Playing Cards

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Any WA nurses out there who can explain Senator Maureen Walsh's diatribe about nurses in critical care access hospitals "playing cards a considerable amount of time?"

What was that about? https://www.wsna.org/news/2019/senator-states-that-nurses-probably-play-cards-for-a-considerable-amount-of-the-day-in-amending-rest-breaks-bill

If any WA nurses are playing cards on duty, please shape up. It makes us all look bad.

(that's a joke, btw).

Specializes in OMFS, Dentistry.

Of course nurses play cards... CPR, ACLS, and PALS just to name a few ?

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On 4/20/2019 at 2:34 PM, NRSKarenRN said:

From CNN:

State senator slammed for saying nurses 'play cards' for 'considerable amount' of day

Attention Washington state nurses: Please educate your legislators!!!

See Full text of bill: HB 1155 - 2019-20

Concerning meal and rest breaks and mandatory overtime for certain health care employees.

Bill passed by Senate with amendments going back to House for approval. Comments regarding this legislation can be entered here.

Your district and House of Representative & Senators can be located at WA Legislature Home left side of page to educate them re need for mandatory breaks/meals AND sufficient coverage to be relieved of duty AS FEDERAL LAW REQUIRES to be considered as UNPAID meal.

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Interesting she made a snarky comment about nurses talking out of both sides of their mouth, complaining they are tired yet she used being tired as an excuse for her dumb comment!

The double standard here points out that she clearly has no understanding of the sacrifices nurses make every day!

I agree with the person who states, let's not forget to be professional. We do not want to discredit ourselves like she did!

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

I reside in WA State. I did write the Senator and signed the petition to oppose the bill. I suggest everyone write her. There is an amazing open letter to her. Link below. This is ridiculous, much worse and insidious than Joy Behar's faux pas.

https://expeditionedcom.wordpress.com/2019/04/19/an-open-letter-to-senator-maureen-walsh/?fbclid=IwAR2h-149kjac87Em5rfDC_PMv_iJVLPTSWqiP0R_vBotpMMv2fJJad_dQHQ

https://p2a.co/EDv6Ikt

Action is immediately needed now.

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

I see a lot of angry nurses in HER "cards"....

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Specializes in Mental Health, Gerontology, Palliative.
6 hours ago, Emergent said:

Washington $42,106/year base salary $90/day per Diem when in session.

They must make their bread and butter elsewhere, that's pretty paltry compensation.

Hell yes, our MPs have a base rate of around $120k

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
6 hours ago, Emergent said:

Washington $42,106/year base salary $90/day per Diem when in session.

They must make their bread and butter elsewhere, that's pretty paltry compensation.

Yes. Special interests and lobbyists. Hush hush stuff.

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Specializes in Acute Dialysis.

She was saying nurses aren’t running their tails off like at bigger hospitals. The point as I understand it is that at critical access hospitals, mandatory breaks are actually more of a burden and she wanted to exclude these hospitals because of their lower census. And I kind of agree. I hate having to clock in and out. Not to mention having only 2nurses on a unit means you can’t really have a break since you can’t leave the unit with only one nurse for safety reasons so, mandatory breaks require higher staffing which doesn’t make sense when your census is very low.

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I was a WA nurse working at a critical access hospital and there were many days that I went without meal breaks and had to figure out when to go to the bathroom and hope no one crawled out of bed while I was off the floor just like at the big city hospitals I have been at since my critical access days. Also if WA makes me work 8 hour shifts I will not want to work as a nurse in WA again.

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Specializes in Education, Informatics, Patient Safety.
13 hours ago, 10GaugeNeedles said:

She was saying nurses aren’t running their tails off like at bigger hospitals. The point as I understand it is that at critical access hospitals, mandatory breaks are actually more of a burden and she wanted to exclude these hospitals because of their lower census. And I kind of agree. I hate having to clock in and out. Not to mention having only 2nurses on a unit means you can’t really have a break since you can’t leave the unit with only one nurse for safety reasons so, mandatory breaks require higher staffing which doesn’t make sense when your census is very low.

Thanks for explaining - I appreciate it - I was trying to figure out her reasoning. This does make sense when the bottom line is the almighty dollar. I wonder how much money a hospital would save if they increased staffing enough to lower the error rate. From what I've read, the savings could be substantial - no funds going out for having to settle out of court for harm to patients, and you'd save a ton of money not having to train new nurses as the seasoned ones leave for a better working conditions. Hospitals just don't want to spend the money up front on safe staffing. They'd rather wait until someone gets hurt and pay out the money on the back end. It's painful to watch...and so illogical.

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On ‎4‎/‎19‎/‎2019 at 11:07 PM, SquatsNScrubs said:

In case you missed it:

Washington Senator Maureen Walsh makes disparaging comments about nurses “playing cards for a considerable amount of the day,” suggests nurses should only work 8-hour shifts.

?

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.tri-cityherald.com/news/local/article229483694.html

What was her rationale behind this? If we work 8 hours a day, then we'll need to hire more staff to cover the 24 hours, which ultimately costs more money...? I'd love for her to shadow a nurse for a few shifts - !!!

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Specializes in Critical Care.
9 minutes ago, Apple-Core said:

What was her rationale behind this? If we work 8 hours a day, then we'll need to hire more staff to cover the 24 hours, which ultimately costs more money...? I'd love for her to shadow a nurse for a few shifts - !!!

The idea of using only 8 hour shifts has been pushed by hospitals and hospital associations for a while now, using the theory that it requires fewer nurses. This is mainly based on the idea that a full time 12-hour nurse works 36 hours a week and full time 8 hour nurse works 40, so for every 10 nurses that work 40 hours a week instead of 36 you need one less nurse, which then reduces benefit costs. In reality though, a portion of nurses switching from a 12 hour schedule to an 8 hour schedule will seek to reduce their FTE, negating the supposed reduction in total staff.

The benefits of 8 hour shift staffing has been pushed by the Washington State Hospital Association which also opposes the bill requiring nurses to get their breaks, Maureen Walsh's largest contributor is the Washington State Hospital Association, including a large contribution for a campaign where she ran unopposed.

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