Thousands of registered nurses and nurse practitioners in Northern and Central California, members of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA/NNU), voted nearly unanimously to approve a new three-year contract with Kaiser Permanente that gives them more freedom and authority to better care for their patients.
The contract covers 17,000 RNs and nurse practitioners in 21 hospitals and 40 medical office buildings, and is the largest single contract for RNs in the country. It provides for regional committees, selected by CNA, to determine additional staffing based on patient need. The deal also guarantees fixed schedules to protect arbitrary changes in nurse scheduling.
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