SACRAMENTO, Calif., Jan. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Some 1,500 Registered Nurses from across California will gather in Sacramento Tuesday, January 18 for a major state hearing on the proposal by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to roll back hospital patient safety standards, the California Nurses Association announced today.
When: Tuesday, January 18 Initial Rally: 9:30 a.m., Sacramento Convention Center, 1400 J Street Hearing: 10 a.m., Sacramento Convention Center, Exhibit Hall D Jazz Funeral Procession: 12:30 p.m., Convention Center to State Capitol Capitol Rally: 1 p.m., North Steps, Capitol
Scores of RNs will testify to the Department of Health Services about the impact of Gov. Schwarzenegger’s order, made on behalf of hospital corporations, that would virtually eliminate safe staffing protections in emergency rooms, resulting in longer waits for care and more dangerous conditions for patients, and postpone for three years improved care conditions in general medical units.
Additionally, RNs, other direct-care health professionals, and supporters will deliver more than 11,000 letters and cards to the governor’s office following a New Orleans-style jazz funeral procession to the Capitol from the hearing led by a Jazz Band, symbolizing the dangers that patients face without safe RN-to-patient ratios. After delivering the letters, RNs will return to the hearing which is scheduled to run until 5 p.m.
“Gov. Schwarzenegger has put California families at risk with his reckless emergency order to cut back on safe nursing care standards,” said Deborah Burger, RN, President of the California Nurses Association. “In this hearing, the thousands of letters and cards to the governor signed by RNs, and the other protest actions of the day, RNs will describe how this disgraceful and illegal proposal will jeopardize patients.”
Representing nearly 60,000 nurses at 165 facilities throughout California, the California Nurses Association is the nation’s largest and fastest-growing professional association of Registered Nurses.
California Nurses Association
CONTACT: Shum Preston, +1-510-273-2276 or Charles Idelson,+1-510-273-2246 or +1-415-559-8991, both for California Nurses Association
Web site: http://www.calnurse.org/