# 3592
This press release is from last night, and the protest should be underway as I write this blog. Follow the link to read the entire press statement. There are some pretty serious charges being levied here, including retaliation against nurses who complained.
When you return, a few comments of my own.
University of California Fires RN Who Spoke Out After Swine Flu Infection
Press ReleaseSource: California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee
On Tuesday August 4, 2009, 7:46 pm EDT
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- More than 100 registered nurses from across California will rally in San Francisco Wednesday to protest gaps by California hospitals in safety preparation for the H1N1 pandemic, the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee announced today.
The nurses will protest the recent firing by UCSF of an RN who blew the whistle on unsafe patient care involving swine flu at their facility, as well as wider problems that a CNA/NNOC preliminary survey of California hospitals has uncovered, including systemic problems with safety gear for nurses and infection control procedures for patients, as well as an emerging pattern of retribution against nurses who speak out about unsafe care.
WHAT: 100+ nurses in scrubs and masks protest swine flu dangers
WHEN: Wednesday, August 5, 12:30 p.m.
WHERE: UCSF Campus, main entrance to medical center, 505 Parnassus, San Francisco
The protest follows the first death of a nurse due to swine flu last week, a 51-year-old marathon runner in excellent health, who worked in a Sacramento hospital, as well as a General Accounting Office report to Congress this week that warned the U.S. is still not adequately prepared for a worse outbreak of H1N1 this fall.
"Hospitals across California--and possibly the entire country--are putting registered nurses and other front-line caregivers at risk by inadequately preparing for this pandemic," said CNA/NNOC co-president Deborah Burger, RN.
A recurring theme in this blog has been the need for health care providers and facilities - like hospitals, EMS operations, and nursing homes – to stockpile adequate PPEs (Personal Protective Equipment) for caregivers during a pandemic.
Just a few of the many blogs I’ve written on the subject include:
Though Your Mask Is Lovely It’s The Wrong Mask
Report: Nurses File Complaint Over Lack Of PPE
California Nurses Association Statement On Lack Of PPE
Caught With Our Masks Down
HCPs At Risk
UK Exercise: PPE Usage In A Pandemic
PPE's: How Much Is Enough?
PPE's And HCW's
And The New Survey Says . . .
Not only am I an ex-HCW (Health Care Worker), I have a number of very good friends who still work in and around the industry.
So, admittedly, I have strong feelings about this issue.
For years the HHS and OSHA have been warning Hospitals and other facilities to prepare for a pandemic. And while some facilities have worked to prepare and stockpile supplies, many have not.
More than a year ago, OSHA published a recommended stockpiling guideline for Health Care facilities, where they estimated that every nurse with direct patient contact would need roughly 480 N95 respirators for a 12 week pandemic wave.
It is a pretty good bet that a great many hospitals, nursing homes, and EMS operations around the country don’t have these quantities of N95 respirators, or facemasks for all of their at-risk employees.
And of course, these employees will also need eye protection, latex or vinyl gloves, and gowns where appropriate.
PPEs such as these are going to become very scarce over the next few weeks and months, and getting resupplied may prove difficult or impossible during the height of a pandemic wave when global demand may outstrip supply.
If facilities run out of PPEs, a great many HCWs are going to be forced to decide to either work without their protection, or leave their posts and their patients.
That is a terrible choice for them to have to make.
While working without protection may sound noble, HCWs who decide to do so risk endangering their own lives and they risk spreading the virus to other patients, their co-workers, and even to their own families.
If the rate of infection in Health Care facilities among the staff skyrockets because of a lack of PPEs, absenteeism will jump dramatically and that facility’s ability to provide care will decline.
A failure to provide a safe working environment may also open a facility up to liability concerns. Not stockpiling adequate PPEs quickly becomes penny wise and pound foolish.
And of course, there is the potential tragic human toll that could result from not providing this protective gear. We’ve heard of more than a dozen HCWs in Argentina, plus others in New Zealand, the Middle-East, and in California who have died from this virus.
Nurses, techs, and anyone working with, or around, infectious patients deserve adequate protective equipment.
We wouldn’t ask a firefighter to rush into a burning building without their bunker gear, we certainly can’t expect health care providers to work with infectious patients without basic safety equipment.
There is still some time before the fall onslaught of illness hits here in the Northern Hemisphere. Hopefully this protest lodged by the California Nurses Association will bring greater attention to this lack of preparedness now, while there is still some time to rectify matters.
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