Dear CRONA Nurses,

Some nurses are being told that they need to apply for the PNDP on February 1, 2012, or otherwise face demotion. This is inaccurate. A Staff Nurse III or Staff Nurse IV can remain Staff Nurse III or Staff Nurse IV as long as s/he completes his/her activities under the Staff Nurse Criteria.

Some of you will be asked by managers to provide feedback verbally or in writing about a peer who is applying for the PNDP. Please do not take this opportunity to say negative and/or non-supportive statements about your peer. If you do not feel you can support the promotion of your peer, we ask that you respectfully decline to provide feedback. Also, whenever you do have an issue with one of your peers, we encourage you to discuss that concern with your peer first rather than bring it to a manager or raise it in a peer evaluation.

If you are a Staff Nurse IV and you change to a Clinical Nurse III, you will lose 4.5 % (the difference between Levels III and IV for both Clinical and Staff Nurses). In April 2012, all Clinical Nurse Levels will see a 4% across the board wage increase, while all Staff Nurse III and IVs will see a 2% across the board wage increase. However, this 4% wage increase for Clinical levels will still result in a net loss of approximately 2.5% compared to what you would earn if you remained a Staff Nurse IV. The same would be true for a Staff Nurse III who decides to simply stop maintaining the Staff Nurse III and drops to a Clinical Nurse II. Before you decide to go down a Level, we encourage you to check the Wage Schedule in the CRONA website.

All nurses who are currently Staff Nurse III or Staff Nurse IV, and who are seeking to maintain their Level by qualifying as a CN III or IV, should keep accurate records of the time they spend in completing their portfolios. Such activities include, but are not limited to:

Writing exemplars, articles, letter of intent, resume.

Obtaining evaluations, completing educational log.

Performing assignments related to committees on which they serve.

Performing community service, mission work.

Developing teaching tools and/or presenting them to a committee for approval.

The records should reflect the type of activity, a description of the activity, the date on which it was performed, and the amount of time spent. The records should also reflect any expenses incurred in connection with the activity—e.g., mileage and parking to participate in a community event.

These records should be retained to support claims to the hospitals for payment for time spent and for reimbursement of expenses.

If you have any questions, please call CRONA at 650-366-0156 or email crona@crona.org..

Sincerely,

Lorie Johnson
President
CRONA
On behalf of the CRONA Executive Board