The issues, according to the California Nurses Association website:
Sutter RNs are protesting 200 sweeping demands by Sutter executives that would:
- Restrict their ability to effectively advocate for patients
- Effectively force nurses to work when sick, dangerously exposing extremely ill patients to infection.
- Sharply reduce nurses’ healthcare coverage and retiree health benefits.
- The Sutter RNs are also protesting years of widespread cuts in patient care services...
and further:
Source: California Nurses Association"Sutter is making these demands and cutting services despite amassing $3.7 billion in profits the past half decade. Sutter pays 20 top executives more than $1 million in salaries."
The strike impacted 33 not-for-profit hospitals run by Kaiser Permanente and Sutter Health in Oakland, CA. The strike was supposed to end the next day with nurses returning to work by 7am September 23.
That didn't happen. The nurses did not return to work.
Instead, Sutter Health locked out the nurses. There has been one death being blamed on this situation; a cancer patient died after what hospital officials are calling a "freak accident" by a replacement medical worker. The California Nurses Association claims that the death would not have occurred if they had not been locked out by the hospital.
According to the Associated Press, the patient was given a "non-prescribed dosage" by a replacement worker. The story doesn't identify the replacement worker was a Registered Nurse.
Press release from California Nurses Association
Strike on local Fox affiliate
California Nurses Association strike on Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/23/california-nurses-strike-across-california_n_978131.html
Death as result of lock-out that followed strike http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/09/26/MNE31L9DP6.DTL
Nursing blogger comments on Madness: Tales of an emergency room nurse on the nurses strike
YouTube video posted on the California Nurses Association website
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.