Posted by rogerhollander in Health.
Tags: aisha jahangir, california health, California Nurses Association, canada health, cna, eileen prendiville, health worker's union, health workers, healthcare, healthcare funding, national health service, nhs, northern ireland health, nursing, ontario health, ontario nurses association, patient care, patient ratios, patricia campbell, private health insurance, quality care, registered nurses, rns, roger hollander, single payer, unions
People First! International Health Workers for People Over Profit (IHWPOP); March 29, 2009
Eileen Prendiville (RN – San Francisco, USA)
I’m struck by how similar our concerns are, even though we care for different kinds of patients in three different countries with different health-care systems. We are all facing budget cuts that are making it more difficult to care for our patients.
Aisha Jahangir (RN – Ontario, Canada)
Hospitals across the province of Ontario are chronically under-funded, and they are cutting nursing positions to balance their budgets. Every RN position lost is equivalent to 1,950 fewer hours of nursing care per year.
We are very concerned about this, because a higher proportion of RNs in a hospital has been shown to reduce patient deaths. For every ten percent rise in the proportion of RNs, patient deaths drop by five percent. Every patient added to the workload of an average RN causes the rate of complications and deaths to increase by seven percent.
Patricia Campbell (RN – Belfast, Northern Ireland)
I want to express my admiration for the work of the California Nurses Association (CNA) for winning legislation to ensure a minimum ratio of nurses per patient. That’s got to make it easier to practice safely and provide quality care for patients.
Our National Health Service (NHS) prefers to blame frontline workers than provide them with more resources. I’m eager to learn how the CNA achieved this benefit.
Eileen
Australian nurses won the first RN to Patient Ratios in 2001.
After a 12-year battle involving numerous rallies at the Capitol in Sacramento and meeting with legislators while facing fierce opposition from the hospital industry, the California Nurses Association (CNA) won the first RN to Patient ratios in the United States in 2004.
We won ratios of 1 nurse for every 4 patients in the ER – 1 to 2 for ICU patients and 1 to 1 for trauma patients. The ratios apply at all times, including meals and breaks. We also won restrictions on the use of unlicensed staff, restrictions on unsafe “floating” of nursing staff and no cuts to ancillary staff as a result of ratios. You can find out more by visiting the CNA website.
Aisha
We have a long way to go. In our ER, RNs have worked 24-hour shifts and been responsible for 15 patients at a time! Nurses are being forced to care for patients in hallways, and they are burning out.
Our local newspaper carried a front-page story about the deterioration in patient care at the hospital where I work. The hospital recently closed 16 beds and laid off 30 staff. The loss of beds and nurses means that patients are waiting much too long for care, and there aren’t enough nurses to provide the care that’s needed.
Too much work and too much stress are driving people out of nursing. More than one in four of the RNs currently working in Ontario are over age 55. Who will replace them?
Eileen
In California hospitals, safe RN ratios have improved the quality of care as well as nurse recruitment and retention.
Unfortunately, the California Department of Health Services, the government agency that regulates healthcare facilities and should be enforcing the law, is understaffed and beholden to the Schwarzenegger administration. As hospital administrators constantly seek ways to cut budgets in order to increase profits, we nurses must be diligent and insist on enforcing the law in our workplaces.
Also, California law states that the ratios must be reviewed after five years – in 2009. The hospital industry recently released two studies questioning whether the ratios really work, so we know that another is battle brewing to undermine the ratios again.
Patricia
I work as a Community Psychiatric Nurse, and CPNs are very concerned about the number of patients under our care. Can you tell me about community nursing in California? Does the nurse-to-patient ratio legislation protect nurses and patients in the community?
Eileen
I’m sorry to say that the law mandating nurse-to-patient ratios in California applies only to RNs in acute-care hospitals.
When patients with complex medical issues are sent home or to post-acute or skilled nursing facilities, the number of RNs is much lower. However, in the non-acute-care setting, we have gained improvements in nurse-to-patient ratios using our union-mandated staff nurse committees. Home health or visiting nurses who are unionized can also negotiate decreased case loads.
Patricia
We don’t have a strong union leadership here in Northern Ireland, and this is reflected in the way our health service is being run down. I’ve been involved in forming a new union for health workers, because the existing unions are more interested in developing a relationship with management than in protecting the rights of patients and health workers.
Eileen
While you mentioned the cuts to the NHS, the idea that all patients can access health care is something that Americans want, but don’t have. As more people lose their jobs and their health insurance benefits, we’re going to see many more people with no access to healthcare.
How has the NHS changed since its original inception, and would the residents of the U.K and Canada ever give up the idea of national healthcare?
Aisha
After winning national medicare in the 1970s, Canadians never imagined that we would see such a severe and escalating deterioration in our health-care system. We have been fighting back, but we have to fight much harder.
Patricia
NHS has changed significantly since its inception. Privatisation has taken a stronger hold since the Thatcher years, and New Labour continued Thatcher’s policies, dismantling a health service that was once the envy of the world.
The idea that all patients would not have access to health care would be beyond comprehension for us. However, while all NHS patients have health care in principle, the waiting lists for essential procedures and life-saving operations are increasing. As a result, many people are forced to go private.
Mental health services in Northern Ireland are grossly underfunded. For example, young people requiring specialist treatment for eating disorders and personality disorders must go to England for treatment. They are effectively exiled from their own country, far away from their families and friends. So health care is not really available for all.
I cautioned US health-care campaigners at a recent Labor Notes conference. I told them if you are going to fight for health care, fight for quality health care. A half-baked health-care system isn’t good enough.
Aisha
In Canada, the reintroduction of for-profit competitive bidding is putting a downward pressure on wages, making it even more difficult to keep people in nursing.
Eileen
I think we are headed for a public health disaster if we don’t get the profit factor out of healthcare.
The demand for a single-payer healthcare system is growing in The United States. For-profit insurance companies shouldn’t be involved in our healthcare decisions and any healthcare reform that keeps them in the mix will surely fail.
Patricia
We need to build stronger unions so we can improve our working conditions and make sure that our patients get the quality care they deserve.
Aisha
All these cuts on the backs of patients have to stop. Only in solidarity can we win this tough battle. 
Aisha Jahangir is an RN in the Family Birthing Unit at the Guelph General Hospital in Ontario, Canada. She is also a local coordinator for the Ontario Nurses Association.
Eileen Prendiville is an RN at an acute-care hospital in San Francisco, USA. She is also on the bargaining team of the California Nurses Association.
Patricia Campbell is an RN and Community Psychiatric Nurse in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She is also a founder of the UNIVERSI health workers’ union.
Posted by rogerhollander in Health, Israel, Gaza & Middle East, War.
Tags: belfast, gaza, gaza city, gaza mental health, gaza siege, israeli bombing, israeli bombs, mental health, patricia campbell, ramallah, roger hollander, siege mental health, trauma, trauma related illness, west bank
by Patricia Campbell – Northern Ireland
I felt great sadness when I learned the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme (GCMHP) building was destroyed by Israeli bomber jets on New Year’s Eve.
The four-story building overlooks the Mediterranean Sea in the northern part of Gaza City. With 150 employees, the Programme is supported by international donors and was fast becoming a centre of excellence in providing psychological therapies and treatment of trauma-related illnesses.
In June, 2007, Israel imposed a siege on Gaza, allowing no one in or out of the area without its permission.
Last October, the World Health Organization and the GCMHP organized a conference, “Siege and Mental Health – Walls vs Bridges.” Health workers from all over the world attended to share their expertise on how a siege can affect mental health.
As a Community Psychiatric Nurse working in Belfast, I was scheduled to present a paper showing how 30 years of war in Northern Ireland has damaged minds and generated major mental illness.
The conference participants were denied access to Gaza, despite our protest at the Erez border. To get around this problem, the conference was conducted by video link between Ramallah City in the West Bank and participants in Gaza.
After the conference, I maintained contact with GCMHP staff. I looked forward to a continuing exchange of ideas and learning from one another. I was highly impressed with their innovative and progressive service delivery, their empowerment programmes, their attention to mental health and staff training needs. I had high hopes that we in Belfast could follow by example.
The loss of the GCMHP is especially acute as the death toll rises in Gaza and hundreds of thousands of people are severely traumatized.
After viewing the destroyed building, Dr Ahmad Abu Tawahina, the Director of the GCMHP, announced that the Programme was suspending its services indefinitely because “every metre traveled is a risk, as Israeli air strikes continue over Gaza.”
Israel targets medical personnel
On 31 December, medical crews attempting to treat a wounded victim from Jabal Kashif in northeast Gaza were hit by helicopter fire. Dr. Ihab Madhun, medic Muhammad Abu Hasireh and the injured victim were all killed.
On January 3, after the home of the Dabbabish family in Sheikh Radwan was bombed, a medical crew entered to evacuate the wounded. The house was bombed again, and medic Ayyad Ahmad was critically wounded.
On January 4, an ambulance belonging to the Al Awda Hospital in Beit Lahiya was hit by helicopter fire. Arfa Abd al Daim, a senior volunteer medic was killed and two other medical personnel were critically injured.
On January 4, a tank fired on an ambulance attempting to evacuate a family in Tel Alhawa. Inass Fadil Naim, Yassir Shabir and Rifaat Abdel Al were all killed.
Our first priority must be to stop Israel’s barbaric war. Our second priority is to rebuild Gaza and the GCMHP.
TAKE ACTION!
Demand that your government press for an immediate stop to the Israeli bombing.
Join a protest at the Israeli or American consulate nearest you.
Patricia Campbell works as a community psychiatric nurse in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She is also president of the Independent Workers Union of Ireland and a founder of the UNIVERSI health workers’ union.
RN to RN: A Conversation of Gobal Concern March 29, 2009
Posted by rogerhollander in Health.Tags: aisha jahangir, california health, California Nurses Association, canada health, cna, eileen prendiville, health worker's union, health workers, healthcare, healthcare funding, national health service, nhs, northern ireland health, nursing, ontario health, ontario nurses association, patient care, patient ratios, patricia campbell, private health insurance, quality care, registered nurses, rns, roger hollander, single payer, unions
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People First! International Health Workers for People Over Profit (IHWPOP); March 29, 2009
Eileen Prendiville (RN – San Francisco, USA)
I’m struck by how similar our concerns are, even though we care for different kinds of patients in three different countries with different health-care systems. We are all facing budget cuts that are making it more difficult to care for our patients.
Aisha Jahangir (RN – Ontario, Canada)
Hospitals across the province of Ontario are chronically under-funded, and they are cutting nursing positions to balance their budgets. Every RN position lost is equivalent to 1,950 fewer hours of nursing care per year.
We are very concerned about this, because a higher proportion of RNs in a hospital has been shown to reduce patient deaths. For every ten percent rise in the proportion of RNs, patient deaths drop by five percent. Every patient added to the workload of an average RN causes the rate of complications and deaths to increase by seven percent.
Patricia Campbell (RN – Belfast, Northern Ireland)
I want to express my admiration for the work of the California Nurses Association (CNA) for winning legislation to ensure a minimum ratio of nurses per patient. That’s got to make it easier to practice safely and provide quality care for patients.
Our National Health Service (NHS) prefers to blame frontline workers than provide them with more resources. I’m eager to learn how the CNA achieved this benefit.
Eileen
Australian nurses won the first RN to Patient Ratios in 2001.
After a 12-year battle involving numerous rallies at the Capitol in Sacramento and meeting with legislators while facing fierce opposition from the hospital industry, the California Nurses Association (CNA) won the first RN to Patient ratios in the United States in 2004.
We won ratios of 1 nurse for every 4 patients in the ER – 1 to 2 for ICU patients and 1 to 1 for trauma patients. The ratios apply at all times, including meals and breaks. We also won restrictions on the use of unlicensed staff, restrictions on unsafe “floating” of nursing staff and no cuts to ancillary staff as a result of ratios. You can find out more by visiting the CNA website.
Aisha
We have a long way to go. In our ER, RNs have worked 24-hour shifts and been responsible for 15 patients at a time! Nurses are being forced to care for patients in hallways, and they are burning out.
Our local newspaper carried a front-page story about the deterioration in patient care at the hospital where I work. The hospital recently closed 16 beds and laid off 30 staff. The loss of beds and nurses means that patients are waiting much too long for care, and there aren’t enough nurses to provide the care that’s needed.
Too much work and too much stress are driving people out of nursing. More than one in four of the RNs currently working in Ontario are over age 55. Who will replace them?
Eileen
In California hospitals, safe RN ratios have improved the quality of care as well as nurse recruitment and retention.
Unfortunately, the California Department of Health Services, the government agency that regulates healthcare facilities and should be enforcing the law, is understaffed and beholden to the Schwarzenegger administration. As hospital administrators constantly seek ways to cut budgets in order to increase profits, we nurses must be diligent and insist on enforcing the law in our workplaces.
Also, California law states that the ratios must be reviewed after five years – in 2009. The hospital industry recently released two studies questioning whether the ratios really work, so we know that another is battle brewing to undermine the ratios again.
I work as a Community Psychiatric Nurse, and CPNs are very concerned about the number of patients under our care. Can you tell me about community nursing in California? Does the nurse-to-patient ratio legislation protect nurses and patients in the community?
Eileen
I’m sorry to say that the law mandating nurse-to-patient ratios in California applies only to RNs in acute-care hospitals.
When patients with complex medical issues are sent home or to post-acute or skilled nursing facilities, the number of RNs is much lower. However, in the non-acute-care setting, we have gained improvements in nurse-to-patient ratios using our union-mandated staff nurse committees. Home health or visiting nurses who are unionized can also negotiate decreased case loads.
Patricia
We don’t have a strong union leadership here in Northern Ireland, and this is reflected in the way our health service is being run down. I’ve been involved in forming a new union for health workers, because the existing unions are more interested in developing a relationship with management than in protecting the rights of patients and health workers.
Eileen
While you mentioned the cuts to the NHS, the idea that all patients can access health care is something that Americans want, but don’t have. As more people lose their jobs and their health insurance benefits, we’re going to see many more people with no access to healthcare.
How has the NHS changed since its original inception, and would the residents of the U.K and Canada ever give up the idea of national healthcare?
After winning national medicare in the 1970s, Canadians never imagined that we would see such a severe and escalating deterioration in our health-care system. We have been fighting back, but we have to fight much harder.
Patricia
NHS has changed significantly since its inception. Privatisation has taken a stronger hold since the Thatcher years, and New Labour continued Thatcher’s policies, dismantling a health service that was once the envy of the world.
The idea that all patients would not have access to health care would be beyond comprehension for us. However, while all NHS patients have health care in principle, the waiting lists for essential procedures and life-saving operations are increasing. As a result, many people are forced to go private.
Mental health services in Northern Ireland are grossly underfunded. For example, young people requiring specialist treatment for eating disorders and personality disorders must go to England for treatment. They are effectively exiled from their own country, far away from their families and friends. So health care is not really available for all.
I cautioned US health-care campaigners at a recent Labor Notes conference. I told them if you are going to fight for health care, fight for quality health care. A half-baked health-care system isn’t good enough.
Aisha
In Canada, the reintroduction of for-profit competitive bidding is putting a downward pressure on wages, making it even more difficult to keep people in nursing.
Eileen
I think we are headed for a public health disaster if we don’t get the profit factor out of healthcare.
The demand for a single-payer healthcare system is growing in The United States. For-profit insurance companies shouldn’t be involved in our healthcare decisions and any healthcare reform that keeps them in the mix will surely fail.
Patricia
We need to build stronger unions so we can improve our working conditions and make sure that our patients get the quality care they deserve.
Aisha
All these cuts on the backs of patients have to stop. Only in solidarity can we win this tough battle.
Aisha Jahangir is an RN in the Family Birthing Unit at the Guelph General Hospital in Ontario, Canada. She is also a local coordinator for the Ontario Nurses Association.
Eileen Prendiville is an RN at an acute-care hospital in San Francisco, USA. She is also on the bargaining team of the California Nurses Association.
Patricia Campbell is an RN and Community Psychiatric Nurse in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She is also a founder of the UNIVERSI health workers’ union.