PASNAP HOUSE OF DELEGATES 2025! HELP US CELEBRATE OUR 25TH ANNIVERSARY IN HERSHEY! For More Info, See Page 9
Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses & Allied Professionals
February 2025
CRITICAL UPDATE
SOLIDARITY FOREVER!
Happy 25th Birthday, PASNAP!
Twenty-five years ago this year, staff nurses from Crozer Chester Medical Center, Temple University Hospital, WilkesBarre General Hospital, Fitzgerald Mercy Hospital, Lower Bucks Hospital, Suburban General Hospital, Brooke Glen Behavioral Hospital, and the now shuttered Jeannette District Memorial Hospital came together to form a new Union—a real Union for bedside caregivers. We left other Unions and organizations to create the Union that we wanted—a member-driven Union that would fight passionately for patient care and those who provide it.
We’ve done that, beautifully. But make no mistake: We’re not done.
Over our 25 years, we took risks. We welcomed fights. And we still do, today. We have matured but not mellowed— and we never will!
Every day, every shift, we step forward— together—to improve the healthcare experience for all involved. Our Union— the Union we created together because the member-driven, fighting Union we wanted didn’t exist—affords us a voice. And we will continue to use that voice and grow its power, together. It’s a Don’t-Miss Moment: Join the Celebration!
“The goal of PASNAP going forward is to bring the beauty and the strength of all that we envisioned and created 25 years ago, not just to every PASNAP Local but to every hospital across the state—to improve patient care and to ensure resources and protections for frontline caregivers everywhere there are patients and everywhere there are caregivers.”
Maureen
May, RN, PASNAP President
Sign up to attend PASNAP’s 2025 House of Delegates, where we’ll celebrate our 25th and look ahead to our 50th! Everyone planning to attend our 2025 House of Delegates—whether you’re a Local leader, a delegate, a member attendee or a retiree attendee— MUST sign up! Go to www.pasnap. com/HOD-2025/ to reserve your room today!
Jeanes and Fox Chase
OCR Picket 2025
Temple Strike 2010
Message from PASNAP President Maureen May, RN
Dear PASNAP family,
I am, as I like to say, PASNAPPROUD. The Union we created together through hard work, a guiding sense of mission, and sheer force of will is 25 this year! And I am so proud of who we’ve become—which is, as I see it, a true reflection of who we wanted to be all those years ago.
Twenty-five years ago this year, when the nurses who created PASNAP left other Unions to form this one, we had a vision for the kind of Union we wanted to create and be a part of—a Union that would focus on and fight for patient care and those who provide it, whether those caregivers were PASNAP members or not. A Union that would be composed of very strong, independent Locals, each with their own board and bylaws.
It’s this internal structure—one that isn’t all that normal in the labor movement— that keeps Locals organized, engaged and ready to fight.
Many of our founding members had been members of the Pennsylvania
Nurses Association (PNA), a nurses Union that grew out of the Pennsylvania State Nurses Association, a professional organization. PNA still operated like a professional organization. They didn’t focus on collective bargaining, and they didn’t fight for bedside caregivers or our patients.
PASNAP’s founding members understood that PASNAP needed to be a real Union—one whose power comes from collective action and bargaining and what we’re able to win from our employers. This little bit of early PASNAP history is important for the foundational understanding of who we are as a Union and what we did during our early years: We organized, built power and strength within each of our locals, and then we transformed our bad existing contracts into strong ones, building power and recognition and collecting more Locals along the way.
This is what we did then. It is what we are doing now. And it will be our path forward over PASNAP’s next 25 years.
Don’t Miss the Celebration!
We started with eight Locals:
• Crozer Chester Nurses Association
• Temple University Hospital Nurses Association
• Wyoming Valley Nurses Association at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital
• Fitzgerald Mercy Hospital Nurses Association
• Nurses Association of Lower Bucks Hospital
• Suburban General Nurses Association
• Brooke Glen Nurses Association
• Jeannette Professional Nurses Association—the only hospital and Local that no longer exists
We now have 39 Locals. But our structure and our values have never changed.
In August of last year, I had the honor of hosting all the Presidents of PASNAP in our offices in Plymouth Meeting. Teri Evans, our founding president, and Patty Eakin, PASNAP President from 2005 to 2015, joined me to reminisce and to revel in what all of us, together, have created.
Sign up to attend PASNAP’s 2025 House of Delegates, where we’ll celebrate our 25th and look ahead to our 50th! Everyone planning to attend our 2025 House of Delegates— whether you’re a Local leader, a delegate, a member attendee or a retiree attendee—
Original organizers of TAP
We laughed a lot. And we shared our tremendous pride for who we were at the beginning and who we still are now.
“I’m incredibly happy to see that the fighting spirit of PASNAP has been retained,” Patty said. “I think it’s easy for older organizations of any kind to become a little ossified and bureaucratic. Because let’s face it, fighting isn’t easy. The struggle is not easy. But access to health care and excellence in health care is still a fight in this country, and PASNAP is still fighting. I can’t tell you how proud I am of that.”
Our solidarity—between nurses and allied professionals, between hospitals in our health systems, within our geographic regions, and across eastern and western Pennsylvania—is our most valuable resource as a Union, because it’s through our solidarity that we can continue to push back, as we have since we were founded, against for-profit healthcare, dangerously unsafe staffing levels, and the systemic lack of resources and protections for frontline caregivers.
It’s through our solidarity as a Union that we can make a difference for our patients and our professions in the years to come.
We understood this back in 2000. But it isn’t just part of our history—it’s our future, too.
In solidarity and with tremendous appreciation for you and for all you do, Maureen May, RN
Members Vote to Approve Changes to PASNAP Bylaws and Constitution
Three proposed amendments to our PASNAP Constitution and Bylaws presented to the membership in December all passed overwhelmingly in a vote that concluded January 11th. All three amendments will now be reflected in our Constitution and Bylaws, and as a result:
1. PASNAP State Executive Board Members who cease to become members during their term of office can now become associate members and finish out their term, ensuring continuity for the Board and PASNAP leadership as a whole.
2. PASNAP Associate Memberships are now more widely available—to former PASNAP members; to those employed in a healthcare profession who was not in a bargaining unit represented by PASNAP; to any individual formerly employed in a healthcare profession that was not in a bargaining unit represented by PASNAP; and to students working to obtain healthcare licenses or certifications. The idea is to strengthen the connection between PASNAP and our former members, including retirees, as well as with those who are not yet organized, including students. The amendment would also set associate member dues at $20 per month, subject to review and adjustment by the Executive Board.
3. PASNAP now has a new Ethics and Investigation Committee, appointed by the president, to investigate alleged violations by members of our Constitution, Bylaws, and Code of Ethics, and draw up charges if they are found to be warranted. Currently, all complaints go directly to the Board. This change removes the Board from hearing and investigating the initial complaint, which preserves their ability to hear an appeal of a decision made by the Hearing Panel, and ensures that the process is fair to both the member making a complaint and the member being accused of a violation.
Scan for a full text of the amendments:
PASNAP House of Delegates 2006
WHAT’S YOUR VISION FOR PASNAP— AND HEALTHCARE AS A WHOLE—IN 2050?
“When we fight at St. Chris, we’re fighting for children who often have no support system, very few resources, and often no one else on their side. We’re fighting CEOs who want to line their pockets instead of providing more resources for those very vulnerable children. I want to bring our fight—the PASNAP fight—to more hospitals on behalf of more vulnerable patient populations. I want us to become a giant powerhouse in the state—one that fights for patients, for care, and for caregivers, just as we did when we were founded, only exponentially bigger, louder, and stronger.”
BECKY MURPHY, RN, St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children Nurses United
“I want to see PASNAP set the standard for healthcare workers in Pennsylvania and even nationwide. I want to see us have our own insurance plan, like the bigger Unions, and take business away from all the companies that try to pigeonhole us with their health plans. And I want to see a professional or technician at the helm one day, to show how diverse we really and truly are. There’s so much more we can and will do than I can envision now. We are a baby Union, just spreading our wings. We have not even begun to grasp how far we can go!”
SELENA
HODGE, MT, BSHA/BSHM, Temple Allied Professionals
“When PASNAP began, we were a nurses Union. Now, we have paramedics and pharmacists, technicians and professionals. So many different kinds of caregivers have joined us that PASNAP now represents health care, not just nurses and patients, and I am so proud. I think PASNAP will triple, even quadruple in size in the next 25 years, and I am so very proud to have been a part of this movement from the beginning.”
PEGGY MALONE, RN, PASNAP E-Board Member-At-Large Crozer-Chester Nurses Association
“I don’t just want nurses and healthcare workers to stay in the hospital. I want PASNAP to continue to take it to Harrisburg and to D.C., and for our collective voices to be louder and our influence larger. I want more people to know that we are here and that we will roar for our patients and for ourselves if we need to. Cover your ears, because we’re coming—and we’re coming loudly!”
CARLA LE’COIN, RN, PASNAP E-Board Member-At-Large Einstein Nurses United
“I’d like to see more and more technical and professional staff join PASNAP to make us all stronger, like when TAP joined PASNAP, and it made both TAP and TUHNA stronger!”
SABRINA NIXON, MT, CLS, ASCP, PASNAP E-Board Member-At-Large, Temple Allied Professionals
“Going forward, I think our biggest challenge will be the mission vs. the margin. The mission for anyone working in healthcare is to deliver compassionate, holistic, high-tech care. But, some 20 some years ago, the business community found that you can make money in health care. Now all the top people are all about the business, the margin. They’ve lost the mission. I think it will be our job to bring the mission back to the fore.”
JIM GENTILE, RN, St. Mary United Nurses Union
“I like the identity of PASNAP, so I’d like us to remain independent. But I’d also like to see us be part of a conglomerate of Unions across the state and to work to expand our membership, like we are doing with our new associate membership program. We shouldn’t derive our ability to fight for patients based solely on where we happen to work. Every healthcare worker in Pennsylvania should be able to do that, and we’re taking steps to help them. It makes me very happy.”
SHANNAN GIAMBRONE, RN, PASNAP E-Board Secretary
Suburban General Nurses’ Association
“I think our biggest challenge in the next 25 years will be the same challenge we took on when we founded PASNAP—negotiating with the administrators who are fighting us tooth and nail to sacrifice care and maximize profits. We have to stay strong and fight together to keep a fair working environment for ourselves, and a safe care environment for our patients. That was our path forward in 2000, and it’s still our path forward in 2025.”
ANNEMARIE DALLAGO, RN, PASNAP alum and former leader, Fitzgerald Mercy Hospital Nurses Association
“In 25 years, I’d like to see PASNAP represent exactly what we represent now—only on a larger scale with more members: more professionals, more nurses, more technical professionals, everybody coming together because we want the same thing—the safety of our patients and of each other.”
PHYLLIS BROWN, RN, PASNAP E-Board Member-At-Large, Temple University Hospital Nurses Association
“I would love to see PASNAP cover the whole tri-state area. Can you imagine how powerful we would be? It would be amazing!”
VICKY REDDEN, LPN, PASNAP E-Board Member-At-Large, Fair Acres United
WHAT’S YOUR VISION FOR PASNAP AT 50?
We want to know!
Text Megan Gorman at 215-817-5781.
We’ll feature your vision for PASNAP at 50 in PASNAP social media.
“I’d like to see our membership double, advancing Union membership across the state—especially in central and western PA—and uniting healthcare workers across the commonwealth!”
TAMMY MAY, RN, PASNAP Treasurer, Pennsylvania Independent Nurses (at Butler Memorial Hospital)
“I would love to see PASNAP grow and represent more Locals in every corner of Pennsylvania. In 25 years, I would love to be forced to rent out a huge conference center for our House of Delegates. I would love for us to be so large members have to fight to get in!”
KALI VANWERT, RN, PASNAP E-Board Member-At-Large, Northeast Pennsylvania Nurses Association (at Geisinger Community Hospital)
“I want our influence, our numbers, and our results to continue to grow and astound. And in 25 years, I’d love to see PASNAP be nationwide. I don’t know if it’s feasible, but it’s what I’d love to see. Let’s bring everybody up!”
PATRICK KELLY, RN, Co-President, Einstein Nurses United
As frontline caregivers, we don’t just have to know exactly what to do to safely care for our patients—we also have to know how to maintain our legal ability to do so. Here, Nurse Attorney Edie Brous, Esq., RN, offers her top 5 Do’s and Don’ts when your license is under investigation. Brous’s advice applies to all licensed professionals.
nDO get legal counsel immediately— even if you’re not sure you’ve been reported to your licensing board. Find legal counsel right away if you even suspect you may have been reported to your licensing board. You want to be ready if/when an investigator reaches out. When hiring counsel, look beyond someone you know who just happens to be a lawyer. You need someone who practices administrative law, not malpractice or criminal, and the counsel you choose should have experience representing licensed professionals before your board. You can get referrals from The American Association of Nurse Attorneys, bar associations, professional organizations, and Unions.
nDON’T reach out to your licensing board to find out if you have been reported. In Pennsylvania, investigators typically have a law enforcement background; they aren’t healthcare professionals, and they’re not looking to hear “your side.” If and when an investigator reaches out, they will be asking questions to collect evidence for the prosecutor.
WHEN YOUR LICENSE IS UNDER INVESTIGATION
It can happen to anyone—which means everyone should know exactly what to do.
nDON’T speak with an investigator without your attorney present. Remember, the investigatory process is an adversarial process. It’s very easy to unintentionally make statements against your own interests—so don’t make any substantive statements at all.
“The investigator is not asking questions to hear your side of the story or to conduct an objective interview. The investigator is asking questions to collect evidence for the prosecutor.”
1 3 2 5
Investigators on the job can write letters or emails, call, or just appear in person at a person’s home or place of work. So if you receive a letter from an investigator, you should fax it or scan and email it to your attorney immediately so that a notice of appearance can be sent in time to meet any deadlines. If you don’t have access to a fax machine or scanner, DO NOT take a photo of the letter with your phone, and email the photo to your attorney—your phone does not provide privacy protections and attorneys cannot use photographs of legal documents. If you don’t have a fax or scanner, go to
Staples/FedEx/Kinkos/UPS or any other place where the document can be faxed or scanned and emailed.
If you receive a phone call or a visit from an investigator, tell them you will cooperate in the investigation but have been advised not to answer questions or make statements without counsel being present, and ask the investigator for their contact information so that can be done.
Here’s exactly what you should say: “I will cooperate in your investigation, but I wish to do so through counsel. Please give me your contact information [if the investigator is with you, in person, ask for their business card], and I will have my lawyer contact you on my behalf.”
n4
DO begin collecting supporting documents. Include performance appraisals/evaluations, letters of reference or recommendation, thank you letters from clients/patients, CME certificates of completion, any publications, public speaking experiences, etc.—anything you’d like to present to the Board in support of yourself. You want to be prepared.
n DON’T apply for a licence in another state until you know that there is no complaint to the Board in Pennsylvania or that the matter has been resolved—or until you’ve consulted your lawyer. This is because disciplinary action taken in one state is grounds for discipline in all others.
Edie Brous, RN, BSN, MS, MPH, JD is a Nurse Attorney in private practice specializing in professional licensure representation and nursing advocacy. She has an extensive clinical and managerial background in OR, Emergency, and Critical Care Nursing, and in addition to her law degree and RN, she holds masters degrees in Public Health and in Critical Care Nursing from Columbia University. Brous has led workshops at PASNAP House of Delegates meetings for the last three years running— and will be at our special 25th anniversary House of Delegates in Hershey on April 28th.
DON’T MISS: Nurse
Attorney Edie Brous on Zoom in March
Edie will be leading two LUNCH AND LEARN sessions for PASNAP members in March, both scheduled for noon. Attendance is capped at 60 members each time, so be sure to check your email and PASNAP social media for signup details in the coming weeks.
MARCH 14 AT NOON Professional Boundaries
Inappropriate involvement with a patient or patient’s family can take many forms. Maintaining proper boundaries is essential for patient well-being and to maintain confidence in the profession. Employers can terminate employees for violation of provider/patient boundaries and, more importantly, licensing boards can charge healthcare professionals with professional misconduct. This 1-hour LUNCH AND LEARN will discuss red flag behaviors and provide examples of consequential licensure discipline.
MARCH 28 AT NOON
Adverse Event Response
The National Transportation Safety Administration sees every plane crash as an opportunity to prevent the next one. Healthcare can learn many lessons from aviation on responding to and preventing adverse events. This 1-hour LUNCH AND LEARN will discuss constructive approaches to analyzing sentinel events and explain why traditional punitive responses undermine patient safety.
EDUCATION DEPARTMENT UPDATE Union School
Interested in becoming a Union Steward or a member of your Local Board but not sure what you would be called on to do? The PASNAP Education Department has you covered. Just in the last year, they’ve led or facilitated steward, Grievance Chair, and new board member training—both in person and via Zoom—for bunches of Locals, including Einstein Nurses United, Temple University Hospital Nurses Association, and Temple Allied Professionals, pictured here.
PASNAP Education Department members Angie Cleghorn and Kim O’Connell can also train members on Conflict Resolution and/or work with you to develop a training or series of trainings based on the specific needs of your Local. If you’d like to set up a training at your Local or simply start a conversation about what you or your Local needs, text PASNAP Education Director Angie Cleghorn at (215) 280-1718.
PASNAP, like other unions, spends the vast majority of its funds on collective-bargaining related activities as well as some amounts for political lobbying, community services, charitable donations, publications, certain litigation and other matters. As an employee represented by PASNAP and covered by a contract containing a union security or agency fee clause, you are required as a condition of employment to pay dues or an agency fee to the Union. Employees who are members of PASNAP enjoy all the rights and privileges of union membership including attending union meetings, voting to ratify contracts, running for union office, voting for union officers, and participating in certain union benefit programs that are provided only to union members.
Employees may choose not to be members of the Union. Employees who are not members of the union pay dues or agency fees, but they do not enjoy any of the rights and privileges of membership. Non-member employees may be “Beck Objectors” and may request an adjustment to their dues based on their objection to the Union expenditures that they believe are not reasonably related to representational activities including collective bargaining, contract negotiations, and grievance adjustment and related activities. Non-members who choose to object should request an adjustment to their dues. Such a request must be in writing, and it must include the employee’s full name, address, social security number, current wage rate, and employer. Such a request must be sent to PASNAP, 3031 Walton Road, Suite C-104, Plymouth Meeting, PA 19462-2326. Such a request is valid until withdrawn by the employee.
Non-members who submit an objection will receive information regarding how the union calculates representational expenditures and have their dues reduced to reflect the percentage of non-representational expenditures from the previous fiscal year which covers the period of July 1, 2023–June 30, 2024. This reduction in dues will commence on the first day of the month following the receipt of the objection. Beck objectors will be required to pay 85% of union dues.
Non-members objectors have the right to challenge the union’s calculations of representational expenditure before an impartial arbitrator on an annual basis pursuant to the American Arbitration Association’s Rules for Impartial Determination of Union fees. Such challenges must be made in writing, explain the basis for the challenge, and be received by the Union at the above address within 30 days of the employees receiving the calculation information. If more than one member challenges the calculations, the challenges will be consolidated for hearing. The decision of the impartial arbitrator will be final and binding. PASNAP will pay the cost of arbitration. Challengers must bear all other costs in connection with presenting their appeal, such as travel, witness fees, lost time, representation, etc.
By law, the Union is required to furnish the following information annually. If you have questions, please call (610) 567-2907.
Sunday, April 27–Tuesday, April 29
Hershey Lodge, Hershey, PA
25 YEARS OF PASNAP:
Celebrating Our Past, Focusing On Our Future PASNAP HOUSE OF DELEGATES 2025!
Every year, we come together at our House of Delegates meeting to strategize ways to build a more powerful, engaged, and active union—to meet members from all PASNAP locals, to elect members to our statewide Executive Board, to share what works and what we are planning in the year ahead, to learn, to collaborate, and to have fun.
This year, our House of Delegates will coincide with PASNAP’s 25th anniversary, and we plan to mark the silver-themed moment with tributes to our founding members and storied history; a look ahead to our next 25 years and the challenges we will face together at the bedside and in healthcare; and a ton of celebrating our Union and each other—including, for the first time ever, a semi-formal celebration on Monday night! We’re asking everyone to wear PASNAP colors—either black or red!
Our theme is 25 Years of PASNAP: Celebrating Our Past, Focusing on Our Future. You don’t want to miss it—especially since it’s all taking place in Pennsylvania’s chocolate capitol!
All PASNAP members, soon-to-be members, and retirees are welcome to attend, either as official delegates or simply attendees. Food and hotel costs are covered!
REGISTER AND RESERVE YOUR ROOM NOW J
Contact your local board if you’re interested in running for a delegate position.
Interested in Running for PASNAP’s Statewide Executive Board?
There are 7 PASNAP Executive Board positions up for re-election at this year’s House of Delegates: President, Secretary, and five At Large Members, all with 2-year terms.
By completing and returning this Consent to Serve form, you are expressing your interest in filling one of these positions and consenting to serve in that position if elected by voting delegates.
I, ___________________________________________________________ (print name), consent to serve as:
n President
n Secretary
n At Large Member of the PASNAP Executive Board
Signature __________________________________________________ Date _______________________
Executive Board Consent to Serve forms are due to the PASNAP office by April 13; no forms will be accepted after that date. Forms can be mailed to PASNAP, 3031 Walton Road, Suite C-104, Plymouth Meeting, PA 19462-2326; scanned and emailed to hilary@pasnap.com; or faxed to the attention of Hilary Williams at (610) 567-2915. PLEASE follow up with an email to hilary@pasnap.com to alert us that your form has been submitted and to confirm its receipt.
BARGAINING UPDATES
Winning Out West
Nurses at Indiana Regional Medical Center (IRRC) voted to join PASNAP last spring (critical staffing and retention issues pushed them to make the change), becoming our fifth Western Local! IRRC is part of the Pennsylvania Mountain Care Network, which also includes Armstrong County Memorial Medical Center (ACMH) and Punxsutawney Area Hospital. The Indiana RNs join their PA Mountain Care Network colleagues, the PASNAP nurses and the techs at ACMH.
As we went to press, the Indiana RNs appeared to be infinitesimally close to wrapping up bargaining and winning their first PASNAP contract. Check PASNAP communications and social media to read all about it.
For Reasons Way Beyond Their Control, Taylor Nurses’ Contract is Not Swift #PATIENTSOVERPROFITS
The nurses at Taylor Hospital, part of Delaware County’s Crozer Health system, voted to join PASNAP last April, and in the ensuing 10 months, Prospect Medical Holdings, Crozer’s horror-show, for-profit owner, was sued by the PA Attorney General’s office for “shattering a network of care for hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians” and putting “lives at risk.” The lawsuit sought a preliminary injunction to preserve all existing service lines and the appointment of a receiver to manage the Crozer Health System for the immediate future.
PASNAP applauded the state’s bold action: “On behalf of our patients and
the frontline healthcare workers in Delaware County—both within the Crozer system and those who work in nearby hospitals dangerously swamped by Prospect’s serial service cuts and hospital closures—we are supportive of the Governor’s guidance and the state’s intervention, and we look forward to the restoration of the health system and to a return to the prioritization of patients over profits in Delaware County,” we said.
But the drama wasn’t over: In January, as we awaited word on the receivership and the resumption of bargaining for the Taylor RNs and their Union siblings at Crozer Chester Medical Center (contracts for the the PASNAP RNs, paramedics, professionals, and pharmacists there all expired in December), Prospect filed for bankruptcy.
THIS is why we fight relentlessly for patients over profits. Check PASNAP communications and social media to see what happens next.
We Are ONE PASNAP
Six PASNAP Locals, all of whom voted to join PASNAP within the last year (welcome!), are currently bargaining for their first contracts. Of the six, four operate under the sprawling Temple Health umbrella, where PASNAP represents more than 3,500 nurses, CRNAs, techs, and professionals. Temple Health likes to tell its employees across its multiple campuses: “We are ONE TEMPLE,” using the tagline, “The Best Care, Wherever You Are.” But the employees’ experiences working at Temple Health’s satellite campuses don’t bear that out, and it’s their inequitable treatment that triggered a wave of organizing among Temple’s satellite campus employees—and a wave of recent PASNAP actions. We are one PASNAP, and we will always fight for our patients and our professions, no matter where or when.
Chestnut Hill Hospital RNs and Techs Hold a Christmas 2024 Picket
Jeanes Techs & Pros and Fox Chase Professionals Picket in January
PASNAP techs and pros across two Temple Health satellite campuses—Jeanes Hospital and the Office of Clinical Research within Fox Chase Cancer Center— braved an arctic blast to urge Temple to invest in staff retention and fair wages to keep caregivers at their facilities and serving their patient communities. “For years, our department has lost so many talented research professionals to competitors who offer better wages and working conditions,” said Diane Creitz, Senior Clinical Research Educator at Fox Chase Cancer Center’s Office of Clinical Research (OCR) at the rally. “Temple management has done nothing to stop it. In the last year alone, I’ve onboarded more than 40 people to our staff of approximately 80. That’s a 50% turnover rate!”
“We picketed in the freezing cold because we are fighting for fairness,” said X-Ray Technologist Jackie Brettle. “We’re not asking for more than what our counterparts in other Temple Health System facilities receive—we just want parity and the respect it confers. Bottom line, what we want is safe staffing for our patients and fair compensation so we can keep our skilled techs and professionals at the bedside, caring for our patients. Is that really too much to ask?”
Check PASNAP communications and social media to see how Temple chooses to answer that question.
PASNAP nurses and techs at Temple Health-owned Chestnut Hill Hospital have been bargaining for nearly a year, and they still don’t have a contract—or the staffing they need to care for their patients and retain their members. With patient volume skyrocketing and chronic understaffing threatening patient care, they spoke out in December.
“Nurses are weary, and techs are tired of being looked over and disrespected,” said Med-Surg Nurse Kadena SmithFleming, LPN, at the time. “If this informational picket has one purpose, it’s to let the community know what’s going on and to let Temple know that it stops now. Enough is enough!”
Check PASNAP social media for updates on bargaining.
PASNAP POLITICAL UPDATE
What’s Your Legislative Priority?
The PASNAP CPR (Communications, Politics & Research) Department is compiling a list of legislative priorities for PASNAP caregivers: nurses, technical specialists, professionals, paramedics, pharmacists, CRNAs, midwives, social workers—you name it. Do you have a legislative priority you want to add to the list and to PASNAP’s legislative agenda?
Reach out to CPR Director Steve Morris at smorris@pasnap.com today!
NEW & URGENT
AN ALL-HANDS-ON-DECK CALL TO ACTION PA Hospital Regulations are Being Updated: Voices
From the Bedside Must Be Heard!
For the first time in nearly 30 years, the Pennsylvania Department of Health (DOH) is updating its hospital regulations—that is, the rules and criteria that govern how our hospitals are run and determine many aspects of our work environment and our safety on the job. The process presents a key opportunity to effect meaningful change for us and our patients—and we’re not wasting it.
Throughout the fall, PASNAP leaders participated in numerous stakeholder discussions regarding the regs, actively advocating for critical changes to improve both patient care and working conditions for healthcare workers. These are the major items we’re fighting for:
• Safe Staffing Ratios: PASNAP is pushing for enforceable limits on nurseto-patient ratios in every unit. Research shows this reduces patient deaths, complications, and nurse burnout.
• Workplace Violence Prevention: We are demanding stronger protections against violence, including the creation of powerful committees in all hospitals
to implement changes, and “safe harbor” protections for nurses to refuse unsafe assignments without fear of retribution.
• Protecting Community Hospitals: PASNAP is fighting to prevent hospital closures, especially in underserved areas, and to combat the harmful practices of for-profit hospitals that prioritize profits over patient care.
• Transparency and Accountability: PASNAP is fighting for regulations to require hospitals to disclose staffing levels and safety compliance, giving patients and staff clear expectations.
How You Can Make a Difference
A partial draft of the new regulations will be released by the DOH this spring for 30 days of public viewing and comments; the remainder will be released in the fall, also for 30 days of public viewing and comments. During these monthlong public comment periods, we can submit feedback to ensure voices from the bedside are heard and are just as loud if not louder than those of hospital administrators and their lobbyists.
This feedback will help shape the final regulations, ensuring safer hospitals for both workers and patients.
It’s crucial that we tell the DOH that we need safe staffing and other protections in the updated regulations. If we seize this opportunity, we can address many of the systemic issues that have long plagued healthcare professionals and patients alike. Our comments will form part of the official record, requiring review and response from government officials.
Be a Member of Our Rapid Regs Response Team—Tell the DOH What We Need at the Bedside!
PASNAP’s strong advocacy for staffing ratios and workplace violence protections (among other issues) as part of Pennsylvania’s updated hospital regs is separate and distinct from our efforts to pass legislation to improve patient safety and protect caregivers. Our advocacy on both fronts is critical to ensuring we improve the patient care environment in PA, one way or another.
When the 30-day comment period opens, you will receive email and text updates from PASNAP. We’ll guide you on how to ensure your voice is heard.
Gov. Shapiro Calls Out Private Equity in Healthcare: “It’s Time for Us to Stand Up”
This month, in his annual budget address to the Pennsylvania General Assembly, Governor Josh Shapiro spoke out strongly against private equity and how it has “infected our healthcare system.”
“They buy up hospitals and healthcare facilities, line their own pockets by stripping money and resources from those facilities, and compromising care,” he said. “Then, in many cases, they skip town, leaving taxpayers holding the bag and communities without the care and services they need. I’m done letting private equity treat Pennsylvania hospitals like a piggybank they can empty out and smash on the floor. As a Commonwealth, it’s time for us to stand up for our local hospitals … and put in place real safeguards against private equity.”
He was referring, in part, to the The Attorney General Oversight of Hospital Transactions Bill, which was inspired by Prospect Medical’s reign of terror in Delaware County. It’s cosponsored by PASNAP ally Rep. Lisa Borowski, who has had a front-row seat for what happens to caregivers and patient communities when hospitals are shuttered by owners seemingly far less concerned with the public welfare than with draining the health system of every last penny.
The bill empowers the Attorney General to scrutinize critical, community-affecting healthcare transactions before they are finalized to determine whether the transactions are in the public interest and to challenge them if they are not.
The Attorney General Oversight of Hospital Transactions Bill passed the full House last July and unanimously passed the Senate Health and Human Services Committee in the fall before running out of runway in the 2023-2024 legislative session.
See “Next Up in Harrisburg” on page 14. We’ll keep you updated on the fight to protect access to healthcare and those who provide it here in PA.
WHY PAC IS SO IMPORTANT—
Have You Signed Up?
Since 2022, the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania (HAP) has spent upwards of $500,000 through their PAC to elect HAP allies—often influencing the legislature against what would be best for frontline caregivers and patients in PA. To push our legislative goals forward, we have to be able to go toe to toe with the hospital’s lobbyists; along with in-the-building advocacy, we need resources. If we all chip in $5 per paycheck—the cost of a single cup of coffee—to the PASNAP Political Action Committee (PAC), we can do exactly that, and fight back.
Our industry is changing rapidly. As hospitals merge and become corporate behemoths, workers are under attack like never before. Plus, given the current changes to the National Labor Relations Board, things are likely to get harder, not easier. But when we don’t fight, we don’t win. The only way to win is to fight, and we need PAC money to wage that fight! Use the QR Code below to sign up for PAC!
(PASNAP PAC is a completely separate fund from Union dues. Union dues are not used for political contributions.)
PASNAP POLITICAL UPDATE
Head to Harrisburg with Us!
The PASNAP Political Team makes frequent trips up to Harrisburg to meet with legislators to tell them what we’re seeing firsthand at the bedside and why we can’t rely on our hospitals for safe staffing and workplace violence prevention—we need legislation to protect us and our patients! If you’re interested in joining your colleagues and coming to the Capitol for a day, please let us know and we’ll send you additional info and possible dates.
We fight for what we and our patients need in our contracts, but we need to fight for legislation, too. And although the venue’s different, the same rules apply—there’s strength in numbers! Join us!
Interested in learning more? Reach out to your Local president or PASNAP staff member Sean Gavin at sgavin@ pasnap.com
WE NEED YOUR VOICE: Join Our Content Creators Team
We need Members from every Local to help us raise awareness of our critical issues, our advocacy, and the work of our Locals on social media. You’ll work in close collaboration with PASNAP Digital Communications Specialist Autumn Morgan to brainstorm ideas and come up with content that will resonate with nurses and allied professionals across the state and beyond. It’ll be fun— and super impactful. Grab a close colleague and reach out to Autumn together at amorgan@pasnap.com.
Next Up In Harrisburg
January 3rd marked the beginning of a new legislative session in Harrisburg, which means that any bills that didn’t make it over the finish line and to the Governor’s desk for his signature in the last two years—including our long-foughtfor Patient Safety Act, which passed overwhelmingly (we were there!) in the House in June 2023 but stalled out in the Republican-led Senate, have to be reintroduced and reconsidered by both the PA House and Senate in the 20252026 session. As a result, on deck for us this legislative session are some familiar bills as well as some brand new ones:
• The Patient Safety Act, which would mandate nurse-to-patient ratios based on acuity in every hospital in PA, has been re-circulated to House members and will be taken up by the Democraticled House Health Committee later this spring. Once it passes out of Committee, it will go to the full PA House Floor for a vote.
• The CRNA Scope of Practice Bill, which aims to modernize anesthesia practice in Pennsylvania and allow CRNAs to fully utilize their education and training, has PASNAP’s full support. We are hoping it sees legislative action
this spring and will update you as soon as we hear more.
• The Attorney General Oversight of Hospital Transactions Bill, sponsored by PASNAP ally state Rep. Lisa Borowski (above, center) and inspired in part by Prospect Medical’s reign of terror in Delaware County, passed the House with strong bipartisan support last July but ran out of runway in the Senate before the 2023-2024 session ended. The bill empowers the A.G. to scrutinize critical, community-affecting healthcare transactions before they are finalized to determine whether the transactions are in the public interest and to challenge them if they are not. We are watching this bill closely and will update you on its progress.
• The Health Facility Employee Violence Prevention Act, which would give caregivers a seat at the table in tracking and preventing workplace violence in their hospitals, passed out of the House Labor and Industry Committee in 2024. It will be re-introduced in the new session, and we’ll update you on its progress.
PASNAP EXECUTIVE BOARD
We’re proud that our Union is run by dedicated nurses and healthcare workers elected by their peers. These leaders from across the state define our collective vision (be sure to check out our E-Board Members’ vision for PASNAP in our next 25 years—and tell us your own! See pages 4–5) , set our priorities, and work to advance the best interests of healthcare workers and patients throughout Pennsylvania.
OFFICERS
President
Temple University Hospital Nurses Association
ANGELA NEOPOLITANO
Vice President Crozer Chester Nurses Association
Treasurer
Pennsylvania Independent Nurses (at Butler Memorial Hospital)
Secretary
Suburban General Nurses’ Association
St. Mary United Nurses Union
BOARD MEMBERS AT LARGE
KATE
Crozer-Chester Paramedics Association
Temple North Anesthesia Coalition
Northeast Pennsylvania Nurses Association (at Geisinger Community Hospital)
MAUREEN MAY
TAMMY MAY
SHANNAN GIAMBRONE
ROBERT BOZEK
CARLA LE’COIN Einstein Nurses United
DENNEY
PEGGY MALONE Crozer-Chester Nurses Association
SHIRLEY CROWELL Nurses Association of Lower Bucks Hospital
SABRINA NIXON Temple Allied Professionals
KALI VANWERT
DEBBI BOZEMAN St. Mary United Nurses Union
PHYLLIS BROWN Temple University Hospital Nurses Association
BERNADETTE GOLARZ
VICKY REDDEN Fair Acres United
Keep up with the latest PASNAP actions as they’re happening as well as news of our PASNAP siblings in hospitals across the state by connecting with us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, and by diving into our website at www.pasnap.com .
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If you’re having trouble connecting with us on social media, please reach out to Megan Gorman at mgorman@pasnap.com. pennanurses Pennanurses @pennanurses
Address Service Requested
Plymouth Meeting, PA 19462-2326
3031 Walton Road, Suite C-104