COUNTYWIDE : Board OKs 5% Raise for County Nurses

After nearly two hours of testimony, the Ventura County Board of Supervisors agreed Tuesday to a 5% salary increase for about 60 veteran nurses.

The action was part of a plan to resolve a wage dispute and a 30% vacancy rate for positions that require highly trained nurses at such facilities as the Ventura County Medical Center.

However, the nurses said what they wanted most was to be allowed to help set wages and schedules and to meet regularly with administrators to discuss daily problems in the county facilities.

“It all boils down to issues more important than money,” said Rita Batchley, an obstetrics nurse at the county hospital.

The supervisors also agreed to create several new nursing classifications that offer a potential for higher salaries and to convert hospital bonus pay into higher salaries for all nurses.

The nurses said the actions taken by the board did not address all the problems raised by a task force of nurses and managers. Nurses said they want the county to hire additional assistants so that nurses will no longer have to answer telephones, make beds and transport patients around the hospital.

The supervisors told hospital administrators and personnel officials to continue to meet with nurses to resolve the remaining problems.

The board formed the task force in October to address the nursing problems, but several supervisors said they now regret the action because it forced them into the middle of a dispute between employees and their managers.