Nurses

If you are a teacher in debt, there's good news and bad news. There are literally dozens of programs that could potentially help wipe out your student loans. But most of them have narrow requirements that may lock you out. Just ask Troy Dale, a high school counselor from Ellis, Kan. He and his wife have $23,000 in student loans that they've been paying down for nearly a decade. At their current rate, they'll still be paying off their student debts when their oldest child enrolls in college.

Respiratory therapists, nursing aides, surgical technicians and other patient care workers plan to stage a walkout starting Tuesday morning at five University of California medical centers. More than 12,000 workers from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees are expected to participate in the two-day strike over staffing, pay and pension reform, union officials said. An additional 3,400 workers from the University Professional and Technical Employees union plan a one-day sympathy strike.

Re "Boost Funds for Nurse Training," editorial, June 8: Having just had open-heart bypass surgery, I wholeheartedly agree with your editorial about hiring more nurses. Hospitals are not what they used to be. This is what I experienced. When I needed help, it took minutes to an hour to get a nurse to come into my room. I was left alone in a chair in intensive care for 2 1/2 hours. Also, while I was in the hospital, one patient asked to be transferred to another hospital, another patient pulled out tubes and a patient fell.

The San Mateo County coroner's office Tuesday released the names of five women killed on the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge when their limousine became engulfed in flames. They are: Neriza Fojas, 31, and Michelle Estrera, 35, of Fresno; Jennifer Balon, 39, of Dublin, Calif.; Anna Alcantara, 46, of San Lorenzo, Calif.; and Felomina Geronga, 43, of Alameda. Four others survived. Other than Geronga, the close-knit Filipina friends were all nurses who had met while working at Oakland's Fruitvale Healthcare Center, bonding like "sisters," one survivor told a local television station.

The significance of my brush with death didn't sink in at first, probably because being alive keeps you pretty busy. Doctors and nurses were at my bed night and day asking questions, running tests, huddling to figure out what had happened to me at Keck Hospital of USC on the morning of Aug. 23, when I had one foot in the grave for somewhere between 15 and 30 seconds. Full cardiac arrest. My heart cut out in post-op after knee-replacement surgery. A nurse immediately began chest compressions, and I was back, unaware that I had flat-lined.

The California Board of Registered Nursing has taken the following actions against nurses featured in an ongoing series of stories by the nonprofit news organization ProPublica and The Times: Suspended the license of Owen Jay Murphy Jr. in August. He had been accused of physically and verbally assaulting patients at three Southern California hospitals. The board had allowed him to continue practicing while it pursued allegations, but regulators changed course after a July article.

Firms that supply temporary nurses to the nation's hospitals are taking perilous shortcuts in their screening and supervision, sometimes putting seriously ill patients in the hands of incompetent or impaired caregivers. Emboldened by a chronic nursing shortage and scant regulation, the firms vie for their share of a free-wheeling, $4-billion industry. Some have become havens for nurses who hopscotch from place to place to avoid the consequences of their misconduct. An investigation by the nonprofit newsroom ProPublica and the Los Angeles Times found dozens of instances in which staffing agencies skimped on background checks or ignored warnings from hospitals about sub-par nurses on their payrolls.

Three cheers for Suzanne Gordon for her article, "Nurses as Partners for Better Care" (Commentary, April 28). She succinctly captured the essence of the doctor/nurse lack of communication. This power struggle negatively impacts patient care. Everyone is the loser. A large percentage of the nation's health care could be performed by registered nurses. It has been estimated that 90% of diagnosis and treatment of a patient can be determined by active listening. In this way, predisposing factors and symptoms can be utilized to give improved patient care.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger replaced most members of the state Board of Registered Nursing on Monday, citing the unacceptable time it takes to discipline nurses accused of egregious misconduct. He fired three of six sitting board members -- including President Susanne Phillips -- in two-paragraph letters curtly thanking them for their service. Another member resigned Sunday. Late Monday, the governor's administration released a list of replacements.

Fiona Henlon still relives the shock of the letter that arrived three years ago. Citing a breakdown in its payroll system, Los Angeles County health officials explained that they had mistakenly paid the registered nurse an extra $6,200 over a two-year period. And the government was demanding the money back. Henlon, 45, said she hadn't realized that she'd received the added money because she has no set schedule and her paychecks fluctuate. "It is unfair," she said. "They made an error, and we are going to suffer for it. " Henlon is one of roughly 600 relief nurses used to fill county hospital staffing gaps who officials now say must repay a total of $1.8 million.

Re "Can't a nurse do that?," Editorial, April 21 To combat the impending physician shortage all across California, and the crisis already facing rural areas, state law absolutely must change to allow greater independence for non-physician medical professionals such as nurse practitioners. Merely increasing the number of medical students will not provide more physicians fast enough to handle the influx of new patients when much of the president's healthcare reform law fully kicks in next year.

A nurse has filed a lawsuit against two LAPD officers who slammed her to the ground twice during a routine traffic stop last August in Tujunga. Michelle Jordan, 34, filed the suit Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, KTLA reported . The mother and registered nurse was arrested after police said she disobeyed their instructions, then resisted arrest during a routine traffic stop in a Del Taco parking lot. Jordan's attorney, Sy...

Fiona Henlon still relives the shock of the letter that arrived three years ago. Citing a breakdown in its payroll system, Los Angeles County health officials explained that they had mistakenly paid the registered nurse an extra $6,200 over a two-year period. And the government was demanding the money back. Henlon, 45, said she hadn't realized that she'd received the added money because she has no set schedule and her paychecks fluctuate. "It is unfair," she said. "They made an error, and we are going to suffer for it. " Henlon is one of roughly 600 relief nurses used to fill county hospital staffing gaps who officials now say must repay a total of $1.8 million.

Getting moms to nurse their babies longer and exclusively did not mean the kids were less at risk for obesity by the time they were 11-1/2 - despite suggestions from other studies that breastfeeding can protect against obesity, researchers in a large study from Belarus said. The study, published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Assn.,  included nearly 14,000 healthy babies in Belarus who were enrolled in the study in 1996 and 1997; researchers checked in over time, including when the children were an average of 11-1/2 years old. In the randomized study, the babies were split into two groups, one of which breastfed longer.

He knows all about his patients: who likes to cook, whose blood pressure is out of control, who is quarreling with her husband. He keeps track of their appointments and recalls many of their phone numbers by heart. Calvin Woodard isn't a doctor or a nurse. Woodard is a driver. Every weekday, he ferries dozens of patients in an old white van to and from the To Help Everyone (T.H.E.) Clinic. As the clinic's only driver, Woodard, 59, is a critical part of its operations. He is the patients' unofficial counselor, confidant and, perhaps most important, conscience.

Bakersfield fire dispatcher Tracey Halvorson pleaded with the woman on the other end of the line to start CPR on an elderly woman who was barely breathing. "It's a human being," Halvorson said, speaking quickly. "Is there anybody that's willing to help this lady and not let her die?" The woman paused. "Um, not at this time. " According to a 911 tape released by the Bakersfield Fire Department, the woman told Halvorson that she was a nurse at Glenwood Gardens, a senior living facility in Bakersfield.

Despite the governor's pledge to better discipline errant health professionals there are signs that it will be difficult to enact sweeping changes as quickly or easily as the administration has suggested. At meetings in Sacramento on Monday and last week, regulators and state attorneys generally spoke of the need for reform but picked apart potential solutions presented to them. They offered no concrete time frames for having a workable system in place. Even officials within the same agency couldn't agree on solutions.

Placing the blame where it belongs Re "Down the Capitol rabbit hole," Column, May 26 The headline for the column by Steve Lopez could not have been more apt. Instead of blaming the Legislature and the governor for not providing the funds needed to employ school nurses to help care for California's students, he blames the representatives of the teachers and classified staff for attempting to protect students from unlicensed medical...

The long-term care facility operated by the Motion Picture & Television Fund, which in previous years faced criticism from nursing home advocates over quality of care issues and staffing levels, got some good news this week. U.S. News & World Report placed the fund's nursing home, which caters to entertainment industry workers and was once slated for closure, on its 2013 list of "Best Nursing Homes in California. " The facility, known as Motion Picture Home, received a five-star rating from U.S. News & World Report for having quality measures and nurse staff levels above state and national averages, the fund announced in a statement.

SACRAMENTO - As the state moves to expand healthcare coverage to millions of Californians under President Obama's healthcare law, it faces a major obstacle: There aren't enough doctors to treat a crush of newly insured patients. Some lawmakers want to fill the gap by redefining who can provide healthcare. They are working on proposals that would allow physician assistants to treat more patients and nurse practitioners to set up independent practices. Pharmacists and optometrists could act as primary care providers, diagnosing and managing some chronic illnesses, such as diabetes and high-blood pressure.