Patient dies under care of scab nurse in Oakland

[RandySF]

A female patient at an Oakland hospital died early Saturday due to what the hospital described as a "medical error" made while she was under the care of a replacement nurse hired during a labor dispute.

The nurse allegedly gave the woman a fatal dose of medication, said Cynthia Perkins, a spokeswoman for the Oakland Police Department. The nurse, who was not identified, was taken in for questioning by officers.

Police and state medical officials are investigating the death at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland, which occurred while most of the hospital's regular nursing staff was locked out after a one-day strike Thursday.



http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/09/24/MNKA1L97H6.DTL#ixzz1YwkDRVSG

[Zanzoobar]

1. How are the non-scabs doing?

http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=deaths-from-avoidable-medical-error-2009-08-10

Not so good, either.

[murielm99]

3. The article you cite is rather old.

And it does not pertain only to nurses. Further, it has nothing to do with nurses working under lockout or strike conditions.

The article is also misleading in how it throws around statistics, as commented on by the first reader to respond to the article.

How about a more relevant, current article?

[fasttense]

6. Do you mean to ask the question how are UNION nurses doing????

You can use the word Union you know. This is a liberal site and we don't think the word UNION is an insult or slur like the RepubliCON sites do. In fact many posters here actually belong to Unions. It's not like at freeperville where you sometimes hear "I have a friend who thinks about UNIONS."

No, here on DU we actually use the word Union and many of us actually think the only thing that will save all our jobs (including your) from being shipped to China will be the UNION (and socialism, but we'll introduce that word another day).

[Zanzoobar]

25. The poster could have said "non-Union"

But instead opted for the inflammatory version. Either way, my family owed pretty much its whole living to the UAW, and if you weren't so reactionary you might have considered that I wasn't bashing unions, but the insinuation they can do no wrong.

[Riley18]

14. Stick to the scab at hand.

[snagglepuss]

19. The article says absolutely nothing about nurses. It does reference computer

glitches and carelessness of surgeons who leave tools inside patients or lop off the wrong limb.

[Cid_B]

2. What's the point?

A union nurse would never make a mistake like that?

[fasttense]

7. And you even used the word UNION. n/t

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Fla_Democrat]

8. bozo off the street?

What happened.. did the hospital call up http://www.laborfinders.com">Labor Finders and say... "Send me over 25 bodies, don't really care much if they are sober.. they are just going to be fill in nurses." ?

:eyes:






:smoke:

[whistler162]

23. God forbid that replacement nurses is as skilled as a

nurse who belongs to a union. How many replacement nurses have belonged to a union but since they are desperate for work take work as a replacement nurse to feed their families! But then a broad brush is easier to use than actually thinking.

[elleng]

29. Thanks.

[REP]

5. I came down with a kidney infection Friday night; the strike is why I'm not going to the ER

I'm waiting until Monday morning to see my doctor (I have emergency Cipro on hand if I get much sicker before then; I've had literally hundreds of these infections). The hospital is dangerous enough with regular staff on hand (not the nurses - the residents).

[KamaAina]

31. Couldn't you go to a different ER?

Highland, perhaps? Or if they're being struck as well, a hospital in SF?

[elocs]

9. Patients die all the time under the care of union nurses as well.

That's just reality. Just because a nurse is a union member does not make them infallible or incapable of making a mistake.

[fasttense]

10. True, but being in a union does make them better nurses.

and being better nurses they make fewer mistakes.

It's only RepubliCONS who think Unions nurses are equal to scabs.

[Ilsa]

15. How does being in a union make them better nurses? If this

can be proven, then maybe I can push for unionization in other places by showing it's better for patients.

[uppityperson]

30. Being in a union makes them better nurses how?

[IamK]

11. what medical tests do the unions perfom for admission?

[madrchsod]

17. everyone that took care of my daughter was a afscme union member

from the person who admitted my daughter to the person who signed her discharge papers.

[Zanzoobar]

27. Pardon my chuckle

I think the poster meant, "What test does the union administer to a person wishing to join the union?".

[xchrom]

12. Recommend

[Scuba]

13. As one who spent 30 years working to improve quality in hospitals...

...I can assure you that a temp nurse is more likely to make a medical error than a permanent nurse.



Nurses are grossly under-appreciated in our society. The "scab" in this situation will likely suffer psychological damage from the error.

Permanent nurses (and doctors) make plenty of errors. Patient loads have greatly increased - number of RN's per patient day is half what it was a decade ago - and pressure leads to cutting corners, and patient safety suffers as a result.

But at least the investors in London and Hong Kong are getting a good return on their investments in our for-profit insurance companies.


Until we have Medicare for All, our health care system in the US will remain sub-standard.

[area51]

24. +1 n/t

[madrchsod]

16. unions in the health-care industry fight to have more staff not less.

unions have fought for more than minimum staffing and better working conditions. the more patients one rn has to deal with the more the chances are of a mistake.

being a scab has nothing to do with giving someone the wrong medicine.

[riverwalker]

18. The Scab

By Jack London (1876-1916)

The Scab

After God had finished the rattlesnake, the toad, and the vampire, he had some awful substance left with which he made a scab.

A scab is a two-legged animal with a corkscrew soul, a water brain, a combination backbone of jelly and glue.

Where others have hearts, he carries a tumor of rotten principles.

When a scab comes down the street, men turn their backs and angels weep in heaven, and the devil shuts the gates of hell to keep him out.

No man (or woman) has a right to scab so long as there is a pool of water to drown his carcass in, or a rope long enough to hang his body with.

Judas was a gentleman compared with a scab. For betraying his master, he had character enough to hang himself. A scab has not.

Esau sold his birthright for a mess of pottage.

Judas sold his Savior for thirty pieces of silver.

Benedict Arnold sold his country for a promise of a commission in the British army.

The scab sells his birthright, country, his wife, his children and his fellowmen for an unfulfilled promise from his employer.

Esau was a traitor to himself; Judas was a traitor to his God; Benedict Arnold was a traitor to his country.

A scab is a traitor to his God, his country, his family and his class.

Jack London (1876-1916)

[WolverineDG]

20. Union nurses, of course, never kill patients or make mistakes

:eyes:

dg

[slackmaster]

21. I guess that woman would have been better off with no medical care at all

:shrug:

[rdking647]

22. unless you can show that union nurses made fewer mistakes

then being a scab has nothing to do with it...

[Gormy Cuss]

28. That's really naive. Unless the hospital replaced the staff with nurses who have recent experience

and current skills in the same type of unit, the replacements ARE more likely to make errors than the regular staff. Hospital nurses aren't widgets. It's a high specialized field. It takes months to come up to speed on the demands of the specialized units. Generalist replacement workers can do fine as in-fill for some of the regular staff but in units where no regular staff are in place, you can be sure the replacement nurses are in over their heads.

[Douglas Carpenter]

26. I am 100% pro-union - but unfortunately terrible mistakes happen in hospitals

Sometimes these mistake are made by perfectly decent staff. One of the traumatizing things about hospital work especially in critical care areas is that simple mistakes that people in all lines of work might make like miscalculating numbers of forgetting to turn something off or on - that in other work might only cause embarrassment and perhaps some expense - in critical medical work it can cost a life or a limb.

[w8liftinglady]

32. as a nurse in a "right-to-work" state, I need to comment.

Organized nurses, historically,do not strike for benefits or wages.They strike for patient safety and work safety issues-ESPECIALLY staffing and nurse/patient ratios. These strikes have benefitted patients in ALL states.I COMPLETELY support these brave nurses. That being said- the patients are still sick, and the scabs serve a purpose. Union nurses have historically supported scabs with advice and support. A hospital is a little different from an assembly line.No nurse wants to see a patient croak because of lack of help.I can also assure you that talking to nurses from other states,MOST of us would support belonging to a union if given the opportunity.Our voices get lost.