[Tony35NYC]

Originally Posted by NurseGuy_in_06

To get a real insight into Arnold you have to read his book, titled "Arnold, portrait of a bodybuilder". I am not advocating buying his book but in his book he admits to and brags about being a master manipulator. He is very egotistical and very wealthy. In his book he talks a lot about how he learned to manipulate people to get what he wants.

This is true. Many people see the governator as just a dumb, sweet guy with a charming accent, and so they smile at everything he says and does do matter how stupid it is. No one took him very seriously as a governor during the elections, all people were thinking was that he couldn't possibly be any worse than the alternative (whom just about everyone [including most democrats] seemed to really hate). Davis was not a good governor but are Californians really better off now that he's gone?

The governator is a cold-hearted guy who lies and manipulates people to get his way, and although pretty much all politicians do this the difference with him is that he gets away with anything at all because he's a big Hollywood star and people really love him. Its a very powerful combo to be rich, famous, good looking, powerful, and well-liked by the massess. That could get to anybody's head.

I heard a rumor that he may be on the Republican ticket in 2008. Please say it isn't so!!!!!!!!!!

[Haunted]

Originally Posted by Gomer

The man is an idiot! He treats nurses, and women in general, like objects to meet his own personal needs and desires. HIPAA aside, he has been a patient at a hospital I used to work at and he was one nasty self-centered patient (Maria was also a patient and she's no bargain either). He won the election because we Californians are idiots too. Thank God, at this time, he can't run for President.

Keep an eye on his website....he has a lot of "special interest" financial backers who are trying to overturn the immigration status to allow him to run for President. Some of those big money backers include The California Healthcare Association, a lobbyist group that many hospitals belong to who are fighting CNA hand to hand...just a story to watch.

[Haunted]

After reading the replies here, just a few FYI's to add... CNA is just one union that healthcare workers belong to. The staffing ratios were placed after years of EXTENSIVE research by the Department of Health Services, a federal regulatory agency, as well as reports from JCAHO and review of state owned hospitals, teaching facilities and patient satisfaction surveys statewide. When the bill was adopted, it was put into effect by the people in California who voted for it. Several years were allotted to hospitals to allow them to structure staffing modules that would facilitate the ratio.

The problem is that many hospitals that are not union represented have increased the LVN's into the staffing ratio, giving them a 50% shift count, although the RN, who makes up the other 50% is also ultimetely responsible for assessment, IVP and IVPB's, admission and care plans of the LVN's patients. These facilities have also eliminated nurses aids making each nurse PRIMARY for their 6 patients, which includes VS, meal tray delivery, feeds, linen changes, bed baths, ambulation to bathroom, on and off bedpans, and has reduced the unit secretary's time making us also responsible for transcribing and placing orders.

I would also like to point out that hospitals throughout California have seen a billion dollar plus increases in profits since 2000. So the hospitals themselves are not suffering a financial shortfall. I also don't believe there is a genuine nursing shortage here in California. I work registry and can site Bristol Park Medical Group in OC as having at least 10 RN's in the doc offices on any given day. When I work there I room patients, take vitals, may give an IM or ear irrigation, phone in an RX, but usually perform things that MA's could easily do. When I ask the RN's that work there why they stay they say they hate bedside nursing and the administrative BS that goes along with it! I say good for them. Just a thought...

[boulergirl]

Here in GA we voted out a governor that alienated the state's teachers. He can always be replaced and knowing how he is his ego would take a major hit.

NurseGuy, I know which governor you're talking about. Wasn't his nickname "King Roy"? Oh my goodness, what a booger. I helped replace him, too.

[hipab4hands]

[quote=begalli]Not if CA nurses have anything to say about it.

He is so incredibly stupid. He called nurses "special interest." Yet when HCA stood up to decry the nurses actions it was acceptable? Who has more money to give him? Obviously HCA


I guess when you donate enough PAC money to his campaign then you're not a special interest.

I was one of the thousands of nurses, who were at the State Capitol in Sacramento, CA to attend the protest regarding nursing ratios. The "gov" didn't even have the courtesy to come out of his office to address the issues. I wonder if CNA had paid enough PAC money would he have come out of hiding.

[hipab4hands]

Originally Posted by tommycher

If I read the article correctly, he was calling the union a special interest group, not the nursing profession as a whole a special interest group. I find it hard to believe people use so much energy to protest a 1:6 ratio on a med/surg floor! What do they do when they get that next admit due to the ER overflowing, and the floor was originally staffed in the morning for what the census was at that time? Are they unable to handle new admits? Even with the on-call nurse coming in to help, sometimes it is hard to predict how many times the new admits will make the rounds of the nurses available. Do what you can, stabilize the patients, and then we have, guess what? ANOTHER SHIFT COMING IN! I would love to have fewer pts. per shift, but what would the extra staffing do to the cost of healthcare? The profit of the hospital? We already have another thread here about how Americans are deprived of healthcare. The nurses apparently acted in an unprofessional manner, that is too bad. But, if you can't stand the heat, as they say.....

It's still cheaper to staff a unit properly then it is to pay out the money for a lawsuit due to poor staffing/negligence.

The bean counters in the hospital are gambling with the lives and safety of both staff and the patients by not staffing properly.

By the way, I don't mean any disrespect, but your partyline about accepting the current levels of staffing is what Administration loves. They want nurses, who are willing to work under any circumstances, regardless of patient safety and staff safety. As long as your willing to work under these conditions, then Administration has no motiviation to change.

Nurses in California are not willing to just lay back and silently accept improper staffing levels. The govenor is well aware of this as we staged a protest at his office at the State Capital last week. It was amazing that many of our state representatives publicly spoke out and joined us. Many of these folks have family members, who are nurses, and are well aware of the type of care, patients recieve under the current staffing ratio's.

[NurseGuy_in_06]

Originally Posted by boulergirl

NurseGuy, I know which governor you're talking about. Wasn't his nickname "King Roy"? Oh my goodness, what a booger. I helped replace him, too.

Yes it was "King Roy". What Arnold needs is a dose of reality. If he was to lose an election I believe everyone would see the "real" Arnold. This coming from a right-leaning centrist.

[Marie_LPN, RN]

Originally Posted by Tony35NYC

I heard a rumor that he may be on the Republican ticket in 2008. Please say it isn't so!!!!!!!!!!

He has to have been born in the USA in order for this to happen, unless laws are changed. If the laws are changed and he'll be allowed to run, then just shoot me now, please.

[SmilingBluEyes]

they are doing what they can to change those laws. dont' know if it will happen, but Aahhnold for Prez, HELLLLLL NO.

[Tony35NYC]

Originally Posted by NurseGuy_in_06

I think that one of the reasons health care costs so much and therefore leaves much less money to go for nurses wages is the drain that illegals put on the system. My solution to increase the profits of the hospitals and thereby increase the money available to the nursing profession is to bill the federal government for the services performed on illegals. The federal govt. is supposed to protect our borders. And before you say we pay the taxes they will spend I say tax any company that moves their production overseas to pay for it. Also tax any company here that hires a certain % of their workforce from non-citizens. This is exactly what the border states are beginning to do.

I don't know about this. There is no reliable information that proves that illegals alone are to be blamed for the high cost of healthcare except for biased studies commissioned by anti-immigration groups. Reliable sources of information show that there are many factors driving the high cost of healthcare, including: the high cost of liability risks due to outrageous tort claims and awards, the increasing number of senior citizens needing care, increasing costs of managing chronic diseases like AIDS and cancer, and the ever-increasing costs of managing lifestyle diseases resulting from things like obesity and tobacco use.

Last time I read about this was at about a year ago, so the numbers may be different now but it was something like 60% of Americans who don't have health insurance. We're not talking about illegal aliens here, but legal US residents. With so many people having little or no health insurance the state and federal governments have no choice but to assume some of the healthcare expenses through medicare and medicaid. I don't see anything wrong with the government paying some of these costs for taxpayers who don't have adequate health insurance because they find plenty of other ways to squander our tax money anyway.

Illegal aliens do not qualify for any federal or state aid, so any healthcare expenses they incur usually get eaten by the hospitals and are frequently paid for with community access grants that just about every hospital receives from private donors. And, maybe you could explain a bit more why companies who hire non-citizens should pay more taxes when legal, non-citizen wage earners pay the same taxes that citizens do? You are assuming that if the hospitals made more profit they would pay nurses higher salaries. I have to disagree with you on that one. When a for-profit hospital makes money most of that money goes into the shareholders' pockets, not to the nursing staff.