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Despite High Rates of Nursing Injuries, Government Regulators Take Little Action

As NPR has been reporting in its Injured Nurses series, nursing employees suffer more back and arm injuries than just about any other occupations, but studies show that hospitals can reduce the number of injuries dramatically if they buy special equipment to move patients and conduct intensive training to teach the staff how to use it.

Daniel Zwerdling, NPR
March 24, 2015

In her Prime Healthcare decision, Kamala Harris set a standard that should apply to all hospitals

Prime Healthcare’s decision to drop its bid to buy six Daughters of Charity hospitals, citing strict conditions set by Attorney General Kamala Harris, should prompt discussion about basic standards for all California hospitals. Harris established a new bar for how all hospitals should operate, and it ought to become the industry yardstick.

RoseAnn DeMoro Op-Ed, Sacramento Bee
March 22, 2015

Sutter nurses back strike if necessary

Less than five months after the successful launch of Sonoma County’s newest hospital, nurses at the Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital say they’re ready to strike over the staffing shortages and changes to their medical benefits. Last week, California Nurses Association, which represents 426 registered nurses at Sutter in Santa Rosa, announced that its nurses had voted overwhelmingly in support of authorizing their negotiating team to call a strike if necessary.

MARTIN ESPINOZA, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
March 16, 2015

International Nurse News Round-Up

See a collection of links to news stories about nurses in other nations, and how they are advocating for their patients.

Global Nurses United
March 13, 2015

The Real Story of How a Dallas Nurse Got Ebola Could Be Worse Than We Ever Imagined

According to the petition filed with the court, when Pham "asked her manager what she should do to protect herself," one of her superiors "went to the internet, searched Google, printed off information regarding what Nina was supposed to do, and handed Nina the printed paper." Given that sequence of events, the suit alleges, it's clear "she did not volunteer to be his nurse." Still, she treated him when asked.

Lauren Friedman, Business Insider
March 9, 2015

Free of Ebola but Not Fear

Experimental drugs and special care helped make Nina Pham Ebola free. But today she fears she may never escape the deadly disease. The 26-year-old nurse says she has nightmares, body aches and insomnia as a result of contracting the disease from a patient she cared for last fall at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas. She says the hospital and its parent company, Texas Health Resources, failed her and her colleagues who cared for Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person in the United States diagnosed with Ebola.

Jennifer Emily, Dallas Morning News
March 2, 2015

Nurse Nina Pham suing hospital where she contracted Ebola

The first nurse to contract Ebola in the U.S. is now suing the hospital she says is responsible. Nurse Nina Pham treated patient Thomas Eric Duncan at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in October last year. Duncan was the first patient in the U.S. confirmed to have Ebola and died days after tests came back positive.

Dayton Daily News
March 2, 2015

At VA Hospitals, Training And Technology Reduce Nurses' Injuries

As NPR has reported in our investigative series Injured Nurses, nursing employees suffer more debilitating back and other injuries than almost any other occupation — and they get those injuries mainly from doing the everyday tasks of lifting and moving patients.

Daniel Zwerdling, NPR
February 26, 2015

Hospital To Nurses: Your Injuries Are Not Our Problem

The case of Terry Cawthorn and Mission Hospital, in Asheville, N.C., gives a glimpse of how some hospital officials around the country have shrugged off an epidemic. Cawthorn was a nurse at Mission for more than 20 years. Her supervisor testified under oath that she was "one of my most reliable employees." Then, as with other nurses described this month in the NPR investigative series Injured Nurses, a back injury derailed Cawthorn's career. Nursing employees suffer more debilitating back and other body injuries than almost any other occupation, and most of those injuries are caused by lifting and moving patients.

Daniel Zwerdling, NPR
February 19, 2015

Op-Ed: Don't Trade Away Our Health

Representatives from the United States and 11 other Pacific Rim countries convened to decide the future of their trade relations in the so-called Trans-Pacific Partnership (T.P.P.). Powerful companies appear to have been given influence over the proceedings, even as full access is withheld from many government officials from the partnership countries.

Joseph Stiglitz, The New York Times
February 18, 2015