Groenwegen said the state is actively researching the nursing crisis and the Band-Aid approach of using geographics is not working. The commissioner would not commit to a time frame or rush into anything, but understood the need to identify the problem.

Cindy Bartley-Horn, a community mental health nurse at Rockland Psychiatric Center and PEF Division 279 council leader, told Groenwegen the current civil service model does not reward nurses who seek higher education or value their years of nursing experience.

“We need to create an advancement ladder to use the geographic salary differentials,” Bartley-Horn said. “We also need an improved career ladder for nurses. The only advancement opportunity currently available to nurses takes them away from direct patient care. We need to have career mobility and retention incentives while we are working at the bedside. We are here because we have a calling. It’s time the state recognizes there is a shortage of nurses, and something needs to be done.”

Groenwegen said she would allow PEF to look at the DCS proposed plan to help recruit and retain nurses before it became official, and will review PEF’s research on the cost comparison of using an agency contract nurse versus a state nurse.

By DEBORAH A. MILES

In a continuing battle to correct the nursing crisis in New York, PEF leaders met with state Civil Service Commissioner Nancy Groenwegen in Albany near the end of 2007.

PEF President Ken Brynien told the commissioner and Department of Civil Service (DCS) representatives the nursing shortage in state institutions at the Office of Mental Health (OMH), Department of Correctional Services (DOCS), and the Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities (OMRDD) is getting worse.

“Nursing was identified by OMH and OMRDD as their number one title. But these agencies and DOCS are having a difficult time recruiting nurses and retaining them,” Brynien said.

New York state spent more than $31 million for nurses on overtime last year. “That amount would more than cover our proposed grade increases to help retain nurses,” said Tim Quain, a PEF nurse at Clinton Correctional Facility.

“The state of New York has not looked carefully at the nursing profession during the last 20 years,” Quain said. “We have more clients, more responsibilities, and fewer nurses to do the job. Something has to change.”

YES IT IS – (L) Ruth Ann Kiff and Division 505 Council Leader Maggie Eaton alter their T-shirts after learning Lockport won the online video contest for a new MRI.
— Photo by Kimberlee Green

MRI photo courtesy of Siemens Medical Solutions

“I’m very proud of this division and all the efforts it made to achieve this success,” said Region 1 Coordinator Kevin Hintz. “Lockport is a small community hospital like many others that participated in the contest. Our members worked to support this project with their other union brothers and sisters.

Together, they accomplished a goal that will benefit the health care of New Yorkers.”

Siemens announced the Georgia hospital would also receive a free MRI as part of its charitable efforts, as that hospital was destroyed by a tornado in March 2007.

If you missed seeing the innovative video produced by Lockport, go online to www.winanmri.com.

By DEBORAH A. MILES
The cheers could almost be heard from Buffalo to Albany at the end of January when the news hit that Lockport Memorial Hospital won an $800,000 MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) machine called a MAGNETOM® ESSENZA.

Lockport was one of more than 100 small hospitals from across the country that participated in a “Win an MRI” online video contest sponsored by Siemens Medical Solutions. Each hospital submitted a video as to why it deserves the MRI. Lockport won with the most online votes cast for its humorous, yet emotional, video titled “Is It Here Yet?” The video had to be written, filmed and produced by the staff.

The 134-bed-facility in western New York, which serves a community of 80,000 people, made its case by showing the complications and inconvenience posed to patients and physicians when a hospital lacks a fixed MRI.

From October through December, a total of more than 1.4 million votes were cast online for all the competing hospitals. The contest generated more than 2.68 million video viewings.

On November 20, Lockport was in second place with 65,888 votes, trailing Sumter Regional Hospital in Americus, GA which had 127,802 votes. But Lockport staff put the word out, doubled its score and walked away with the free MRI.

Maggie Eaton, PEF Division 505 council leader, said the support from PEF members was “phenomenal.”

“It is unbelievable we won this,” Eaton said. “When the contest started, we reached out to PEF President Ken Brynien and his support was tremendous. Members from across the state got the word and voted for the Lockport video.”

Eaton said some of the PEF members work in the radiology department and are excited by the win.

“The new MRI will address the health care needs of the community better than before,” she said.