Hundreds of Kaiser Permanente nurses hit the picket line on Tuesday to kick off a seven-day strike, calling for a deal that includes increased pay and staffing. Registered nurses at Kaiser's flagship Los Angeles Medical Center started picketing at 7 a.m. Nurses said there will be at least 100 people at the picket line at any given time between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. every day for the next week. The walkout involves approximately 1,200 registered nurses who are pushing for their first contract after becoming members of the California Nurses Association back in July 2015.
Nurse Elet Neilson pleaded guilty to taking drugs and has been accused of passing hepatitis C to patients, but not been charged. Attorneys claim that McKay-Dee Hospital in Ogden, and Davis Hospital and Medical Center in Layton failed to report Neilson's actions, and failed to terminate Neilson's employment in a timely manner. They also allege that the hospitals failed to promptly notify patients that they had "been subjected to medical instruments that had potentially been contaminated by Neilson and were therefore at risk of contracting and/or spreading viral and/or bacterial infections." Neilson's lawyer, told The Tribune last week that many of the allegations against Neilson are not accurate and do not "present the complete factual story."
A registered nurse assisted with an emergency surgery while under the influence of alcohol at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, police said. Richard J. Pieri, 59, of Drums, was charged with recklessly endangering another person, driving under the influence of alcohol and other counts. Police allege he assisted with an emergency surgery on the night of Feb. 4 at the Plains Township hospital after he admitted to drinking between four and five beers at Mohegan Sun Pocono casino earlier that evening. According to police, Pieri said he forgot he was on call.
When the emergency room fills up — whether it's a big accident, flu season or a stroke of misfortune — Brooklyn nurse Rose Green says she can find herself sprinting from room to room, trying to keep ahead of the whims of calamity. She and other nurses from around New York state are urging state lawmakers to pass legislation that would set minimum staffing levels for hospitals and nursing homes, a rule that they said would improve patient outcomes by addressing a chronic staffing problem. "There are times when you wind up with 16, 17 patients," she said. "You cannot provide appropriate care to that many people."
Telling lawmakers of violent attacks at the hospitals where they work, nurses on Thursday advocated for legislation requiring health care employers to put a bigger emphasis on worker safety, the State House News Service reported. "There was one nurse that I knew that was almost choked to death when a patient was hiding in an alcove up on the psych unit," Kathy Metzger, a registered nurse retired after decades at Brockton Hospital, told the Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security. "She was walking to take care of another patient. He came out at her and brought her towards the ground. And she's no longer working because of neck and back injuries from it."
Five years ago, my mother was rushed to the hospital for an aneurysm. For the next two weeks, my family and I sat huddled around her bed in the intensive-care unit, oscillating between panic, fear, uncertainty, and exhaustion. It was nurses that got us through that time with our sanity intact. Nurses checked on my mother—and us—multiple times an hour. They ran tests, updated charts, and changed IVs; they made us laugh, allayed our concerns, and thought about our comfort. The doctors came in every now and then, but the calm dedication of the nurses was what kept us together. Without them, we would have fallen apart.