To: National Desk, Health Reporter

Contact: Leslie Getzinger of AFT Healthcare, 202-585-4373 e-mail: lgetzing@aft.org

WASHINGTON, June 24 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Registered nurses at Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington, Vt., have reached a groundbreaking contract agreement that includes nationally unprecedented nurse-to-patient staffing ratios that will greatly enhance patient care.

"This contract shows the difference a union can make," said Sandra Feldman, president of AFT Healthcare, the national union to which the Fletcher Allen nurses belong. "The Fletcher Allen nurses have negotiated a contract that will set the industry standard for accountability and patient safety."

"We are ecstatic at what we were able to achieve," said Jennifer Henry, RN, a member of the Fletcher Allen nurses' union. "We can say that today is truly a new day for patients and nurses at Fletcher Allen."

Nurses around the country are fighting to include safe staffing language and bans on mandatory overtime in their contracts. Research shows that safe staffing levels in hospitals and other healthcare facilities are crucial to maintaining quality patient care. The Vermont contract includes nurse-to-patient staffing ratios that are the nation's most beneficial to patient safety.

The nurses were in contract talks with the Fletcher Allen administration since December, following several contentious years of organizing. The contract language, which still must be ratified by the 1,250 RNs, is based on the staffing ratios that recently became law in California but have yet to be implemented into regulations. The Vermont contract is the first healthcare contract in the country to include that staffing ratio language.

Highlights of the tentative contract agreement are:

-- Safe nurse-to-patient ratios, which will greatly improve the time that nurses have to spend with each patient. For instance, there will be one nurse for every five patients in the medical/surgical unit, one nurse for every two patients in critical care and one nurse for each patient in the operating room.

-- A ban on mandatory overtime, which will ensure that nurses are not forced to work grueling back-to-back shifts.

-- An end to mandatory floating, a practice in which nurses are ordered to leave their unit to work elsewhere, often regardless of whether they have the appropriate training.

-- An economic package that will improve the hospital's ability to recruit and retain qualified nurses in a time when a shortage of qualified nurses has created a highly competitive job market across the country.

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AFT Healthcare, a division of the AFT, represents more than 65,000 nurses and other healthcare workers. It is the healthcare division of the 1.2 million-member American Federation of Teachers.

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