Schwarzenegger replaces nursing board members following ProPublica, LA Times investigation
Late Monday, Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger replaced nearly everyone on the state’s Board of Registered Nursing, “citing the unacceptable length of time it takes to discipline nurses accused of egregious misconduct.” The move came a day after a ProPublica and Los Angeles Times investigation into the board’s activity was published.
He fired three of six sitting board members — including President Susanne Phillips — in one-paragraph letters curtly thanking them for their service. Another member resigned Sunday. Late Monday, his administration released a list of replacements.
Charles Ornstein and Tracy Weber of ProPublica and Maloy Moore of the Los Angeles Times joined forces to review every case between 2002 and 2008 in which a nurse faced disciplinary action — more than 2000 of them — and found that, on average, California’s Board of Registered Nursing took more than three years to take action on such cases. Many took far longer and have not yet been acted upon at all. In other large states, the reporters write, such cases are usually dealt with in less than a year.
The reporting team adds depth to their investigative work with a compelling series of anecdotes, told from the perspective of patients, administrators and even the wayward nurses themselves. They also dissect the system, finding few safeguards other than the tardy board review process, and work to discover all the factors contributing to the delays.
In reaction to the story, leaders of the California Board of Registered Nurses sent a note of encouragement to its staff on Monday that points to some recent accomplishments.
Over at Off the Charts, the American Journal of Nursing blog, AJN editor-in-chief emeritus Diana J. Mason, R.N., Ph.D., weighs in on the investigation and an earlier study of recidivism among disciplined nurses. Mason suggests that the National Council of State Boards for Nursing could “work with the state boards to publicly report on a state-by-state basis a quality metric of length of time between complaints and board action.”
Update
Calif. Nursing Board executive officer resigns: On Tuesday, the longtime executive officer of the embattled California Board of Registered Nursing resigned. Ornstein and Weber report that “Terry had been the appointed executive officer for nearly 16 years and had been on the staff of the board for 25.”
Do days recognizing nurses help the profession?
Today is International Nurses Day, an occasion pegged to the birthday of Florence Nightingale, the British woman who devoted her life to improving nursing.
Florence Nightingale (via Wikimedia Commons)
It’s a time to recognize nurses, and an opportunity for them to remind the rest of us of their relevance. The day also marks the end of National Nurses Week, a creation of the American Nurses Association.
But does the special recognition for nursing help or hurt the status of the profession? Christine Moffa, a nurse and editor at the American Journal of Nursing, tackles the question on its blog Off the Charts: “[P]eople who have days or weeks dedicated to them must have it pretty bad the rest of the year. Professions with prestige and power don’t have a day or a week.”
Her sense of humiliation over the celebrations is deepened by token gifts, like the squeezable stress toy an employer gave her one year, and hokey contests, like picking the sexiest nurse or the one with the nicest fingernails.
A commenter to the post chimes in: “[I]t’s only people who are disempowered who get a ‘day’ or a ‘week:’ secretaries, mothers, and nurses.” Her suggestion: “Instead of prizes and a free meal how about we get a raise!”
Shalala advocates for nurses’ role in reform
The American Academy of Nurses hosted a press conference on Friday to push for the inclusion of nurses in the move to reform health care. Participants also discussed some alternatives to the current system that would use nurses as primary care providers in some cases.
University of Miami president Donna Shalala, former secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, opened the briefing:
“We’re here today to make a very specific point. We want to say loud and clear that nurse practitioners are going to be key to health care reform in the Obama era and that nurses must be at the table when the system is overhauled. In other words, nurses are part of the solution. Nurse practitioners, in particular.”
She points to Massachusetts and its lack of primary care providers as an example of what could happen if nurses are not included in the reform conversation. She discusses “nurse-managed health centers” as an option that she describes as an “innovative delivery model.”
Other speakers included Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell, Tine Hansen-Turton of the National Nursing Centers Consortium, and Susan E. Sherman, president of the Independence Foundation.
Audio of the news conference is available, as are bios of the speakers and two PowerPoint presentations.
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