NLRB to issue landmark decision on nurse practitioners.
The National Labor Relations Board is poised to issue a decision in Saints Memorial Medical Center. The narrow legal issue to be decided is with which of the eight acute care bargaining units nurse practitioners should be placed. The practical consequences of the decision, however, will be profound. The NLRB will determine, among other matters, the ease or difficulty of organizing nurse practitioners into labor organizations. Numerous friend-of-the-court briefs have been filed by various health care labor organizations, employer groups, and professional groups, taking contrary positions. The authors favor placement of the nurse practitioners and other advanced practice nurses within the physicians bargaining unit, because as a practical matter, this will lead to the creation of more nurse practitioner positions. Such a ruling, however, will make it more difficult to organize nurse practitioners.
O'Meara
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SM
Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA.
O'Meara
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DP
D000208:Acute Disease / Q000451:nursing; D003098:Collective Bargaining / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006801:Humans; D008404:Massachusetts; D009722:Nurse Practitioners / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*