Letter: Patients, nurses get lost in drive to make money

Sunday, Jan. 23, 2000 | 9:04 a.m.

But this reduction in staff results in adverse patient outcomes, such as an increase in a hospital's acquired infection rates, an increase in medication errors and an increase in bedsores. Most patients do not even get bathed while hospitalized and some do not get their linen changed. And we do not talk about the deaths that were preventable -- we have no whistle-blower protection and we cannot afford to lose our jobs or our licenses. So we, too, are caught in a quandary -- we see that which is not right, but we risk our professional lives if we tell. Yet we cannot walk away from our assignments or we will be cited for patient abandonment. Some of us document the poor conditions and are trying to get the regulatory agencies to investigate.

The hospitals certainly aren't listening to their nurses, who ask for more staff on a daily basis to give adequate patient care. They pay us below the national average and intimidate and harass those that take the initiative and advocate for their patients. Some even get fired. Nurses will stay on the job if they are offered an adequate salary, decent benefits and an administration that will listen to their concerns about patient care.

The Nevada Service Employees Union's Health Care Oversight Committee -- whose members are from the major hospitals in the valley, including Sunrise, UMC, Desert Springs, Valley and Lake Mead -- will be testifying about our concerns before the Interim Health Care Committee of the Nevada Legislature on Wednesday at the Sawyer State Office Building. We need the public to be aware and we need the Legislature to help us solve these problems -- they are important to all of us, our friends and our families.

CHRISTINE SAWYER

Registered nurse, Co-chairwoman, Health Care Oversight Committee, Nevada Service Employees Union