New California Ebola Mandate Sets National Model for Highest Protections, Say RNs

[herring_RN, ASN, BSN]

Following a worldwide day of actions of 100,000 registered nurses and health workers demanding substantial improvements in safeguards for Ebola virus, California officials announced landmark mandatory Ebola guidelines that should be a model for federal and state action for all U.S. hospitals, National Nurses United said.

NNU, which has sponsored two months of actions to upgrade Ebola protections, and its California affiliate, California Nurses Association, praised the new standards released last week by the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Cal-OSHA) under the leadership of Gov. Jerry Brown.

"These rules are a testament to the outspoken efforts of nurses who have repeatedly pressed for the highest level of mandatory safety precautions to protect nurses, patients, and the public. Nurses have raised their voices, and California has now listened, acted, and once again set a benchmark for the nation," says NNU and CNA executive director RoseAnn DeMoro.

The new California standards, an elaboration of existing Cal OSHA regulations on Aerosol Transmissible Disease and other existing regulations, go well beyond the faulty procedures and protective gear employed by hospitals across the U.S., and the current, unenforceable recommendations of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

By contrast, California regulations are mandatory. The guidance under existing standards, which are effective immediately, stipulate the optimal level of personal protective equipment, rigorous training and drills, and break additional ground in identifying modes of possible transmission of the virus and when safety precautions must be engaged for nurses and other front line health workers who encounter patients with the deadly Ebola virus.

"With the hospital industry dismissing the concerns of the nurses, and the federal government failing to order the hospitals to implement the optimal level of Ebola protection, California, under the stewardship of Gov. Brown, has heard the voices of nurses, and established a model that all should follow," says CNA co-president Zenei Cortez, RN...

http://www.infectioncontroltoday.com/news/2014/11/new-california-ebola-mandate-sets-national-model-for-highest-protections-say-rns.aspx