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Bargaining Team Proposes Clinical Ladder Program for RN Recognition, Compensation

August 11, 2014

Our Bargaining Team for Registered Nurses at Los Robles Hospital & Medical Center, Riverside Community Hospital and West Hills Hospital & Medical Center met with HCA management for two days this week. During the first day of contract negotiations team members from all three hospitals reached tentative agreements with management on several existing contract articles.

During bargaining on Aug. 6, the team broke out into a separate Riverside and West Hills group to meet with management regarding our proposal for a Clinical Ladder program.

Lorraine Myrick RCH 3"At Riverside Community, we can truly benefit from having a Clinical Ladder. It’s useful to retain and recruit high-quality nurses to provide high-quality care and increase patient satisfaction. It is a catalyst for the growth and development of professional nursing.”

– Lorraine Myrick, Peds, Riverside Community

A Clinical Ladder program involves recognition and compensation for going above and beyond a nurse’s job description. It benefits both the hospital and RN by increasing participating nurses’ skill set and knowledge. For the nurse, there is generally a financial incentive of 3 to 5 percent more pay for moving up to the next clinical level.

Clinical Ladder programs can have many components and achieving the next level can be earned through different activities such as:

Our RCH and West Hills team members are using the current Los Robles Clinical Ladder program as a template for our proposal. We know HCA management has seen how successful the Los Robles program has been for patients, the hospital and nurses.