Nurses walk off the job Thursday morning at seven East Bay hospitals affiliated with Sutter Health

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Mercury News

By Sandy Kleffman

Hundreds of registered nurses walked off the job Thursday morning at seven East Bay hospitals affiliated with Sutter Health in the latest salvo in a longstanding dispute over wages, benefits and service cutbacks.

The hospitals have hired replacement nurses on five-day contracts and plan to lock out the striking employees until 7 a.m. Tuesday.

This marks the sixth time since September 2011 that the California Nurses Association/ National Nurses United has gone on strike and set up picket lines in front of Sutter facilities in the Bay Area.

The affected hospitals are three Alta Bates Summit Medical Center facilities in Oakland and Berkeley, Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley, San Leandro Hospital, Sutter Delta in Antioch and Sutter Solano in Vallejo.

FULL story at link.



Read more: http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_21906097/nurses-walk-off-job-thursday-morning-at-seven?source=pkg

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Nurses Strike Sutter Health
Registered Nurse Rochelle Pardue-Okimoto speaks during a one-day strike outside the Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Berkeley, Calif., on Thursday, Nov. 1, 2012. As many as 3,200 registered nurses hit the picket lines at seven hospitals affiliated with Sutter Health in the Bay Area. (Anda Chu/Staff)

12 more photos at link.

[RC]

1. Another example of "Your Money or Your Life" medical care.

Health care in other countries is a social service. Here in the United States, it's big business. Your money or your life. No money? Die and get out of the way for someone with money.

[NoOtherMedicineNovel]

4. As a Florida nurse who has marched and rallied in Tallahassee on behalf of patient protection with

Hedy Dumpel the founder and Director of this California group (along with my 165-pound Saintly Bernard), I hope and pray these striking nurses from the East Bay hospitals are successful. The statistics on the number of lives that will be saved is stunning. http://www.truthaboutnursing.org/news/2011/apr/02_florida.html

Go Nurses!!

[csziggy]

5. Thank you for your activism on the behalf of nurses and patients!

And thank Paxton for bringing more attention to your efforts.

I know recently during my recovery from knee replacements the only times I had problems with my care were nights when the nursing staff was horribly overloaded - 10-12 patients per nurse and tech. At least twice I had to raise a stink to get my pain meds at all over three hours LATE. At least the lack of meds I almost didn't get did not threaten my health. For a facility (rehabilitation hospital) that charges over $1000 per day, it was outrageous that they were chronically understaffed. During my two stays (8-9 days for each knee replacement) the ratio of nurses to patients was never less than 1 nurse for eight patients - TWICE what is recommended in the article you linked - and some nights was THREE times as many as recommended.

[NoOtherMedicineNovel]

7. Thank YOU for sharing your story

csziggy, I hear what you're saying about your experience and your struggles just to get your pain meds because of understaffing of nurses. Scary things go on behind closed doors in healthcare facilities every single day. Sometimes beyond belief. That's why I wrote my novel about happenings inside a children's hospital -- to get information out about the corruption in some of America's hospitals, where patients die at the convenience of the 1% (like the-candidate-who-shall-not-be-named), while they line their pockets, get tax breaks, and stash their cash in faraway banks. Hopefully, the movie adaptation of the book goes to production soon so the public can see how their lives come and go with the toss of the dice like a game of Monopoly.

Barbara Kingsolver says that the message of social injustices is often more believable when put into a fiction context. I agree. My fiction comes from real life.

The dot connection between Romney and the horrifically tainted meds leading to 29 already dead is another example of how the rich are getting away with murder.

Good luck to the California nurses and their patients. We'll be watching this one closely.

Paxton (who is a Comfort Therapist for children of trauma) sends happy tail-wags to you and all patients who have suffered from at-risk care.

[sulphurdunn]

2. $136K for a nurse!

That sounds about right to me, maybe a bit low. $4.79 million for a hospital CEO who never prescribed a band aid? I don't think so.

[senseandsensibility]

6. I didn't think they earned that much, either, but I agree

that they deserve every cent and more. Nursing is difficult, skilled, and important work. I almost feel that it would be impossible to overpay them.

[Scuba]

3. Go to any other hospital during this work action. Quality will suffer BIG TIME. Countless studies...

... have confirmed that even modest use of temporary staff results in significant increase in medical errors.


While you're thinking of it, make sure you have that heart attack during the Monday - Friday period. Quality of care also drops off on the weekends.

[midnight]

8. These nurses need the same safety net our police, firefighter, school teachers have...