NY Nurse May 2017

Without a doubt, Blood-borne Pathogens (BBP) pose a very serious risk to nurses.

Here’s some important background: Before OSHA’s BBP Standard was promulgated in 1991, healthcare workers were frequently exposed to bloodborne pathogens through needlesticks, cuts, splashes, etc. Healthcare unions knew that there were measures that could provide protection to these workers, but healthcare employers for years fought to prevent protective regulations. Finally, after many years of struggle, the BBP Standard was put into place.

The current increase in immigration raids in communities across the country is having a devastating impact on public health – one that could get even worse if there were an outbreak in Zika or other highly contagious illness. The White House’s current immigration policy is causing fear to spread in immigrant communities and studies show these policies are causing toxic stress among children and leading undocumented immigrants to delay seeking medical care.

The terms set forth in the U.S. House bill HR 1628, the American Health Care Act, pose a profound threat to the public’s health here in New York State and throughout the nation.

While nurses across the state celebrated Nurses Week this year with food, conversation and social interaction in many of our facilities, there was a bittersweet sensation permeating the atmosphere.

The nursing profession is under attack with attempts to chip away at our scope of practice in ways explicit and implicit. Patient care is being reduced to check lists and codes. All of our facilities are making cuts of one kind or another: RN staffing, ancillary staffing, benefits reductions, access to care for our communities, essential services reductions.