Unionized Nurses ratify contract that sets enforceable Safe Staffing Ratios at University Hospital
Members of HPAE Local 5089—Registered Nurses at University Hospital in Newark—overwhelmingly ratified a new contract with enforceable nurse-to-patient ratios as well as a new wage scale and benefit standards, which will help recruit and retain nurses.
With the new HPAE contract at University Hospital, now all three Level One Trauma Centers have set nurse to patient staffing ratios enforceable through union contracts.
The 5089 contract now includes the following nurse to patient ratios:
- Medical-Surgical Units: 1:6 with a commitment to move to 1:5 by July 2026
- Pediatrics: 1:5
- Mother/Baby: 1:6 (3 couplets)
- ICUs: 1:2
Additional nurse to patient staffing ratios are outlined in the full contract.
HPAE locals across the state have won historic contracts with improved staffing standards this year including: HPAE Local 5004 at Englewood Hospital; Local 5147 at Hudson Regional Hospital, Local 5030 at HMH Palisades Medical Center; and Local 5118 at Cooper University Health Care. This new contract at UH also creates a Staffing Committee with an equal number of registered nurses and management to monitor and review how the hospital is complying with the guidelines.
The new wage scale is individualized for each job title in a unit, emphasizing the importance of the work the nurses do. New additions to the contract include a limit on Agency Nurses to provide strength and opportunities for growth to the HPAE nurses at University Hospital. \
HPAE Local 5094, which represents the hospital’s professional employees at the hospital, will return to the bargaining table next week. Local 5094’s contract also expired on September 30. HPAE Local 5094 professional members include social workers, laboratory workers, IT workers, and clinical staff. They are still fighting for better wages, new benefits and improved contract language for existing benefits.
HPAE President Debbie White, RN, said the Code-Red campaign to win staffing ratios in labor contracts must be reinforced by a statewide law with the same provisions. She urges legislators in Trenton to pass the “Patient Protection and Safe Staffing Act (S2700/A3683) into a law mandating safe patient-to-staff ratios in New Jersey hospitals.
“Our safe staffing wins benefit patients because we know that limiting the number of patients a nurse can care for at any given time increases the quality of care. Every patient deserves a nurse at the bedside who is not overwhelmed, distracted and stressed,” White said. “And our fight goes beyond the bargaining table and into the Trenton State House, to urge NJ policymakers to pass these same standards into law.”
Nurse to patient ratios have been shown to improve patient satisfaction scores and outcomes, decrease patient deaths and decrease stress and burnout of staff. Safe staffing truly does save lives.
When the “Patient Protection and Safe Staffing Act (S2700/A3683), sponsored by Senator Vitale and Assemblywomen Quijano and Murphy, becomes law, it will establish staffing ratios for nursing and non-licensed assistive personnel, with ratios set based on the needs of specific medical units.
RESOURCES:
- Overworked. Unsafe for everyone: The urgent need for Safe Staffing legislation in New Jersey
- Results of Survey of Current & Recent Bedside Nurses in NJ Hospitals
- Decades of Safe Staffing and Current Research
- HPAE POSITION PAPER, MARCH 2023 | Understaffed. Overworked. Unsafe for everyone: The urgent need for Safe Staffing legislation in New Jersey
- HPAE POSITION PAPER II, APRIL 2024 | Understaffed. Overworked. Unsafe for everyone: The urgent need for Safe Staffing legislation in New Jersey
For more information, contact: Michael Allen, (646) 436-7556.
www.hpae.org • www.facebook.com/hpae.aft • @hpaeaft • @hpae_aft