When we or any loved one is sick, we count on our health professionals to get us through the challenge. As we've seen during the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare workers are putting their lives on the line in the service of others. I've witnessed it in person while being hospitalized...
Nurses Wanted: Swamped Hospitals Scramble for Pandemic Help
OMAHA, Neb. — U.S. hospitals slammed with COVID-19 patients are trying to lure nurses and doctors out of retirement, recruiting students and new graduates who have yet to earn their licenses and offering eye-popping salaries in a desperate bid to ease staffing shortages. With the virus surging from coast to...
The Home Front: Virus Stalks Nurses After They Leave Work
FULLERTON — There’s red tape running along the floor of the coronavirus unit at St. Jude’s Medical Center in Fullerton, California. It’s a clear line of demarcation. On one side, the cold zone, where only a surgical mask, scrubs and shoe coverings are necessary. On the other, the warm zone,...
Audit: California Nursing Board Faked Docs on Investigations
SACRAMENTO — The California board that regulates the nursing industry falsified its records to make it appear it was properly investigating allegations made against the state’s nurses, including serious complaints such as patient harm that can lead to nurses losing their licenses. That was revealed in a scathing new report...
Nurses Suspended for Refusing COVID-19 Care Without N95 Mask
Nurse Mike Gulick was meticulous about not bringing the coronavirus home to his wife and their 2-year-old daughter. He’d stop at a hotel after work just to take a shower. He’d wash his clothes in Lysol disinfectant. They did a tremendous amount of handwashing. But at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in...
Nurses Weigh Their Principles vs Safety in Virus Fight
Paramedics rushed another critical COVID-19 patient into the emergency room, and Chicago nurse Cynthia Riemer felt her adrenaline kick in. “Your heart starts racing,” she said. “You're thinking, 'How quickly and safely can we get them intubated?' Because if we don't, in the next five or 10 minutes, they could...
Walters: A Looming Shortage of Nurses?
Now that election year hoopla has abated in California, at least for the moment, it’s time to discuss an issue of real world importance — whether the state faces a serious shortage of registered nurses. A polite debate has been underway in health planning circles over that question because while...
Facing Doctor Shortage, Will California Give Nurse Practitioners More Authority to Treat Patients?
Nurse practitioner Surani Hayre-Kwan sees long-time patients and first-timers. She manages chronic illnesses, diagnoses kids with colds and refers people to specialists. She goes it alone or works with another nurse practitioner at the Russian River Health Clinic in Sonoma County. Sometimes a supervising physician is on-site, but often is...
Why Are There So Many Filipino Nurses in California?
In California hospitals today, immigration has diversified not only the state’s patient population, but the demographics of its caregivers as well. It is now commonplace to be cared for at the bedside by a Filipino immigrant nurse. According to the 2016 Survey of California Registered Nurses, Filipinos make up the...