St. Charles Bend nurses overwhelmingly ratify new contract

St. Charles Bend nurses represented by the Oregon Nurses Association have voted overwhelmingly in favor of ratifying a new 4 1/2-year contract, nearly seven months after their previous one expired.

Nearly 98 percent of the roughly 700 ballots cast were in support of the new contract, according to ONA spokesman Casey Campbell.

The contract covers roughly 900 St. Charles nurses who had been working without a contract since last July 1. A federal mediator helped bring a settlement during recent marathon talks.

“We are happy to have reached a contract agreement that both the nurses and St. Charles leaders feel good about,” Debbie Robinson, chief nursing officer for St. Charles Bend, said in a joint news release Monday from the hospital and the Oregon Nurses Association.

“While it took many months of conversations, we ended in a good place and we are all ready to come together and continue doing what we do best – providing quality care for our patients,” Robinson added.

Like any such balloting, voting is not mandatory, Campbell said, adding, that “we are excited about an 80 percent turnout because it shows how many people were involved in the process.”

Now that the contract has been ratified, St. Charles and the ONA will work together to develop processes to put the new contract language into practice in the coming weeks, the two parties said. Staffing issues were a key topic in the negotiations, after the nurses filed several complaints of inadequate staffing.

“The newly ratified contract helps ensure we are providing the best quality care for our community,” said local nurse leader and ONA bargaining unit chair David Hilderbrand, RN. “We look forward to taking the next step of implementing the new contract and utilizing the new tools provided to address shared concerns like staffing and practice standards, which allows us to focus on our patients.”

Some highlights from the new contract include:

· New groups have been created so nurses float between similar departments, providing more flexibility for staffing and ensuring every patient is treated by nurses trained to meet their specific needs.

· Creates a shared governance structure to increase accountability around staffing and practice issues. The new shared governance model will allow direct-care nurses and managers to work together to quickly address practice concerns.

· Nurses can be hired into St. Charles at step levels that are consistent with their years of experience, which will enhance recruiting efforts.

· The teams reached what they called “a fair agreement on wages and benefits” that “offers variable cost-of-living increases to provide financial flexibility for the hospital while helping recruit and retain nurses.”

St. Charles Health System is the region’s largest private employer and has more than 4,000 employees, operating all four of the region’s hospitals and several clinics.