Schwarzenegger Replaces Most Of California Nursing Board After LATimes/ProPublica Expose

ProPublica:

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger replaced nearly everyone on the Board of Registered Nursing late Monday, citing the unacceptable length of time it takes to discipline nurses accused of egregious misconduct.

Read the whole story: ProPublica

Comments

[raker]

There's a lot going on in this story. First, there's Arnold's well-documented contempt for nurses. What's up with that? Then there's the three years to resolve a complaint. Is that just to frost Arnold, or is the union just hopelessly corrupt. Then there's the supposed documentation of nurses who are violent, incompetent, and often criminal. Worst hospital stay ever! Most nurses I know are dedicated professionals. What's up with these "documented" monsters in California?

[jalowe1957]

Since he's gunning for incompetent nurses who put their patients' lives in jeopardy, how about going after incompetent school teachers and college professors who hide behind their tenure and abuse their power for personal gain and for their sick personal enjoyment?

The dance of the lemons has gone on for too long. Isn't it time to declare that the party's over?

[Meah]

Arnold likes to go after the nurses, does he not? I have always told people to be good to good nurses, as they are the people that you would be the most dependent on at the end of your life. Arnold, fix this budget problem. The BofRN lacked the funding to do their jobs properly. This mess in Calif. is the consequence of Enron and Darryl Isa's ambitions! Calif is being run by a movie star muscle man who does not have the skills to make a difference in this state. So he fires nurses.

[bragladish]

He fires people who don't work hard enough to make sure people are not abusing people... This is one of the few things he's done that is absolutely great... I'm very happy for this news, but I still think he shouldn't be governor of anything.

[Joseph A. Palermo - Huffpost Blogger]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joseph-a-palermo/arnold-schwarzenegger-com_b_231549.html

[econ1]

Holy cow....action from the government. Amazed it took until now (three years to review?), but this is great.

Maybe he will go through some other commissions.

[TCB40]

I have been a Registered Nurse in California for 17 years. While I don't agree with alot of the decisions our Govenor has made and I did not vote him, in this case he is right. No nurse has the right to inflict their incompetence on the patients they are charged to protect and care for. Nurses need to be disciplined when needed and that was most definitely the case in the cases sighted in the article. People have the right to good, safe care. That is the bottom line.

[jsgaetano]

The far right's war against organized labor continues.

[poster1122]

You're talking about a board that takes 3 YEARS to investigate incompetence of medical practictioners. From the article:

"Reporters found nurses who continued to work unrestricted for years despite documented histories of incompetence, violence, criminal convictions and drug theft or abuse. In dozens of cases, nurses maintained clean records in California even though they had been suspended or fired by employers, disciplined by another California licensing board or restricted from practice by other states."

Unions should not ever become so powerful that the safety of the public is put at risk.

[amdezurik]

and yet neither AHHHHUNULD or you seem to find any problem with cops doing the same kind of prolonged "investigations" that 99% "clear" the cop if they even bother to investigate. No you simply advocate someone simply for having been accused of something (not convicted, just accused) to be prevented from working for those 3 years?

[CaliRN]

poster1122; What part of the story links the unions to the CA BRNs' inability to investigate these cases and take appropriate action in a timely manner?

[LeeCalif]

It was a damning report. That Terry is staying on is inexcusable. She says the process needs streamlining and for members " not to lose heart " is pure insanity.

The people killed or mutilated, whose numbers have been increasing, year after year after year after year
deserve justice. Not streamlining.

Sadists, incompetents and drug abusers need to be identified and kept out of our medical system,
not shuttled thru and promoted within.

Other states succeed, why not California ?

[harriettubman]

And hopefully he's doing something about the medical board as well as it appears doctors in CA are above the law and are not punished at all for writing prescriptions at will, which have killed many celebrities and regular folks.

[senorlou]

Yeah, he's cutting health benefits for the poor, last I heard. He really cares about the health of every Californian. LOL!

[Osusuki]

Once more, the Governor misses the point, and most of the sheep applaud. The reason for the failures the Nursing Board, and indeed for the failures of most if not all consumer advocacy oversight entities in the state of California, is LACK OF FUNDING. Have a problem with nurses, good luck. Have a problem with the State Franchise Tax Board losing your return? Good Luck. Have a problem with your mobile home park owner? Good Luck and we'll send flowers when we get around to it in three years.

The no-tax-not­-ever-over­-my-dead-b­ody GOP in this state, aided by the Howard Jarvis (domestic terrorist) Tax Association, has managed to limit state revenues to the point where California simply cannot fund the protections it needs. The question here is basically the size of the board staff and the number of investigators, ombudsmen, and other first level operatives it can hire. You can have a nursing board composed of Superman, Wonder Woman, and the rest of the Justice League of America, and they aren't going to be able to handle the California caseload with the staff currently on hand.

Firing the nursing board is just Arnold playing to the cheap seats. Pure Arnold Apples.

[Bernique]

I thought there might be more to the story than Ahnold having a hissy fit.

[tbone99]

And since he has been in a running fight with the nurses in california I'm sure he got a lot of pleasure in running them down,.

[harriettubman]

There's no mass funding involved with disciplanary action. It's called doing your job. Some people still have one in CA you know?

[senorlou]

Fewer every day.

[kappa08]

There you go Arnold get rid of the things that keep people safe. F it, get rid of schools, the guys that fix the traffic lights. How about firefighters, why not them too.
Boards are important. they regulate and police their industry.

[thaneb]

What the heck are you talking about? He replaced those ousted and also filled 2 of 3 existing vacancies. How in the world is that getting rid of the Board? He strenghthened the Board.

[Ydnic]

This is not the only board in California that has been found to be lacking of good oversight. The Chiropractic Board has been under the light for the past couple of years as well. The Gov appointed his cronies from his body building days and when they failed to discipline chiros that violate boundaries, rules, ethics there was a more than 300% increase in sexual misconduct by chiros. When there was legislation to bring the chiro board under the Dept of Consumer Affairs, the gov vetoed it. They are an untouchable island all to themselves. They are protecting their own and not the public.

The nursing board is the same. They are charged by legislature to protect the public and they too are protecting their own instead.

Wonder when he will address the 800 lb gorilla in the room with the other boards he has screwed up since he took office.

[MatthewHubbard]

Good for Arnold. According to the facts presented here, he has good cause.

I live in California and I never voted for him. I work for the state as a community college teacher, and his first big budget hack took money directly out of my pocket when a class I was scheduled to teach was canceled. He's deserves a lot of the blame for the possibility of hundred of thousands of people like me getting IOU's instead of checks pretty soon, but he should be given credit when he does something right.

Whether a new board will do any better, we'll just have to wait and see.

[Ranta]

"The compensation is 100 dollars per working day". No wonder nothing gets done. Arnold wants something for nothing.

[CaliRN]

Even though RNs and Arnold have a rocky relationship, his decision to call out the CA BRN for not handling these cases in a prompt manner is a very good decision. An incompetent, dangerous nurse needs to be removed from patient care responsibilities and have their privileges to practice nursing revoked in a timely manner to protect the public.

As in any other profession, there are outstanding, competent and incompetent practitioners. What places nursing and other medical professions in a distinct category is that if there is a serious mistake it could cost someone their life. You have some nurses working to pay for a refrigerator or car and you have other nurses practicing for the love of their profession and for their patients (you can usually tell which is which relatively quickly).

There are many issues surrounding the debate of proper and safe nursing care. Nurse staffing, patient work loads for each nurse, nurse compensation, educational requirements, working conditions, safe floating practices (nurses working on a different unit other than their own when another unit is short-staffed), missed breaks and meals, increasingly sick and complex patients, conflicts with and intimidation by (or just being ignored by) MDs when RNs are advocating for patients or questioning orders - especially medication orders - that the nurses feel are unsafe, etc. ..... just to name A FEW.