For years, Hawaii nurses have lobbied for legislation establishing a state center to help recruit and keep nurses at Hawaii's hospitals. Support builds for
measures to ease
nursing shortageThe hospital strike may have fueled
new interest in a UH centerBy B.J. Reyes
Associated PressAlthough the proposal has not advanced out of the Legislature before, similar bills in the House and Senate appear to have support this session.
Some say nursing issues have taken on a higher profile with lawmakers this year due to the strikes by about 1,400 nurses at three Honolulu hospitals that were settled just last month.
"I think maybe (legislators are) more aware that we have a nursing shortage and maybe some of the problems that nurses face within their employment situation," Rep. Marilyn Lee (D, Mililani-Mililani Mauka) said.
Lee is familiar with the issues: A registered nurse, she works as a nursing supervisor on weekends at Wahiawa General Hospital.
It has not always been easy persuading others, said Sharyn Stephani Monet, director of education and practice with the Hawaii Nurses Association union.
"It's been difficult for somebody who doesn't work in the health-care field sometimes to grasp some of the concepts that we're trying to get across because they don't have the opportunity to see it on a daily basis," Monet said. "I think they have been sympathetic and that they are open in trying to address these issues," she said of lawmakers.
The nurses strikes at Queen's, Kuakini and St. Francis medical centers began in the first week of December and lasted more than a month before separate agreements were reached last month.
Many issues raised by striking nurses are included in legislation proposed this session.
They include a bill that would set a limit on the number of consecutive hours nurses are allowed to work, scholarship proposals and a bill to grant low-interest loans to nursing students who would not have to repay the money if they work in Hawaii for five years, Monet said.
Opponents argue that many of the proposals being sought by nurses over such issues as staffing and employment levels are labor-management issues that should be dealt with in collective bargaining, not in the Legislature.
"Legislators really have no business stepping into the labor-management arena," said Rich Meiers, president of the Healthcare Association of Hawaii, which represents all facets of the health-care industry in the state. "I think most of the legislators agree with that position."
He said many of the issues being introduced this session are the same ones that have been lobbied for in past years, adding that his organization was concerned about them coming up again this Legislative session.
"The strike was so bitter and so long, it really didn't serve the purpose of healing to have some of these bills come back up again this year so soon," he said.
However, Meiers said the Healthcare Association and the Hawaii Nurses Association were able to compromise on the bill establishing a center for nursing, a key measure being followed by the union.
The nursing center, to be located at the University of Hawaii, would conduct research to help policy-makers and the health-care industry address issues of recruitment and retention of nurses, Monet said.
The proposal was advanced by the House on Friday and referred to the Finance Committee. The Senate Education Committee approved a similar measure, which now goes to the full Senate to be referred to the chamber's Ways and Means Committee.
Meiers said his organization agreed to language in the bills that specified the nursing center would not address issues of staffing levels, again saying such measures should be left to collective bargaining.
Monet said the center has been proposed for the past few years, adding that misconceptions on its purpose have held it up before. "It's been somewhat difficult to get through partly, I think, because people are not sure what is intended," she said. "The intention of doing a center for nursing is basically to address these issues of recruitment and retention of nurses."