MountainView nurses get new labor contract, union says
After 19 months of negotiation, about 450 registered nurses at MountainView Hospital in northwest Las Vegas ratified a new labor contract Thursday night, the National Nurses Organizing Committee-Nevada union announced Friday.
The deal is important because MountainView belongs to Tennessee-based HCA, one of the nation’s largest hospital operators. Officials with National Nurses United, the parent labor group of the Nevada union, said the MountainView contract could influence collective bargaining under way between the labor group and more than 15 other HCA hospitals in Florida, Texas and Missouri.
Under the deal’s terms, nurses will receive pay increases ranging from 9 percent to 19 percent over the next 3½ years.
Among agreement’s key provisions is the creation of a staffing committee that will examine the hospital’s existing employee roster and hire additional registered nurses to work as “rescue RNs” in medical-surgical units, where they’ll assist with patient admissions and discharges and ensure that nurses can take meal and rest breaks. The contract also prohibits mandatory overtime.
The union said both provisions will help reduce fatigue and stress, boosting patient care and reducing medical errors in the process.
The deal also calls for patient lift equipment and training, as well as paid educational leave, new procedures for resolving employment disputes and other policies to address layoffs and scheduling.