Recently, Washington State Sen. Maureen Walsh received nationwide backlash for saying nurses in smaller hospitals “probably play cards for a considerable amount of the day” during their shifts. This comment came during a debate on a bill that would give nurses uninterrupted meals and breaks at work and protect them from mandatory overtime.
She apologized after receiving national outrage, during which she received 1,700 decks of playing cards.
I am sure she is sorry, but it points to an issue that affects nurses and other healthcare professionals. That issue is the de-professionalization of these caregivers.
Today’s nurse practices at a higher level than at any time in history. The decisions that nurses make on a day to day basis, and the standard protocols they follow, were reserved for medical doctors a generation ago. Their level of training, their expertise, and their influence on the health and well being of the patients they serve has never been higher. Year after year, nurses are rated in gallup polls as the most respected profession.
Yet they have never been at greater risk of injury and burnout.
Nurses and other healthcare professionals are injured on the job more than any other industry and they are asked to do more and more with less and less.
Nurses routinely skip lunches, miss breaks, and are mandated to work overtime. Thrust into situations where they are short staffed, they struggle to provide the care they know their paints deserve. When they are unable, they struggle, and struggle and struggle and then they fail, suffering Moral Injury, which Journalist Diane Silver describes as “a deep soul wound that pierces a person’s identity, sense of morality, and relationship to society.”
In 2013, Beth Jasper was driving home from her Ohio hospital after working 12 hours short staffed. She fell asleep at the wheel as a result of her fatigue. In court proceedings, her widowed husband and father of Beth’s 6 and 11 year old daughters, stated about Beth and her colleagues working short staffed for long hours, “They’re passionate about their work. They don’t want to make a mistake, but when you’re working under those conditions, it’s going to happen.”
Nurses suffer workplace violence more than any other occupation.
Just last month, Lynne Trujillo, a nurse in Baton Rouge who had come to the aid of another nurse, was attacked by a patient, seen in her own hospital’s Emergency Room, sent home, and returned a week later suffering from a blood clot as a result of the injury. Lynne died as a result of this blood clot.
When I was union local president at Backus Hospital in Norwich Connecticut we had several cases of nurses being injured while caring for others. In one case, a nurse was hit repeatedly over the head with a tool used to scan medication bar codes, to the point of blood running down her head and the need for several stitches in the emergency department. She was so traumatized that she could not return to work. When we reported this to OSHA, they said their hands were tied. OSHA has no “standard” protecting nurses, Healthcare Workers, or social workers from workplace violence, as they do for workplace chemicals and other hazards.
When nurses try to speak out, they are often ignored or even worse, told to keep their place. But nurses continue to speak out, for their own safety and the safety of their patients.
I want to commend Representative Joe Courtney. He began a multi year process to have OSHA formulate a “standard.” Being unsuccessful, he raised HR 1309, Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers, which would call for such an OSHA Standard. Thank you Reps Larson, Hayes, Himes, and DeLauro for cosponsoring. Thank you Sen Blumenthal for cosponsoring the companion bill SB 851. Sen Murphy is currently considering cosponsoring, which would make Connecticut the first state that had an entire congressional delegation sponsoring this important protection.
The comment by Sen. Walsh may have been unusual, but the disrespectful treatment of nurses is common. The American Federation of Teachers is the second largest union of Registered Nurses in the country and the largest in Connecticut. As a group, we have the power to stand up and fight for the only thing we have ever asked for-the ability to safely and adequately care for our patients and their families.
Nurse’s Week is May 6-12. I ask you to thank a nurse during this time and thank your legislators for co-sponsoring HR 1309 and SB 851, now in the United States House and Senate.
Finally, thank you to all the dedicated nurses everywhere. You service is remarkable.
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