After learning this morning of the second major oil leak in L.A. in less two months, some of the newest members of CNA rushed to the scene to offer assistance and assess the health risks associated with a gushing leak coming from a ruptured above-ground pipeline. The newly elected Bargaining Team nurses from USC Verdugo Hills had a scheduled meeting less than half a mile from the spill at the CNA Glendale office to prepare for negotiations with management of the recently unionized hospital. Sandy Mulcahey, RN and Erica Beltran, RN arrived to find a massive cleanup underway. The nurses gathered information from LAPD and LAFD officials, who thanked the RNs for their assistance.
Today, I am on my way to Lima, Peru as part of a small delegation from California Nurses Association/National Nurses United going to participate in the United Nations Climate Change Summit 20th yearly Conference of the Parties (COP 20).
Erin Carrera, RN, 
First in a series of blogs from Peru
The upcoming regulations are the result of a CNA-sponsored bill, SB 1299—the Healthcare Workplace Violence Prevention Act—which was signed in 2014 by California Governor Jerry Brown. The bill mandates that hospitals have a comprehensive workplace violence prevention plan; Cal/OSHA’s regulations will implement the law.
Senator Bernie Sanders—a champion of Medicare for all, national nurse-to-patient ratios, collective bargaining rights for RNs, Robin Hood Tax on Wall Street, and more—is inviting nurses to take part in a live, nationally broadcast conversation, held at the National Nurses United office in Oakland, CA.
Last week, OSHA published a report on severe injuries reported in 2015. A new recordkeeping requirement went into effect January 1, 2015, requiring employers to report all work-related amputations and injuries requiring hospitalization to federal OSHA within 24 hours. This was in addition to the long-standing requirement to report all work-related fatalities to OSHA within 8 hours.
Help us save the CA Board of Registered Nursing by making phone calls to the Democratic members of the Assembly Committee on Business and Professions telling them to vote NO on SB 1194.
Kicked in the chest by a combative patient. Choked with her own stethoscope. Left to fend for himself when a visitor arrived at the hospital with a gun. These are some of the personal experiences shared today by NNU nurses from around the country at the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) stakeholder meeting in Washington, D.C. on workplace violence in healthcare settings.
RN Amy Bowen just returned from a week in Houston and Beaumont. Amy talks about how she and her fellow nurses from the Registered Nurse Response Network worked side by side with local medical professionals, who were also volunteering—to give aid to those in need.
RNRN nurse volunteers spent two weeks in Puerto Rico advocating for residents to receive the most basic of care: clean water, food, shelter, medicine. Where was our government?
