Posted on 10/19/2009 2:59:10 PM PDT by Steelfish
Nurses Plan Strike Over Swine Flu Conditions At Hospitals
October 19, 2009
More than 16,000 registered nurses are locked in a contract dispute with officials at 37 Catholic hospitals statewide and plan to strike Oct. 30 out of concern that the hospitals’ lax safety standards put them at risk of catching H1N1 flu.
The California Nurses Assn., which is in bargaining talks with San Francisco-based Catholic Healthcare West hospitals, announced the strike this morning.
Local hospitals expected to be affected include California Hospital Medical Center, St. Vincent Medical Center, Glendale Memorial Hospital and Health Center, St. Mary Medical Center in Long Beach, Community Hospital of San Bernardino and St. Bernardine Medical Center in San Bernardino.
Nurses also plan to picket two Catholic Healthcare West hospitals in Nevada. Nurses have been wrangling with the hospitals over pay, healthcare benefits, and adopting state guidelines for responding to H1N1 flu that were published earlier this year by the Division of Occupational Safety and Health. The guidelines include supplying nurses with N95 protective masks and isolating infected patients.
Nurses have been demanding more protection from the H1N1 flu all summer, an association spokesman said, but became increasingly concerned after a nurse died in July. Karen Ann Hays, 51, a cancer nurse at Mercy San Juan Medical Center in Sacramento, died July 17 of a severe respiratory infection, pneumonia and H1N1. Hospital officials could not confirm whether Hays, a triathlete and marathon runner, became ill at work.
The hospital is among those where nurses plan to strike. “We have a global pandemic of swine flu and we need the hospitals to do a better job preparing,” association spokesman Chuck Idelson said. “If the hospitals don’t do a better job, they become incubators.”
A California Healthcare West spokesman did not return phone calls this morning.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimesblogs.latimes.com ...
I don’t think that you can avoid the flu. You never know who has it . Almost no one with the flu should be in a hospital. Remember it’s not the flu that kills you.
I suspect H1N1 is not the only thing on their mind.
Why $1n5 may be an even bigger concern.
A town of about 40,000 in the county in which I live has about 150 students out sick (with Swine Flu) from one middle school.
One mother told me her son has it, and is out of school with 150 of his classmates.
I asked her if they are letting people know that the kids are out with the Swine Flu and she said the school isn't saying. So they are hiding the fact that a great number of their students have this flu.
I don't know how many are out with this from the only other middle school in the town.
Both are about the same size, student wise.
I do believe that The California Nurses Assn. are the staunch supporters of Obama and his healthcare plan. Sounds like a “union issue” to muscle hospitals and possibly point out the need for government control. As an RN, I take my health precautions to be my personal responsibility. Hospitals across the nation are limiting visitors and doing many things to contain the spread of H1N1. I find it difficult to believe that CA hospitals (as crazy as CA can be) are not taking precautions.
According to Wikipedia—The CNA/NNOC is a primary national organizational advocate of the United States National Health Care Act (HR 676). The bill would establish a single-payer national public health care insurance plan, essentially an improved equal treatment Medicare for all Americans.
Is that the new symbol for the International Currency that is being used these days?
How much money is that in the old style currency we used to use?
You are always on the cutting edge of new symbols etc...
: > )
The cleaning crews are next. They don't clean rooms thoroughly enough. Although, it's not all their fault. Sometimes patients are transferred out of a room and the room is not cleaned for the next patient.
Hospitals are incubators of germs. They keep it cold in there to keep germs down but it doesn't work.
If you visit anyone at a hospital clean up well before you go home.
Have they been specifically tested for Swine flu? I have heard they are calling all flu-like symptoms the Swine Flu to buck up the numbers.
That would be money that was in the neighborhood of $1 n $5 dollar denominations, but of course not conclusively limited to those paltry amounts.
As for my symbols, I donated them to the symphony.
By the way, that was supposed to be the $1n5 influenza virus, but these things have a bad way of morphing into something much worse like the $500n1000 virus.
But I do know that in all the years that I was in school, and my kids were in school, there was never that large of a group of sick kids not in school.
People were supposed to be dropping dead in the streets and storming the refugas, the true blue were expected to keep pumping out volts while eating MRE's.
It was supposed to be the night of the living dead, Southie rats crawling out of the sewers to kill those who had food and shelter, more likely to steal copper.
So soon do we forget our last panic.
Yet more lax standards in socialised medicine. How do the British put up with this?
(Space courtesy of Artistic license, license #03034316994587)
That's the first "phony" post I have ever encountered from you.
Pertaining to the "...$1n5 influenza virus, but these things have a bad way of morphing into something much worse like the $500n1000 virus....", waaaaay above my paygrade...LOL
I’m an RN from MA and the Mass Nurse’s Assoc is very closely tied with the CNA. About 8 yrs ago the MNA took us out over mandatory overtime. The CNA was thrilled. They had their “issue du jour” and other strikes ensued around the country.( I actually agreed with the mandatory OT strike). I think the H1N1 thing is the new trendy issue to walk out on. As California goes, so goes the rest of the states.
One more reason to bar unionizing where public interests are paramount.
A couple of months ago, I read a post by a person, whose child had swine flu. This man was told that schools were told NOT to inform parents when a child had swine flu.
I believe the reason for this, is because, you can catch it, before the person with it, shows any signs of it. They dont want parents, pulling kids out of school (because the lose state aid) when their child could have already been exposed.
I personally think this is BS and the reason why it can spread like wild fire.
I am going to try and find that post and bring it here. Also, I am not 100% sure..but, I think it even makes mention on the CDC site that they arent closing schools for this.
It really doesn't mean it's Swine Flu. My son's school has issued instructions that anyone with a fever is to stay home. The onset of a cold comes with a fever. If those children are sick - with something - they were probably told to stay home. It may be the SF but it may not.
The point is the feds, IMO, are hoping for an outbreak just to show how they can handle it. That scares me the most.
Here is that post that I read elsewhere, during the summer.
Friends,
As you know, I seldom mention family as it is not a wise thing to do in my business, under the current tyrannical political climate.
However, I want you to know (and forward) what I am about to tell you. *** PLEASE REMOVE MY NAME AND EMAIL ADDRESS BEFORE FORWARDING HOWEVER. *** (Done - gb)
I have a son in Middle School. He just tested positive for the H1N1 “swine flu virus” this morning, after running a high grade fever yesterday. He brought it home from school.
The doctors office is treating with strong anti-viral medications and monitoring for the next seven days, during which time he cannot enter public areas, and the household is likely to be infected.
Here’s what we learned from the doctors office this morning.
1) H1N1 has a 3- to 7 day incubation period before any symptoms show. During this period, the patient is in their most contagious state.
2) The FEDERAL and STATE government has advised ALL schools to KEEP QUIET where there are outbreaks and NOT share information, other than a generic statement concerning an entire school district, naming NO specific schools where an outbreak is known to exist.
3) Once symptoms show, the child is not allowed back to school until at least a week after symptoms subside. But keep in mind that by the time symptoms first appear, they have already infected others for 3 to 7 days, while they were at their most contagious.
4) The greatest concern with this virus is pneumonia. Our son seems to be managing fine at the moment, but we ask for your prayers for him and our household.
My point is this... The virus is real and it is out there. The government is keeping the school systems from naming schools where an outbreak exists. As a result, healthy children are in class with sick children not yet showing symptoms, but highly contagious.
Our doctor advised that medical offices have also been silenced on naming schools where an outbreak exists. The federal and state governments have a hush order on both the schools and the medical community. NO schools are being named until the spread is so bad that the school must be shut down!
This means that if you have children or grandchildren in school, you MUST be pro-active! Meet with your school administrators, ask IN WRITING whether or not the school has had any H1N1 outbreaks, and demand IN WRITING to be notified the minute the first case is identified in your school.
The ONLY way to avoid this illness is to keep “healthy” children OUT of schools where it is known that the virus exists. By the time the sick child is removed from the classroom with symptoms, he/she may have already infected the entire classroom. It appears to spread VERY easily, as our son is always VERY careful not to share food or drink, even at a public fountain, and washes his hands numerous times a day.
DO NOT let your healthy children go to school where H1N1 is known to be spreading. By the time your child shows symptoms, he/she will have infected dozens of others without knowing!
Once again, for the safety and security of my family *** PLEASE REMOVE MY NAME AND EMAIL ADDRESS BEFORE FORWARDING HOWEVER. ***
DO NOT TRUST THIS GOVERNMENT TO PROTECT YOUR CHILDREN. They are protecting ONLY themselves today.
Sender’s name and contact info removed per his request.
I don’t believe one word of the email you posted. Anybody can write anything they want. If they were really in the know, they would have no problem with their name being posted everywhere.
I’ve had many doctors, tell me that the “swine” flu is no worse than any other flu. I’d be more inclined to believe the government is making too big a deal out of it than the other way around. I’ll take my chances.
...I thought it was at the High School, that’s why they cancelled the football game...
These kids all have siblings, most are probaly in the 7 or 8 elementary schools in “T”
When I was the PTA president at my sons’ school, way back when, I tried this too. The school district and PTA jointly sent out a letter telling parents to keep kids with a fever home. In Springfield, IL they are court-ordered to maintain racial balance in all schools. Our school was on the affluent westside of town so poorer (spelled b-l-a-c-k) kids from the crime-ridden and impoverished eastside were bussed to our school to achieve that balance. Not race-hating here as each and every one of the parents of those bussed kids wanted their kids to go to school in their own neighborhood, but its those kids who came to school day after day without coats in the winter, with fevers, and with runny noses. Almost 95% were on public assistance and had a Medicaid card so it wasn’t like they could afford to go to the doctor as you and I were paying for it. It was just easier to send a sick kid to school and let the teachers worry about him/her. So whatever came around was sure to make its way around in the school. So my kids would get sick - never at the same time, mind you - and I or my wife would stay home with them, but the damage had been done already and every cold and flu that hit the school got passed around to all kids and parents.
Your obviously arent getting the point of the post. The govt isnt allowing anyone to tell the parents that the flu is going around in their school.
It doesnt matter whether it is mild or not (and children HAVE died from this), but what right do they have to not inform parents?
If you have a kid in school, you SHOULD know everything about whats going on there.
So..keep your head in the sand..and dont believe what someone is telling you..but, take a trip to the CDC site and read the same thing.
LOL, I don't know where “T” is...
I’m aware of two hospitals in the Los Angeles region that are cutting the hours of their long term nurses to replace them with recently graduated nurses. We both know why. I’m sure other hospitals are doing it too.
I looked at several hospitals today, and neither of them wants nurses. That’s just unheard of. I’m talking about 35 years that I am aware of, and I have never seen this before.
I have been against unions my whole life. I will tell you that what I see going on right now, angers me more than I can tell you.
They’ve been sending any jobs they can overseas. They’ve been bringing foreign labor in on H1-B visas. They’ve been allowing our nation to be over-run by illegal immigrants. Now they’re blatantly replacing good employees, just to cut costs.
In this environment, it’s amazing that every worker in the U.S. hasn’t unionized. What the hell is going on here?
I don’t want unions, but how do you talk down unions when businesses turns on their employees like this, and there isn’t a damned thing they can do about it.
Nursing has been one of the jobs that was always in need. The profession pays well. It was one of the old stand-bys.
Now that is gone too.
What exactly is a ‘Catholic’ hospital?
Schools are definitely hiding it, and not closing as they need the Federal money. Also, Obama has urged them not to close ...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.