[CNA/NNU] – Registered Nurses will hold a town hall meeting at the Valencia Branch of the Santa Clarita Public Library this Wednesday evening to let the public know what they are doing to insure quality patient care at Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital.

Santa Clarita City Councilmember TimBen Boydston will also participate in the town hall meeting.

The California Nurses Association/National Nurses United represents some 650 RNs at the hospital who have been without a contract since Jan. 22. Despite reaching agreements on a number of issues, hospital officials are now insisting on extensive new contract language that would grant management immunity for violating any number of the RN’s legal protections under the law. These are the same protections that enable nurses to advocate for their patients without fear of retaliation, nurses say.

“We’re holding the town hall meeting because we want the public to understand how quality patient care is compromised when nurses’ rights are compromised,” said Susan Salkeld, RN Medical-Surgical. “You can’t have safe patient care in a work environment where nurses feel vulnerable to retaliation if they speak up about unsafe staffing and other conditions that threaten patient care.”

What: Nurses, Community Leaders Town Hall Meeting on Threats to Patient Care at Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital

When: Wednesday, June 17, 20015 6:00 – 8:00 pm

Where: Valencia Branch Public Library, 23743 W. Valencia Blvd, Santa Clarita, Ca,

“As licensed RNs we are professionally bound to advocate for our patients and this sometimes means telling management things they don’t want to hear,” said Dustin Delahunty, RN Medical-Surgical. “It is absolutely vital that RNs feel that if they speak up they will have the legal protections they need to defend themselves and their patients. To abandon these protections is to abandon our patients and we refuse to do that.”

The new language stipulates that RNs give up their legal right to notify the appropriate public agencies or bring a class action lawsuit in the event that the employer violates any number of laws including those under the Family Medical Leave Act, California Pregnancy Leave Law, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and the California Labor Code, among others.