Time is Up on Nurse Abuse

  

This guest post is by ‘Nurse Alice’ Benjamin, MSN, RN, ACNS-BC.

As a nurse for nearly 20 years, I have witnessed and experienced physical, verbal and emotional abuse while caring for patients. I once cared for a patient who threw objects at me, yelled obscenities and racial slurs, spat on me and made unreasonable demands even though I was providing the best care possible.

Last month in Arkansas, a nurse was bitten and punched in her head repeatedly. In another incident, a nurse was choked and sexually assaulted. A majority of the time, nurses who have either been a victim or witnesses to physical and verbal abuse don’t receive news coverage. Thanks to technology and media, we have been able to highlight the magnitude and urgency of the matter, but still not intensely enough to end abuse altogether. As a nurse and media health expert, I make sure to discuss this issue on national television. I truly believe that these senseless acts of violence and abuse demand immediate attention and swift action.

Sadly, all nurses face similar, unsafe situations every day. And at times, unwarranted acts of violence are committed against us. That’s why I am proud to support the #EndNurseAbuse initiative – a national call-to-action led by the American Nurses Association urging nurses, healthcare professionals, patients and all concerned individuals to get involved. Sign a pledge to support zero tolerance when it comes to violence against nurses; report abuse whenever possible; and share the pledge with others asking them to sign too.

The clock has run out on harassment, sexual assault, and inequality in the workplace.

Across all industries and professions, women and men are speaking up to make it clear that time is up.

As we launch ANA’s Year of Advocacy, please join me by taking the pledge to #EndNurseAbuse today.

Congress reopens the government and reauthorizes CHIP while HHS creates a Conscience and Religious Freedom Division

  

Earlier today the Senate announced a deal for a three week continuing resolution to reopen the government. While this is an important step, ANA continues to advocate for a long-term, bipartisan solution to provide Americans with a greater sense of stability. In particular, we encourage both chambers to find an equitable compromise for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

Included in this deal was a six year reauthorization of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). It’s been more than 100 days since this vital, bipartisan program, which provides health coverage to 9 million children and pregnant women, was fully funded, and many Americans across the country worried that their family’s health care could run out. Nurses were critical in securing this win and we can’t thank you enough for reaching out to your representatives in Congress demanding a long term solution.

The shutdown and CHIP reauthorization are not the only important issues developing in Washington. Last Thursday, the Department of Health and Human Services announced it was establishing a Conscience and Religious Freedom Division under the Office for Civil Rights. This new division is charged with enforcing current laws that protect nurses and other health professionals who refuse to provide care to which they have moral or legal objections.

While health care professionals are obligated to follow laws and the federal government has the obligation to enforce these laws, both parties have the important responsibility to ensure that all patients receive the care and treatment to which they are entitled. All health care professionals’ first priority should be the quality and equal access of care their patients need. That is one of the reason that several organizations, including the National Women’s Law Center, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Human Rights Campaign, have expressed concerns that this new division could cause increased discrimination among certain groups of patients.

There are also legitimate concerns that this new entity could hinder or even deny some patients the care or treatment options open to them. Far too often vulnerable populations experience discrimination when it comes to their health care. Patients rely on nurses to provide honest and professional medical advice and treatment during the course of care regardless of their own beliefs. It is vital that all patients, regardless of their beliefs, sexual orientation, gender or health care needs know they are receiving the most accurate and timely care.

This issue is extremely important to the nursing profession. In response to this announcement Pamela F. Cipriano, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN, president of the American Nurses Association (ANA), issued the following statement:

“The American Nurses Association Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements states that a nurse has a duty to care. It also states a nurse is justified in refusing to participate in a particular decision or action that is morally objectionable, so long as it is a conscience-based objection and not one based on personal preference, prejudice, bias, convenience, or arbitrariness. Nurses are obliged to provide for patient safety, to avoid patient abandonment, and to withdraw only when assured that nursing care is available to the patient. Nurses who decide not to participate on the grounds of conscientious objection must communicate this decision in a timely and appropriate manner, in advance and in time for alternate arrangements to be made for patient care. Nurses should not be discriminated against by employers for exercising a conscience based refusal.

However, we must take care to balance health care professionals’ rights to exercise their conscience with patients’ rights to access a full range of health care services. Discrimination in health care settings remains a grave and widespread problem for many vulnerable populations and contributes to a wide range of health disparities. All patients deserve universal access to high quality care and we must guard against erosion of any civil rights protections in health care that would lead to denied or delayed care.”

Discrimination, prejudice and bias have no place in the American health care system and no patient should have to worry they aren’t getting the timely or medically necessary treatment they need. Nurses will continue to advocate for their patients to prevent discrimination and ensure that all Americans receive the high quality care they are entitled to. As the Department of Health and Human Services moves forward with this undertaking we will continue to monitor not only the implementation of the Conscience and Religious Freedom Division but the activities coming out of it to ensure that patients and health care professionals are protected.

Trump, Congress can’t close deal as shutdown looms

  

 As the federal government appears headed toward its first shutdown since 2013, congressional leadership and Trump administration figures have engaged in an increasingly public back and forth over which side should be held most responsible for the high-stakes stalemate. Major sticking points remain around immigration, specifically Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), as well as the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which has now gone more than three months since its long-term funding expired (and after Congress kicked the can down the road before the holidays late last year).

While the House of Representatives was able to pass a short-term funding bill by a slim margin, Senate Democrats refuse to support any legislation that does not include long-term CHIP funding and a solution on DACA, which the President unilaterally decided to end last year, a move ANA condemned at the time.

While the House spending bill included a long-term funding solution for CHIP, it did not address DACA, and the President rejected a bipartisan immigration deal earlier this week. With 49 Democrats currently serving in the Senate, and any funding bill needing to enjoy filibuster-proof support of 60 votes, Democratic buy-in is necessary to keep the government open.

Additionally, while inclusion of long-term CHIP funding in the House bill is heartening to see, House Republican leaders have had ample opportunity to address CHIP long before this week. Moreover, due in part to the repeal of the individual mandate as part of last year’s tax reform legislation, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) earlier this month revised its estimate of CHIP’s cost to the federal government and showed that it now stands at $800 million, down from $8.2 billion.

The President, largely via his Twitter feed, has repeatedly attempted to pin responsibility over a potential shutdown on congressional Democrats. Polling released Friday indicates he’s enjoying little success: 48% said they would blame the President and Republicans (who control every branch of government), with just 28% placing the blame on Democrats.

On Friday afternoon, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) visited the White House to meet with President Trump, a meeting at which Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) were not present. Following the meeting, Schumer indicated that progress was being made but that no agreement had yet been reached; nor was it clear what deal the President could reach with Schumer that would be acceptable to more conservative House Republicans, particularly those in the Freedom Caucus.

Regardless of the outcome, this episode is just the latest reminder for congressional leadership and the administration that a bipartisan, long-term budget is sorely needed, and that any such budget should include input from experts, including America’s nurses. Families who are affected by DACA or reliant on CHIP deserve better than what Washington has so far failed to deliver.