A new contract for union nurses at the Kapiʻolani Medical Center for Women and Children is in place — and it includes a staffing “matrix” and wage increases.
About 600 workers belonging to the Hawaiʻi Nurses’ Association voted to approve a new three-year contract on Wednesday. About 98% of the nurses voted in favor.
The vote ends a yearlong negotiation between the union and Kapiʻolani management.
“The nurses were happy with what came out of it,” said HNA President Rosalee Agas-Yuu.
The contract includes a staffing matrix with what Hawaiʻi Pacific Health, the network Kapiʻolani is a part of, called “flexible staffing levels.” It’s meant to address the biggest issue that union nurses had during contract talks: being assigned what they called “unsafe” numbers of patients at a time.
The matrix allows flexibility in assigning patients to nurses based on patient needs, which is what Kapiʻolani had advocated for, rather than a fixed number of patients.
“Fixed ratios are not the answer. As a result of our collaborative efforts in negotiations, our nurses will now be a part of the staffing process so we can all work together to adjust to our patients’ needs. With these agreed upon flexible staffing levels, we can focus on our patients and the ever-changing needs in our medical center,” Kapiʻolani Medical Center Chief Operating Officer Gidget Ruscetta said in a statement.
The matrix guidelines align with national organizations, including the American Nurses Association, the American Society of PeriAnesthesia Nurses, and the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric, and Neonatal Nurses.
Agas-Yuu said it would reduce the patient load for nurses, which was the primary concern. HNA has been saying that both the nurses and their patients are being hurt by the current patient load.
She added that the inclusion of a matrix in the new contract is a win, because it’s one of the first for Hawaiʻi health care facilities.
She said there are similar staffing issues in other hospitals in the state, and the matrix in the new HNA contract could serve as a framework going forward.
The contract also includes an enforcement mechanism to ensure appropriate staffing. A council of nurses and nurse leaders will meet monthly to work on any staffing issues, and the matrix will be reviewed annually.
“It’s the first time in a long time that the nurses actually got to really participate and have a say in something like this,” Agas-Yuu said. “It’s like a guideline, a ratio to make sure that there's enough nurses, depending on the patients that are admitted into the hospital.”
The contract also includes “across-the-board” annual wages that grow by an average of 3.5% annually. Registered nurses will also get “longevity pay increases” if they have five, 10 and 15 years of experience at the hospital.
The new staffing ratios mean there is more need for nurses at Kapiʻolani, and the raises hopefully help attract nurses to the hospital, Agas-Yuu said.
“It'd be interesting to see, as the months pass by, how much more staff that are hired and if there is a need for (traveling nurses) to help fill the holes,” she said.
Contract talks had become increasingly tense recently, leading to two strikes and a two-week lockout of nurses.
But with the new contract in place, HNA nurses at Kapiʻolani are expected to return to work on Sunday.
