Anti- Meg Whitman Political Ad To Feature Injured Nurse In Vegetative State

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.laborradio.org/node/14277

Submitted by Doug Cunningham on October 12, 2010 - 3:00pm
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By Doug Cunningham

On Thursday the California Nurses Association (CNA) and Injured Women After Reform (iWAR) will release a new anti-Meg Whitman ad featuring certified nurse assistant Amelia Mendoza, 53, of West Covina. Mendoza was left in a vegetative state after an attack by a patient at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena. California Nurses Association co-President Deborah Burger says Whitman praises the broken system that denies care and disability compensation to nurses injured on the job. Burger says the ad is being released to let Californians know whose side Whitman is on.

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1. Rec. As a former steward in a state mental hospital, I know many stories of

dedicated nurses and other staff who were permanently injured and disabled by attacks by patients. We were given mandates in case of an attack by a patient - the welfare of the staff is last, and attacks on staff was not even mentioned till we protested and got it listed. I once heard a nursing supervisor refer to staff being beaten by patients as "part of your job". Patient rights - including the right to absolute minimum medication and the right to refuse medication - has taken away much of our safety margin. I have seen new nurses aides sent to off-grounds medical trips with violent, dangerous male patients with out being told they were potentially violent what sighs to look for indicating that patient was "winding up" to a violent act. This was done because the patient's privacy would have been violated if the aide was told beforehand that her patient was potentially dangerous, not only to her, but to everyone he came in conbtact with off grounds.

I was injured by a patient myself several times, including a lower back injury that still affects me, almost 10 years later.
The problem is NOT the patients, it is management and supervision, and poorly thought out and poorly applied laws.
Nurses and aides and medical workers less than Doctors are viewed as expendable, and this MUST change.

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