Don't
forget to make your hotel reservations for the West Coast Grand Hotel on Fifth
Avenue by February 28th. Space
is limited. You can call
1-800-325-4000 to make a reservation today!
For more information call Bernadette Berney at 509-336-0297.
There
is an exciting agenda planned for the spring meeting, and we hope many of you
will be able to attend!
Thursday,
March 29th
8:00 Registration
Continental Breakfast
Vendor Exhibits
8:45
Welcome
9:00
"Washington State
Legislative Update"
Troy Hudson, RN JD
10:00
Break/Vendor Exhibits
10:30
"Elevate
the Role of the HR Professional Through Automated HR Workflow!"
Zahir Shariff
12:00
Lunch/Vendor Exhibits
1:00
"Recent
Healthcare Labor Contract Settlements"
Fred Lorenz
1:30
"Seattle
Newspaper Strike:
Lessons Learned from a White Collar Labor Dispute"
Matt Lynch
2:15
Break/Vendor Exhibits
2:30
"Successful
Recruitment at Whidbey General Hospital"
Carolyn Pape
3:30
WSHHRA Business Meeting
4:30
Adjourn
7:00
Dinner-Palomino Restaurant
Friday
March, 30th
8:00
Continental Breakfast
8:45
"Policies
and Practices Related to e-Recruitment and Other Electronic Communications"
Mary Drobka
10:15
Break
10:30
"An Update
from the WSHA Health Care Personnel Shortage Task Force"
Jeff Clark
11:45
Evaluations
12:00
Adjourn
Jeff
Clark
VP,
Human Resources
Kadlec
Medical Center
The Workforce Shortage
is gaining the national attention it needs.
On February 13, Brandon Melton, ASHHRA�s
President � Elect testified before the Senate Sub-Committee on Aging regarding
the workforce shortage, how it is affecting hospitals today and into the future.
Earlier that week, NBC News carried a segment on the shortage and its
affect on patients accessing care. The
American Hospital Association has published a position paper on the shortage and
is setting up a Commission to make recommendations on how best to address the
workforce needs into the future. An
education assistance bill, with incentives for students to pursue health careers
is also in the works. Let�s
not expect any magic bullets, this is going to require multiple strategies both
national and local, with every hospital doing its part to encourage students to
pursue health careers, providing internships or clinical experiences for
students and offering residency programs for staff to develop additional skills.
At
the Spring Conference we will be updating members on the activities at the state
level regarding workforce efforts. There
are several relevant developments on this issue at the state level, which may
warrant action on the part of WSHHRA members.
A bill has been introduced to limit mandatory overtime.
The nursing unions whose intent is to stop excessive overtime, which they
present as a patient safety issue, support the bill.
The bill is written in such a manner as to define overtime as hours in
excess of their agreed upon availability. So
a .5 FTE RN working an extra shift is overtime.
The bill does not ask for overtime compensation, but the reality is only
by paying overtime rates will you get employees �voluntarily� working the
extra shift. The bill would create
financial penalties for employers who �require� overtime. I believe we would find the impact of this bill
would exacerbate the already tight staffing in hospitals. I think we would see a shift in �availability� of current
staff to fewer hours, not only for greater control but also for the increased
compensation. As of this writing,
the bill has not made it out of Committee.
WSHA is taking the lead on this bill.
There
is also a bill out there to provide immunity for reference information provided
by employers. The Association of
Washington Business and the WSHA are supporting this bill.
The intent of this bill is to encourage the exchange of factual
information about former employees. While
legally this bill may not be necessary, the reality is employers are reluctant
to provide any information about former employees for fear of being sued. It has become a �buyer beware� environment and for
healthcare particularly this is a dangerous situation where unfit employees are
passed between employers without the knowledge of their dangerous past.
Again, this bill is in Committee.
Newsletter Update
Thanks
to all who have contributed to the newsletter in the past.
I encourage others to submit articles of interest in areas of particular
interest or expertise. The
newsletter can continue to be an excellent communication vehicle if we have a
variety of submissions! The
newsletter is published every other month, so the next newsletter will come out
in April. Anyone interesting in contributing should submit their
article to me by April 1st. Submissions
can be mailed to: Lisa McDaniel, PO
Box 400, Coupeville, WA 98239 or
e-mailed to: [email protected].