Unions blast Arnie's TV spot "thanking" him for delaying staffing ratios
Nurses Decry New TV Spot
By Peter Nicholas
Los Angeles Times
December 7, 2004
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...,7484926.story
SACRAMENTO - Airing across the state, a new television ad features a
registered nurse with a stethoscope around her neck, thanking Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger for relaxing nurse staffing levels at California hospitals.
The 30-second spot by the California Healthcare Assn., which represents
hospitals and health systems, commends Schwarzenegger "on behalf of nurses, doctors
and other caregivers who treat patients every day.."
With the state's nursing shortage, higher staffing levels would be tough to
sustain, burdening hospitals with more expense and less flexibility in treating
patients, according to advocates of the rule change.
But thousands of nurses, far from grateful to the governor as the ad
suggests, are mounting an aggressive and personal campaign against his decision to
relieve hospitals of a requirement that would lower patient-nurse ratios
beginning in January. They contend the ad is deceptive, mischaracterizing the true
feelings of nurses.
Today, nurses were planning to march in protest of a speech that the governor
is to give in Long Beach at a women's conference led by his wife, Maria
Shriver. About 2,500 nurses gathered at the Capitol last week, waving signs in
protest of Schwarzenegger's action. It was one of the largest demonstrations
against Schwarzenegger since his election last year.
Noting that women dominate the nursing profession, union advocates contend
the governor's policy would create tougher working conditions for women - at a
time when he is portraying himself as a champion of women's interests. In a
sign of the visceral tone of the campaign, nurses are invoking allegations that
the governor groped women in years past, using the slogan: "Hands off our
ratios."
"They're running these ads attempting to act like the registered nurse speaks
for the profession, when there's not a nurse in the state of California that
supports the governor's actions on this," said Rose Ann DeMoro, executive
director of the California Nurses Assn. The group represents about 58,000 of the
state's approximately 300,000 registered nurses. "It's absolutely deceptive."
Under a law passed in the Gray Davis era, new staffing ratios were to have
gone into effect in January. Instead of six patients per nurse, medical-surgical
wards and other units were to set ratios of five patients per nurse, meaning
hospitals might be forced to hire more nurses. Schwarzenegger's administration
submitted emergency rules in November delaying the change for three years -
until Jan. 1, 2008.
The ad might run for about two weeks in Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento
and the Bay Area. State Treasurer Phil Angelides, a Democrat who attended the
rally at the Capitol, said the ad campaign is "disingenuous at best. The fact is
that his policies will in fact put patients at risk, and that's why nurses
are in an uproar about them."
But Jan Emerson, spokeswoman for the California Healthcare Assn., said the
ad's purpose was "educational."
"The labor unions have been fear-mongering," she said. "They've been telling
the public that these changes are going to jeopardize patient care, and that's
absolutely a fallacy. All the governor did was continue the existing
nurse-patient ratios."
The dispute also touches the other figure in the ad, Dr. Mark Bell, director
of emergency services for Encino-Tarzana Regional Medical Center. Bell is
shown in medical garb warning that the "rigid staffing regulations" that
Schwarzenegger rolled back would have jeopardized medical care.
SEIU Local 121 RN, which represents registered nurses in Southern California,
posted a message on its website saying Bell had changed his position, citing
a petition that he signed opposing Schwarzenegger's move to make do with the
same patient-nurse ratio.
"We, the undersigned, are angry that patients have been put at risk of
preventable death or permanent injury to please the hospital industry," the petition
reads.
In an interview Monday, Bell said that he signed the petition. He said that
because he was busy seeing patients, he was not entirely sure what he was
signing and simply wanted to show support for the nurses.
He said he has not changed his mind, though, and still believes that the
stricter staffing ratios were a bad idea.
Bell said, "As much as I support the nurses in their fight, I don't agree
with the rigid nurse staffing ratios. I have not recanted anything."
Karen McDaniel, a registered nurse at Encino-Tarzana Regional Medical Center,
said: "He signed the petition, which is diametrically opposed to what he said
in the ad. And now he's trying to flip-flop again in saying he's in support
of the ratios as Schwarzenegger has changed them."
Would you like to comment?
So sad, it's funny. Especially the good doctor signing the petition, 
