UIHC nurses speak out about badge policy requiring full names, no stickers

IOWA CITY — University of Iowa Health Care administrators say they’re “evaluating our badge naming practices based on employee feedback and evolving industry standards” after 500-plus nurses and staff covered their last names with union stickers in protest.

“We've heard concerns from folks for a long time about privacy and safety in the workplace,” said Hannah Bott, lead organizer with the Iowa division of SEIU Health Care Minnesota & Iowa — a union representing more than 4,000 UIHC nurses and staff.

Pointing to the UIHC policy requiring employees maintain photo ID badges with their first and last names visible, Bott said workers for years have aired concerns about exposure — given the high-stress, anxiety-infused nature of their work and patient interactions.

“We've heard concerns from folks that, at the most mild, somebody will find them on Facebook, and at the most extreme, we've had folks report that they've had patients show up at their home,” Bot said. “Obviously that's incredibly extreme and very rare. But it has happened.”

In May, 500-plus UIHC employees took action to protest the badge policy by covering their last names with SEIU stickers — unifying in collective defiance what had been more piecemeal in the past, with staffers for years using some variation of white out or sticker to shroud their identify, Bott said.

“This is already a practice that a lot of people have in place of covering their last name,” she said. “And there had been no enforcement.”

But after the union-organized action, UIHC leadership in late August and early September began circulating “key reminders” of the ID badge policy — going beyond just the full name and photo requirement to reiterate the mandate that employees strip badges of all personalizing pins and stickers.

“Badges, including the badge holder and hang tag, must be free of stickers, pins, and other adornments,” according to the employee reminder, prohibiting lanyards as well. “Full name, title, and location must be fully visible.”

When contacted by The Gazette, UIHC leadership said the “professional appearance and photo identification badge policies that support both patient care and employee safety” have “been in place for several years and are reviewed regularly.”

“As part of the ongoing policy review process, we are currently evaluating our badge naming practices based on employee feedback and evolving industry standards,” UIHC officials said.

‘Really unsafe’

But Bott told The Gazette the historic lack of enforcement of that policy had many workers perceiving the recent guidance as new — compelling the union to start a petition demanding “this policy be immediately revoked and the process by which staff can swap their full last name for their last initial be streamlined and simplified.”

In an open letter to UIHC Associate Vice President Brad Haws, CEO of the clinical enterprise, SEIU called the ban on badge accoutrements “an anti-union attack on SEIU members who participated in an action earlier this spring protesting the university’s standard of practice which forces all staff to display their full first and last names.”

The enforcement means removal of employees’ pronoun stickers, pride flags, personalized badge reels, and Daisy Award pins — recognizing nurses who have “demonstrated extraordinary clinical skill and compassionate care.”

“Patients, and of course then also by extension LGBTQ staff, feel like this is an anti-gay retaliatory measure — like overreach by the government,” Bott said. “And in the current climate that we're in, that makes a lot of sense that folks now are being told they have to remove their pride flags from their badges, their pronoun pins and stickers.”

Doing so can impact not only employee moral but patient sentiment and security, according to Bott.

“We specifically heard a report from a patient in the LGBTQ clinic who said that this made him feel really unsafe about pursuing care at the university,” she said.

‘Out of the norm’

Although nurses honored with the Daisy award have in past accumulated pins on their badge to show the recognition, UIHC’s recent re-upped guidance specifically barred that practice, saying: “All pins (including Daisy pins) must be removed from your badge.”

It also called out the practice of covering their last name with a “high alert” sticker from a vial of heparin — a commonly-used blood thinner.

“All stickers must be removed (no more *heparin* covering your last name),” according to the guidance, which included a warning to comply with the university’s “artificial nails” policy banning fake nails and any nail jewelry by Sept. 4.

Bott said the union and its members understand the need to be sanitary — including when it comes to badges.

“There were definitely some concerns that they expressed about the badges not looking professional … and we recognize the need for badges to be sanitary, of course,” she said. “But we want to see the badge policy allow expression within reason, and to also create an easier path for folks to remove their last name.”

The union, in its letter to CEO Haws, said they’re not alone in making that appeal — citing community support. And Bott said hospitals nationally are moving to a more protective standard for staff.

“The norm is first name and last initial, or first initial and last name,” Bot said. “So UI is definitely out of the norm in having a requirement for first full and full last name.”

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com