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Caring for those in need includes standing up for patients against corporate greed and disinterest in the human costs of cuts in staffing and services. There are 23,000 nurses on the street for theCalifornia Kaiser and Sutter Health strike doing just that. We’re with them.

We’re rewinding our show with Boston RN Karen Higgins, past president of Massachusetts Nurses Association and one of three co-presidents for National Nurses United who talks about nurse activism. Corporate health care is looking at the bottom line but they aren’t seeing it. Nurses face the results of cost cutting up close every day. Karen says, “When hospitals feel the need to save money, the first place they cut unfortunately are the ones who take care of patients and the vast majority of who that is, is nurses…Patient care suffers and patients suffer.”

Karen also shares her views on the continuing need for single payer health care in our country, the urgency regarding nurse-patient ratios and other important issues that affect all of us. It seems the hospitals are looking at more ways to cut staffing (this is in the face of a health care crisis) in preparation for Obama Care kicking in. Is it really Obama Care of is it just one more way to continue to make huge profits on the backs of hard working RNs and health care workers?

AND some great advice about taking care of your parents or other elderly loved ones. Kira Reginato joins us. Kira is the president of Living Ideas for Elders and is the host of her own radio show on KSRO, The Elder Care Show in Santa Rosa, California. Read more…

Strike against Sutter Health and Kaiser. Read the latest details at nationalnursesunited.org and watch live video stream right here at 10 am and 12 noon Pacific time.

Live video from your Android device on Ustream Read more…

Mental health professionals at Kaiser Permanente speak out about understaffing at Kaiser and its impact on patient care, in advance of a statewide strike. Fighting the good fight. We applaud you for your sympathy strike support California Nurses Association and National Nurses United. This is a great video about why Kaiser health care workers are striking. We can all be agents for change. Money is not more important than people.

Kaiser Mental Health Caregivers Speak Up for Patients from Leighton Woodhouse on Vimeo. Read more…