“According
to a survey released by nurse union organization National Nurses
United, 44% of nurses said their employer provided them with
information to identify potential coronavirus cases. Only 19% of the
6,500 nurses across 48 states surveyed knew if their employer had
policies to address if workers were potentially exposed to the
virus.”
-- Steven
Ross Johnson, Modern Healthcare (March 6, 2020)
The survey, conducted by
the nation’s largest professional nursing union (March 3, 2020), found less than a
third of nurses reported that their employers had enough protective
equipment on hand to protect staff in the event of a surge of
infections. And just 29 percent said their employers had a plan to
isolate possible coronavirus patients.
Nurses are working without
necessary personal protective equipment and lack education and
training for handling the disease, said National Nurses United
director Bonnie Castillo. Castillo says …
“Nurses are confident
we can care for COVID-19 patients, and even help stop the spread of
this virus, IF we are given the protections and resources we need to
do our job. This is not the time to relax our approach or weaken
existing state or federal regulations. This is the time to step up
all of our efforts.”
Cathy Kennedy, a neonatal
intensive care unit RN and NNU vice president who works at Kaiser
Permanente in Roseville, Calif., where the first California COVID-19
patient just died, explains …
“The lines of
communication between our employers and frontline staff on protocols
for coronavirus and suspected coronavirus patients are not open for
all shifts and all units. What happens when there is a lack of clear
communication both ways between staff and management? Rumor and
falsehoods fill the void, stoking unnecessary fear and anxiety. And
the information nurses do get is contradictory.”
The NNU petitioned the
U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration to adopt an
emergency temporary standard to protect health care workers,
patients, and the public. Currently, no enforceable OSHA infectious
diseases standard exists nationally.
And in recent days, NNU
has heard discussion about the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
weakening its current guidance even further, including recommending
surgical masks instead of respirators for nurses providing care to
patients with COVID-19. NNU is opposed to these changes.
Among their demands, NNU
states …
“Employers shall
implement plans and protocols in response to COVID-19 based on the
precautionary principle which holds that lacking scientific consensus
that a proposed action, policy, or act is not harmful –
particularly if that harm has the potential to be catastrophic –
such action, policy, or act should not be implemented and the maximum
safeguards should be pursued.”
– “Survey
of Nation’s Frontline Registered Nurses Shows Hospitals Unprepared
For COVID-19” Press Release, National Nurses United/California
Nurses Association (March 05, 2020)
In other words, the
precautionary principle posits “when you don’t know what you’re
dealing with, go above and beyond to protect the safety of those
involved. Do as much as you can, not the least you can get away
with.”
The foundation of the
precautionary principle is conveyed by the common-sense advice to
“err on the side of caution.” The principle is based on a desire
to prevent harm to the environment, humans, other living creatures
and ecological systems. It is a value statement, intended as an
approach to decision-making, which asks decision-makers, policymakers
and communities to consider the full range of direct and indirect
costs of our decisions to health and the environment, even when full
scientific certainty about potential harmful effects is lacking.
The NNU also demands all
registered nurses and other health care workers must receive the
highest level of protection in their workplaces, as determined by the
precautionary principle:
1. The CDC must improve
screening criteria and testing capacity to ensure prompt recognition
of and response to COVID-19 cases.
2. The Occupational
Safety and Health Administration must promulgate an Emergency
Temporary Standard to protect healthcare workers from emerging
infectious diseases like COVID-19 as soon as possible.
3. Congress and the
administration must ensure that any vaccine or treatment for COVID-19
that is developed with U.S. taxpayer dollars is provided to the
American public when needed for free.
4.Congress must act
immediately to pass an emergency spending package to fund the
emergency response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
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