An Increased Risk: About 75% Of Health Care Workers In Most Cities Are Women
Health care workers make up a disproportionate number of COVID-19 cases, and many of those on the front line are women. In health care personnel news: home health aides struggle to ensure their own safety, medical staff not exempt from job cuts, unions balk at reused masks and more.
The Associated Press:
Front-Line Work During Pandemic Falls On Women, Minorities
As America tentatively emerges from weeks of lockdowns, the pandemic has taken its toll on workers who have been on the front lines all along. They have been packing and delivering supplies, caring for the sick and elderly, and keeping streets and buildings clean. They have also watched their co-workers fall ill. Thousands have gotten sick themselves. Many have died. (Anderson, Olson and Kastanis, 5/1)
Kaiser Health News:
Lost On The Frontline
Two members of a close-knit team of EMTs. A firefighter and paramedic who loved helping people. A Boston woman who earned her nursing degree while working in public transit for 23 years. These are some of the people just added to “Lost on the Frontline,” a special series from The Guardian and KHN that profiles health care workers who die of COVID-19. (5/1)
Las Vegas Review-Journal:
Home Health Aides Balance Personal Safety With Sense Of Duty
It’s a dilemma faced by many of the roughly 11,550 home health and personal care aides in the Las Vegas area, a figure that does not include some nurses who work in hospice care or perform other medical tasks for housebound patients. Many so-called PCAs earn just a few dollars over minimum wage and are expected to supply their own protective gear and cleaning supplies so they can safely visit their clients in their homes. (Chhith, 4/30)
Modern Healthcare:
Nurses At Tenet Health Hospital Claim Staff Cuts Leading To Unsafe Care
Nurses at St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester, Mass., claim the decision by parent company Tenet Healthcare Corp. to reduce staff amid the coronavirus pandemic is leading to subpar care. Tenet announced in early April that it would furlough staff due to lower patient volumes as a result of the cancellation of elective procedures during the COVID-19 pandemic. The furloughs wouldn't have an "impact on COVID-care or care provided to patients with other urgent medical needs," a St. Vincent spokesperson said, but the Massachusetts Nurses Association, which represents the hospital's 840 nurses, claims that hasn't been the case. (Castellucci, 4/30)
Boston Globe:
Mass. Nurses Union Balks At Reused Face Masks
The state’s largest nurses union is protesting the reuse of respirator masks that protect against coronavirus — even when they’ve been cleaned in an elaborate decontamination process — and is arguing that nurses should be able to refuse the masks and request new ones for each shift.,Hospitals and state and federal officials have said it’s safe to reuse masks when they’ve been properly sanitized. But officials at the Massachusetts Nurses Association, which has 23,000 members, say there isn’t enough evidence to support decontamination methods. (Dayal McCluskey, 4/30)
Houston Chronicle:
UTHealth Closes Child Care Center Serving Health Care Workers’ Families
The University of Texas Health Child Development Center, which provides child care for health care workers in the Texas Medical Center, is closing permanently after temporarily shutting down during the coronavirus outbreak. In mid-March, as businesses across Texas shut down amid the public health crisis, the center told parents they were closing as a precautionary measure. But on Wednesday, center staff told families in emails and phone calls that the center was shutting for good. (Wu, 4/30)
Kaiser Health News:
California To Widen Pipeline Of Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners
Jane Gunter, a nurse practitioner in Tuolumne County, California, has long wanted to specialize in mental health so she can treat patients who have anxiety, depression and more complicated mental illnesses. Her county, a rural outpost in the Sierra Nevada foothills with a population of about 54,000, has only five psychiatrists — “a huge shortage,” she said. But Gunter, 56, wasn’t about to quit her job at the Me-Wuk Indian Health Center in Tuolumne and relocate to some distant campus for two years to get certified as a psychiatric nurse practitioner. (Basheda, 5/1)
