation or on their own. If a patient cannot afford care, the group will cover the cost.

“Our policy is to never turn anyone away that needs us,” says Thomas Thees, chairman of the group’s board.

The group also has expanded its approach to treatment. As part of its home hospice program, the group now offers reiki and massage professionals and music and pet therapists. These alternative services, as well as traditional health care at home, can make life more bearable for someone who doesn’t have long to live, Thees says.

“Home hospice care can be an alternative to a nursering home,” says Thees, who is the first male chairman of the group. “We want to care for someone whose life is ending with grace and respect.”

Today, many of those who receive services do so through the organization’s numerous community programs. One such program is the WIC nutrition program, which provides health services to pregnant women and new moms, infants and children. Other community programs include senior wellness programs, prenatal care, AIDS/HIV services, bereavement counseling for adults and children, cancer education and early detection, school-based health and youth programs and immunization programs. In 2011, more than 90,000 people of all ages benefited from these programs, which are supported by grants and charitable contributions.

“The VNA makes it is easy for anyone who wants or needs help to get it,” says Theresa Beck, a registered nurse and the group’s chief mission officer.

New challenges in care

Recent changes in health care have made providing that help more challenging for the group’s nurses, Kulaszewski says.

With more prescription drugs and medical specialists than ever before, many patients are overwhelmed and require the nurses to assist them in navigating their increasingly complicated medical care, she says.

“A person goes to a cardiologist, a rheumatologist and endocrinologist and is on countless different medications,” she says. “If the patient isn’t 100 percent accurate with their medications, it can be dangerous.”

Insurance changes and a high volume of patients have caused hospital stays to shorten as well, she says. This means that patients often are released from the hospital before they are fully capable of caring for themselves. This has caused more and more people to require at-home care and post-hospital visits from the group. This is especially true for the elderly, Beck says.

“Some of these people are barely managing before they get into the hospital,” she says. “You see someone at the hospital and think they can be independent, but there is that other piece that needs to be dealt with — their food, medication, getting the right equipment and even supporting the caregivers.”

These types of challenges will only grow as medical advances allow more people to live longer and to live with conditions that previously were fatal, Beck says. Because of that, she believes the agency will be a necessary part of New Jersey for years to come.

“Over all these years, we have been positioning ourselves for the next 100 years,” she says. “There will always be a need for this.”

http://www.courierpostonline.com/article/20120413/BUSINESS/304130014/Virtua-nurses-hold-protest-over-contract-negotiations?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|p

Support JNESO District 1 Nurses Fighting for a Fair Contract at Virtua-West Jersey

There are approximately 1,500 nurses represented by JNESO District 1 who are fighting for a fair contract at Virtua-West Jersey Health Systems.

Patient care and safety remain the primary concern of the nurses. Patient care depends on factors such as employee retention, appropriate staff levels, and attracting the highest qualified and skilled nurses. Despite the nurses expressing these concerns during negotiations, management seems unwilling to do what is right for its nurses and patients.

Virtua-West Jersey will not promise a safe staff ratio of one nurse to six patients on medical/surgical units. Nurses are having their regular work hours cancelled and are unable to count on a steady paycheck. Yet, those in the hospital’s top management each earn over a million dollars a year.

We ask that you please join in support of the nurses and patient care during informational picketing at three Virtua Hospitals which fall under the West Jersey umbrella in Marlton, Berlin, and Voorhees. Please see below for picketing times and addresses.

Bus transportation to each picket will be available from Lion’s Lake Park, 101 Dutchtown Road, Voorhees, NJ 08043. The first bus will begin boarding at 10:45 a.m.

Food and drinks will be provided. For additional information please contact JNESO District 1 Executive Director Virginia Treacy at 732-619-8069.

In Unity,

Charles Wowkanech, President
Laurel Brennan, Secretary-Treasurer

St Michael’s: The Union is responding directly to management regarding the Behavior Standards. We understand they are requiring you to sign these forms. We ask that if you choose to sign the behavior standards, please preface your signature with “Provided this will not be used for discipline”.

JNESO, District Council 1

Legislative Review

Week of March 26, 2012

Pennsylvania

AN ACT

Amending the act of March 2, 1956 (1955 P.L.1211, No.376), entitled "An act providing for and regulating the licensing and practice of practical nursing; imposing duties on the State Board of Nurse Examiners; and imposing penalties," further providing for violations.

The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania hereby enacts as follows:

Section 1.  Section 14 of the act of March 2, 1956 (1955 P.L.1211, No.376), known as the Practical Nurse Law, amended December 20, 1985 (P.L.423, No.110), is amended to read:

Section 14.  Violations.‑‑Except (a)  Except as otherwise herein provided, it shall be unlawful for any person, association, partnership, corporation or institution, after the effective date of this act, to

(1)  Furnish, sell or obtain by fraud or misrepresentation a record of any qualification required for a license, or aid or abet therein;

(2)  Use in connection with his or her name the words nurse, practical nurse, licensed practical nurse, or the letters "PN," or "LPN," or any designation tending to imply that he or she is a practical nurse, or licensed practical nurse, unless he or she is duly licensed to so practice under the provisions of this act, except that the title "nurse" also may be used by a person registered under the provisions of the act of May 22, 1951 (P.L.317, No.69), known as "The Professional Nursing Law";

(3)  Practice practical nursing during the time his or her license issued under the provisions of this act is suspended or revoked;

(4)  Practice practical nursing without a valid current license;

(5)  To transfer, offer to transfer, or permit the use by another of any license issued under this act;

(6)  To aid or abet any person to violate any provision of this act;

(7)  Otherwise violate any of the provisions of this act.

(b)  Notwithstanding subsection (a), this section shall not prohibit the use by a person of a descriptive title for nurse assistive personnel. For the purposes of this subsection, the term "nurse assistive personnel" shall mean an individual providing health care services under the supervision of a professional or practical nurse.

Section 2.  This act shall take effect in 60 days.

AN ACT

Amending the act of May 22, 1951 (P.L.317, No.69), entitled, as amended, "An act relating to the practice of professional nursing; providing for the licensing of nurses and for the revocation and suspension of such licenses, subject to appeal, and for their reinstatement; providing for the renewal of such licenses; regulating nursing in general; prescribing penalties and repealing certain laws," further providing for use of title.

The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania hereby enacts as follows:

Section 1.  Section 3 of the act of May 22, 1951 (P.L.317, No.69), known as The Professional Nursing Law, amended July 20, 2007 (P.L.320, No.49), is amended to read:

Section 3.  Registered Nurse, Clinical Nurse Specialist, Use of Title and Abbreviation "R.N." or "C.N.S."; Credentials; Fraud.‑‑(a)  Any person who holds a license to practice professional nursing in this Commonwealth, or who is maintained on inactive status in accordance with section 11 of this act, shall have the right to use the [title] titles "nurse" and "registered nurse" and the abbreviation "R.N." No other person shall engage in the practice of professional nursing or use the [title] titles "nurse" or "registered nurse" or the abbreviation "R.N." to indicate that the person using the same is a registered nurse[.], except that the title "nurse" also may be used by a person licensed under the provisions of the act of March 2, 1956 (1955 P.L.1211, No.376), known as the "Practical Nurse Law." No person shall sell or fraudulently obtain or fraudulently furnish any nursing diploma, license, record, or registration or aid or abet therein.

(b)  An individual who holds a license to practice professional nursing in this Commonwealth who meets the requirements under sections 6.2 and 8.5 of this act to be a clinical nurse specialist shall have the right to use the title "clinical nurse specialist" and the abbreviation "C.N.S." No other person shall have that right.

(c)  Notwithstanding subsection (a), this section shall not prohibit the use by a person of a descriptive title for nurse assistive personnel. For the purposes of this subsection, the term "nurse assistive personnel" shall mean an individual providing health care services under the supervision of a professional or practical nurse.

Section 2.  This act shall take effect in 60 days.

AN ACT

Providing for certification of central supply technicians who perform sterilization procedures in health care facilities; imposing continuing education requirements; and providing for the duties of health care facilities and the Department of Health.

The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania hereby enacts as follows:

Section 1.  Short title.

This act shall be known and may be cited as the Central Supply Technician Certification Act.

Section 2.  Definitions.

The following words and phrases when used in this act shall have the meanings given to them in this section unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:

"Central supply technician."  A person who provides the services of decontamination, preparation, packaging, sterilization and storage and distribution of reusable medical instrumentation or devices in a health care facility.

"Department."  The Department of Health of the Commonwealth.

"Health care facility."  As defined in section 103 of the act of July 19, 1979 (P.L.130, No.48), known as the Health Care Facilities Act.

"Health care practitioner."  As defined in section 103 of the act of July 19, 1979 (P.L.130, No.48), known as the Health Care Facilities Act.

Section 3.  Certification required.

No person may function as a central supply technician and no health care facility may employ or otherwise contract for the services of a central supply technician, unless the person meets one of the following:

(1)  holds and maintains the Certified Registered Central Service Technician credential administered by the International Association of Healthcare Central Service Material Management or the Certified Sterile Processing and Distribution Technician credential administered by the Certification Board for Sterile Processing and Distribution, Inc.;

(2)  provides evidence that the person was employed or otherwise contracted for the services as a central service technician in a health care facility on or within the two-year period immediately prior to the effective date of this section, which evidence may include written confirmation by the contractor or employer of the employment; or

(3)  is a student or intern performing the functions of a central supply technician if the student or intern is under the direct supervision of an appropriately licensed or certified health care practitioner and is functioning within the scope of the student's or intern's training.

Section 4.  Continuing employment and education.

(a)  New employees.‑‑A person may be employed or contracted to practice as a central supply technician during the 12-month period immediately following successful completion of certification by the International Association of Healthcare Central Service Material Management or the Certification Board for Sterile Processing and Distribution, Inc., but may not continue to be employed or under such contract beyond that period without documentation that the employee or contractor holds and maintains the certification required under section 3(1).

(b)  Existing employees.‑‑

(1)  A person who is employed or contracted to practice as a central supply technician on the effective date of this section must be certified within two years of the effective date of this section.

(2)  A person who is employed or contracted to practice as a central supply technician on the effective date of this section and fails to obtain certification within the two-year period specified in paragraph (1) may not continue to be employed beyond that period without documentation that the employee is certified in accordance with this act.

(c)  Continuing education.‑‑A person who qualifies to function as a central supply technician in a health care facility under section 3(1) and (2) shall annually complete 12 hours of continuing education to maintain the person's certification as a central sterile supply technician.

(d)  Health care facility responsibility.‑‑A health care facility that employs or contracts with a central supply technician shall verify to the department and maintain documentation that the person is properly certified and meets the continuing education requirements of this section.

Section 5.  Other licensed practitioners.

Nothing in this act shall be construed to prohibit a licensed health care practitioner from performing the tasks or functions of a central supply technician if the person is acting within the scope of the person's license as a health care practitioner.

Section 6.  Departmental duties.

The department shall administer the provisions of this act and promulgate and adopt such regulations as may be necessary to implement this act.

Section 7.  Effective date.

This act shall take effect January 1, 2013.

AN ACT

Providing for freedom of conscience of health care providers and health care institutions.

The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania hereby enacts as follows:

Section 1.  Short title.

This act shall be known and may be cited as the Conscientious Objection Act.

Section 2.  Legislative findings and purpose.

(a)  Findings.‑‑The General Assembly finds as follows:

(1)  It is the public policy of the Commonwealth to respect and protect the fundamental right of conscience of individuals who and institutions which provide health care services.

(2)  Without comprehensive protection, rights of conscience of health care providers or institutions may be violated in various ways, such as harassment, demotion, salary reduction, transfer, termination, loss of staffing privileges, denial of aid or benefits and refusal to license or refusal to certify.

(3)  It is the purpose of this act to protect, as a basic civil right, the right of all health care providers and institutions to decline to counsel, advise, provide, perform, assist or participate in providing or performing health care services that violate their consciences.

(b)  Purpose.‑‑It is the purpose of this act to prohibit all forms of discrimination, disqualification, coercion, disability or liability upon such health care providers and institutions that decline to perform any health care service that violates their conscience.

Section 3.  Definitions.

The following words and phrases when used in this act shall have the meanings given to them in this section unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:

"Conscience."  The religious, moral or ethical principles held by a health care provider or a health care institution. A health care institution's religious, moral or ethical principles shall be stated in the institution's mission statement, constitution, bylaws, articles of incorporation, regulations, directives or other relevant documents or guidelines under which it operates.

"Health care institution."  Any public or private organization, corporation, partnership, sole proprietorship, association, unincorporated association, agency, network, joint venture or other entity that is involved in providing health care services, including, but not limited to, hospitals, clinics, medical centers, ambulatory surgical centers, private physicians' offices, pharmacies, nursing homes, university medical schools and nursing schools, medical training facilities or other institutions or locations wherein health care services are provided to any person.

"Health care provider."  Any individual who may be asked or assigned to participate in any way in a health care service, including, but not limited to, a physician, physician assistant, nurse, nurses' aide, medical assistant, hospital employee, clinic employee, nursing home employee, pharmacist, pharmacy employee, researcher, medical or nursing school faculty, student or employee, counselor, social worker or any professional or paraprofessional, or any other person who furnishes or assists in the furnishing of health care services.

"Health care service."  Any phase of patient medical care, treatment or procedure relating to abortion, artificial birth control, artificial insemination, assisted reproduction, emergency contraception, human cloning, human embryonic stem-cell research, fetal experimentation and sterilization and including, but not limited to, patient referral, counseling, therapy, testing, diagnosis, prognosis, research, instruction, prescribing, dispensing or administering any device, drug, or medication, surgery, or any other care or treatment rendered by health care providers or health care institutions.

"Participate."  To counsel, advise, provide, perform, assist in, refer or admit for purposes of providing, transfer or participate in providing, any health care service or any form of such service.

Section 4.  Freedom of conscience of health care providers.

(a)  Freedom of conscience.‑‑A health care provider has the right not to participate, and no health care provider shall be required to participate, in a health care service that violates his or her conscience.

(b)  Immunity from liability.‑‑There shall be no cause of action against a health care provider for declining to participate in a health care service that violates his or her conscience. A health care provider that declines to provide or participate in a health care service that violates his or her conscience shall not be civilly, criminally, professionally or administratively liable.

(c)  Discrimination.‑‑It shall be unlawful for any person, health care provider, health care institution, public service institution, professional organization, public official or any board which certifies competency in medical specialties to discriminate against any health care provider in any manner based on his or her declining to participate in a health care service that violates his or her conscience. This shall include, but is not limited to, termination, transfer or refusal of staff privileges, refusal of board certification, adverse administrative action, demotion, loss of career specialty, reassignment to a different shift, reduction of wages or benefits, refusal to award any grant, contract or other program, refusal to provide residency training opportunities, denial, deprivation, suspension or disqualification with respect to licensure or government certification or any other penalty, disciplinary or retaliatory action.

Section 5.  Freedom of conscience of health care institutions.

(a)  Freedom of conscience.‑‑A health care institution has the right not to participate, and no health care institution shall be required to participate, in a health care service that violates its conscience.

(b)  Immunity from liability.‑‑There shall be no cause of action against a health care institution for declining to participate in a health care service that violates its conscience if the institution has a notice clearly posted stating it reserves the right to decline to provide or participate in health care services that violate its conscience. A health care institution that declines to provide or participate in a health care service that violates its conscience shall not be civilly, criminally or administratively liable.

(c)  Discrimination.‑‑It shall be unlawful for any person, public or private institution or public official to discriminate against any health care institution, or any person, association, corporation or other entity attempting to establish a new health care institution or operating an existing health care institution, in any manner, including, but not limited to, any denial, deprivation or disqualification with respect to licensure, any aid assistance, benefit or privilege, including staff privileges, or any authorization, including authorization to create, expand, improve, acquire, affiliate or merge with any health care institution, because such health care institution, or person, association or corporation planning, proposing or operating a health care institution, declines to participate in a health care service which violates the health care institution's conscience.

(d)  Denial of aid or benefit.‑‑It shall be unlawful for any public official, agency, institution or entity to deny any payments, reimbursements for services or any form of aid, assistance, funding, grants or benefits or in any other manner to coerce, disqualify or discriminate against any person, association, corporation or other entity attempting to establish a new health care institution or operating an existing health care institution because the existing or proposed health care institution declines to participate in a health care service contrary to the health care institution's conscience.

Section 6.  Effect on informed consent requirements.

Nothing in this act shall exempt a health care provider or health care institution from complying with informed consent requirements mandated by statute regarding the provision of a health care service.

Section 7.  Severability.

The provisions of this act are declared to be severable, and if any provision, word, phrase or clause of this act or the application thereof to any person shall be held invalid, such invalidity shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of this act.

Section 20.  Effective date.

This act shall take effect in 60 days.

Attention Bacharach Members: Contract negotiations began Tuesday April 3 with the Union presenting their proposals. The next scheduled negotiatng day is April 23.

A detailed mailing will be sent this week to all members outlining the terms of the concessions. These concessions were voted on by the membership Thursday March 29.

Attention Members: Negotiations will begin on Tuesday.