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Michelle Camicia, Kaiser RN has lived almost all of her 46 years in Marin County, California. She attended nursing school at San Francisco State University and earned her Master’s in Nursing from Sonoma State University. Her life was moving along according to plan – but then in May of 2012 she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Says Michelle about how the diagnosis affected her own nursing, “It really reinforces the need to have compassion. When I look in the patient’s eyes and see their fears differently or more than I used to be able to. And the care that I received also really reinforced what components of being a nurse are so important; excellent clinical skills, technical skills and knowledge but also that ability to connect with people and care about people and be positive.”

Casey and Shayne talk with Michelle and Dr. Marla Anderson, Chief of the Department of General Surgery at Kaiser Permanente San Rafael, about Michelle’s personal experience since being diagnosed.

You can listen to the whole show here. Read more…

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The statistics regarding back injuries are frightening! Approximately 80% of adults are expected to experience back injuries in their lifetime with 10% re-injuring! When it comes to health care professionals, the facts get are even worse.

According to national statistics, six of the top 10 professions at greatest risk for back injury are nurse’s aides, licensed practical nurses, registered nurses, health aides, radiology technicians, and physical therapists. Healthcare industry workers sustain 4.5 times more overexertion injuries than any other type of worker.

Well, registered nurses from hospitals in Kansas City and St. Louis, members of National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNOC), with the help of their state legislators, recently introduced HB 856 - the Safe Lift Bill. Sounds like a no brainer right? Listen and find out how challenging it was to get this bill introduced. Trust us – this is important even if it isn’t a sexy topic. The next time you are in a hospital you want to make sure whoever is lifting or moving you doesn’t have a bad back. That could lead to – well – you may end up on the floor on top of a nurse!

And Michelle Camicia, Kaiser RN has lived almost all of her 46 years in Marin County, California. She attended nursing school at San Francisco State University and earned her Master’s in Nursing from Sonoma State University. Her life was moving along according to plan – but then in May of 2012 she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Read more…

Rallies Tuesday, 12 Noon, Kaiser Oakland, Kaiser South Sacramento

OAKLAND—Registered nurses and nurse practitioners at Kaiser Permanente hospitals and clinics across Northern and Central California will honor the picket lines Tuesday in sympathy and solidarity with other frontline Kaiser staff who will hold a one-day strike Tuesday to protest Kaiser demands for substantial cuts in healthcare coverage, retirement benefits and inadequate staffing for mental health services.

RNs will complete final sympathy strike preparations Monday 3:30 p.m. at the Oakland headquarters of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United, which represents 17,000 Kaiser RNs.

Media Availability Today:
California Nurses Association, 2000 Franklin Street, Oakland, 3:30 p.m.

Tuesday Schedule:
Picketing Begins: Tuesday, January 31, 7 a.m., Kaiser Permanente Facilities
Rallies: Tuesday, January 31, 12 Noon
Kaiser Oakland: 3801 Howe St., Oakland
Kaiser South Sacramento: 6500 Bruceville Rd., Sacramento

RNs will be supporting mental health clinicians, clinical psychologists, licensed social workers and opticians.

The nurses say they understand the concerns of their co-workers about the erosion of services that affect the quality of patient care, especially in mental health, as described in the report Care Delayed, Care Denied. It asserts that Kaiser has frequently failed to comply with California laws aimed at protecting patients’ timely access to appropriate services despite receiving more than $10 billion annually from Medicare to provide a full range of services, including mental healthcare.

“It is disappointing that Kaiser is refusing to bargain for sufficient staffing for mental health services, and a secure retirement and accessible health coverage for its frontline caregivers despite its record profits,” said Zenei Cortez, RN, CNA Co-President, who works at Kaiser South San Francisco. Read more…

Kaiser nurses will be holding the sympathy strike on Jan. 31 to support their co-workers who are members of National Union of Healthcare Workers who charge that Kaiser Permanente, California’s largest HMO, systematically understaffs its mental health services in violation of California state law, leaving some patients to suffer delays in receiving treatment they have already paid for and urgently need.

The subject of  articles in USA Today and the Huffington Post,  A report by the NUHW “Care Delayed, Care Denied” documents the problem in detail.  To learn more and see the report visit: http://www.nuhw.org/caredenied.

From the Executive Summary:

“With more than 6.6 million members, Kaiser Permanente is California’s largest HMO and plays a massive role in the state’s healthcare delivery system by operating more than 35 hospitals and several hundred clinics across the state. Less well known, however, is Kaiser’s role in providing mental health services to Californians. Ranking perhaps second only to the State of California, Kaiser is one of the state’s largest providers of mental health services. The Oakland-based company guarantees its members a full array of inpatient, outpatient and emergency mental health services provided by several thousand mental health professionals. Each year, thousands of Kaiser’s members seek treatment for conditions ranging from autism, anxiety and bi-polar disorder to depression, schizophrenia and suicidal ideation.

Despite Kaiser’s pledge to provide comprehensive mental health services to its members, an in-depth analysis suggests that the HMO’s mental health services are sorely understaffed and frequently fail to provide timely and appropriate care. Read more…

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Casey and Dan check in with our friend and NNU Legislative Organizer Donna Smith. They talk with Donna about the Occupy movement, the nurses participation, the upcoming Day Of Action on November 3rd, the G-20 Summit and the nurses demands for a Wall Street Transaction Tax and continuing movement on the state by state single payer healthcare efforts.

We talk with Judy Farrell the Assistant Director of Enrollment for University of San Francisco’s Master’s in Nursing Clinical Nurse Leader program. With Judy is RN Kristina Smith who is a manager of the ICU Unit at Santa Rosa, Calif. Kaiser Hospital and a student in the USF Master’s program. Read more…

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When Nurses are on the Outside There’s Something Wrong Inside

There was big news last week with the nurses strike in Northern California. Over 23,000 nurses took part in the one day strike against Sutter and Kaiser hospitals. Tragically as we spoke with RN and co-president of National Nurses United Deborah Burger, a patient at Sutter’s Alta Bates Summit Medical Center died due to a medical error while under the care of a replacement nurse. Though this was a one-day strike, Sutter refused to let the nurses come back to work for another four days, putting patients in further jeopardy. Read more…