Posted on 12/12/2004 9:18:01 AM PST by NormsRevenge
SAN FRANCISCO - In the strange world of Schwarzenegger-era politics, it seems only fitting that the Republican governor, who rode to fame making tough-guy action films and who's been accused by dozens of women of being a serial groper, could get away with standing before a state women's conference and boast that he had angered a group of nurses because he was "always kicking their butts."
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made the remarks in Long Beach last week as he opened the first day of the California Gov.'s Conference on Women and Families, an annual gathering hosted this year by his wife, Maria Shriver. While presenting himself as the "opening act" for Shriver, it didn't take long for Schwarzenegger to grab the spotlight for himself.
He took on a group of activists from the California Nurses Association who were protesting his decision to impose a three-year delay on impending changes to the state's nurse-patient ratio, which would have narrowed the ratio to five patients to one nurse from its current level of six to one. In this case, Schwarzenegger sided with hospitals, who have argued that the new rules would impose a costly burden by forcing them to hire more nurses.
When the small group of nurses stood and unfurled a banner that read "Hands Off Our Ratios"_ a not-so-veiled reference to past groping allegations against Schwarzenegger - the Terminator-turned-governor hit back.
"Pay no attention to those voices over there," Schwarzenegger said. "They are the special interests, and you know what I mean. The special interests don't like me in Sacramento because I am always kicking their butts."
With that, most of the 10,000 women in the audience wildly cheered.
The moment represented a breathtaking sleight of hand for Schwarzenegger, who in one moment bolstered his own image as the special interest dragon slayer by singling out a union representing nurses, a poorly paid profession that's almost 90 percent women. And he did so at conference paid for by large corporations with business before the state, like BP, Allstate, Citigroup and Bank of America.
Since taking office a year ago, Schwarzenegger has managed to thumb his nose at California's earnest political correctness while suffering little political blowback. Even deriding Democratic legislators as "girlie men" last summer produced only the most predictable level of high dudgeon from feminists and gay activists, while almost everyone else seemed to chuckle. Schwarzenegger even reprised that line at the Republican National Convention to raucous cheers.
And here again - no harm, no foul for this governor, who was even praised at the women's conference by the actress Jamie Lee Curtis as having the "heart of a woman" himself.
"He gets away with it because people don't view him as a politician," said Barbara O'Connor, a professor of communications at Sacramento State University. "It just doesn't register as much as we would think it would when he makes these aberrant comments. He shoots from the hip, and we keep waiting for the public to say, 'wait a minute.' And it doesn't happen."
Predictably, nurses say they are outraged and that Schwarzenegger's remarks have become a rallying cry for further activism.
"I represent a group of nurses who are mostly Republican, and they are disgusted with him," said Susan Weinstein, president of a competing nurses union, SEIU 121 RN, that counts about 7,000 nurses in southern California as members.
Roseanne DeMarco, president of the union at the center of the controversy - the 60,000-member California Nurses Association - said the matter has already percolated beyond the state's border.
"We are getting calls from nurses all over the country saying I would never support this governor for president," DeMarco said. "I'm not kidding, this is deep; this is extremely deep."
There's no question the national health care crisis has deeply affected California, home to one out of seven Americans. And amid the huge and complex puzzle of delivering affordable care to as many people as possible, the controversy over nurse-patient staffing ratios is only one small piece.
But since becoming governor, Schwarzenegger has firmly sided with corporate interests in the health care debate, such as hospitals, businesses and pharmaceutical companies. Among other things, he opposed legislation authored by former Senate leader John Burton to require companies to provide health care for workers, and vetoed bills that would have helped consumers buy cheaper prescription drugs from Canada.
To be sure, Schwarzenegger has made job creation and protection the centerpiece of his governorship, and rightly pointed out that health care costs are one reason businesses are fleeing the state.
But picking a fight with nurses is another matter, ranking up there with badmouthing mom and apple pie. A new national Gallup poll, released Friday, showed that Americans for the third year in a row rated nurses as "the most ethical and honest professionals" in the country.
In the end, most Californians, who have watched nurses care for elderly relatives or hold a woman's hand as she goes through labor, don't view them as a special interest. By denigrating them, the governor sounds like a bully and risks shining a brighter light on his own relationship with corporate special interests, who he famously vowed to sweep out of Sacramento.
Treasurer Phil Angelides, a Democrat who joined nurses at a large rally at the state Capitol earlier this month, called Schwarzenegger's comments "deeply offensive" and said the governor owes nurses an apology.
"He shows public contempt for women who work long hours for low pay," Angelides, a likely candidate for governor in 2006, said. "It's not the first time he's ridiculed people, and sadly, it won't be the last."
layers = lawyers
I never thought about the slip-n-fall crowd getting into the hustle. Hmmmmm.....
Just wait until you have surgery and your 'cutie' has 18 post-op patients on her hands. Do you really think you're going to get the care you need? The first few days after surgery require skilled nursing care - not just for pain medication but for other nursing activities that will keep you out of big trouble.
I've seen 80 year old patients, unable to see, eating cold sandwiches for supper because they didn't fill out their food menu and no one was available to help them. I've seen those same patients not walked - when they should be - because there was no one to do it. The cardiac arrest down the hall took priority.
I'm not a nurse and I am not a union supporter, but hospitals will cut corners whenever they can and we'll suffer for it.
Answer: Fifty minutes. Five to give it and 45 minutes to document it.
LOL it's true and if you don't laugh you most certainly will cry.
Good luck with your career.
I really do think the danger of being sued worries a lot of people. I'd rather take a pay cut than work back to back shifts make a mistake then get sued.
Oh yes lots of good attitude and even better insurance!
But you can blame a lot of this on governmental regulation and Medicare to start with. A hospital has to watch its bottom line. Most are not huge money makers; a lot struggle to even stay open. I'm not up on the latest info, but the last time I worked inpatient as a physical therapist they were in the process of bringing in DRGs, or diagnostic related groups, basically meaning that Medicare paid the same for any patient admitted for a cholecystectomy unless there were complications and you could add another diagnosis code to his list.
Of course, the Medicare payout wasn't near enough to include the additional nursing staff required for the assorted other health professionals that had been cut.
Bottom line- mandate the number of nurses and the hospital's either going to close, make cuts elsewhere (housekeeping?), or soak the insurance patients even more.
Therefore, if the patient needed a physical therapist's skill to get him out of bed and walk, the hospital got the same amount of money as if they didn't. Since most of the patients we were walking could be just as easily walked by a nurse, PTs were phased out for most problems other than orthopedic ones, thus adding to the nursing workload.
I know about nursing. It's not an easy job. I know someone who just flew 15 hours here to take the NCLEX exam. And she is a "cutie" because she sees death and keeps it within her like I saw death in the military. It is managed, the best way possible.
I saw a lot of doctors drifting further and further left until Kerry nominated Edwards. Even our most liberal friend, an internist, became torn as to who to vote for - his animosity to trial lawyers appears even higher than his pacifist nature.
The nurses' union is just like the teachers' union and any so called public workers' union.
So kick their butts Arnold.
The nurses' union is just like the teachers' union and any so called public workers' union.
So kick their butts Arnold.
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Bad idea.
Case in point. Polls show more Americans trust Nurses over ANY other group.
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