St. Luke&rsquo;s Hospital of Kansas City is restructuring its nursing staff by eliminating 300 &ldquo;patient care technician&rdquo; positions and replacing them with 250 &ldquo;nursing assistant&rdquo; positions.</p><p>The new jobs will be offered at lower pay.</p><p>The patient care technicians, who help registered nurses with bedside care, were told they have until the end of October to reapply for the redesigned jobs.</p><p>St. Luke&rsquo;s spokeswoman Kerry O&rsquo;Connor said the restructured nursing assistant positions would be filled by Nov. 9 at one pay grade lower than the patient care technician positions.</p><p>She said she couldn&rsquo;t specify the amount of the pay difference.</p><p>The new jobs will pay less because the restructuring calls for less clinical expertise from the nursing assistants, she said. </p><p>&ldquo;This is really about putting the clinical experience of our registered nurses closer to our patients,&rdquo; O&rsquo;Connor said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s giving our registered nurses a more hands-on opportunity for bedside care.&rdquo;</p><p>O&rsquo;Connor said the hospital has a &ldquo;shared governance&rdquo; model, meaning nurses have a voice in decisions affecting care management.</p><p>&ldquo;The decision was arrived at after close review of staffing needs over past weeks and months and was/is supported fully by nursing leadership,&rdquo; she said.</p><p>Julie Perry, with the National Nurses Organizing Committee, an AFL-CIO affiliate, said this type of nursing staff restructuring has not happened at hospitals represented by the union.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s robbing Peter to pay Paul,&rdquo; Perry said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s never a good solution to increase the workload of RNs by reducing their support staff.&rdquo;</p><p>St. Luke&rsquo;s employs about 1,000 registered nurses.</p><p>O&rsquo;Connor said the hospital had made no announcement about increasing its registered nursing staff. </p><p>Coincidentally, the hospital earlier this month earned the American Nurses Credentialing Center&rsquo;s &ldquo;Magnet Recognition Program&rdquo; designation for professionalism in patient care. The credential is held by 6.2 percent of U.S. health care organizations, the center said.</p><p>Ken Powers, media relations manager for the Joint Commission, a hospital accrediting organization, said the commission doesn&rsquo;t set expectations about staffing numbers or staff-to-patient ratios.</p><p>Rather, Power said, evaluators look at whether &ldquo;the staffing is appropriate for patient care and volume &hellip; and that staffing doesn&rsquo;t adversely impact the care patients receive.&rdquo;